Friday, 29th March 2024 12:55
Home / Uncategorized / LAPT7 Brazil: Juan Pablo Franco tops Day 2, 71 remain

With another ten levels in the books, the LAPT Brazil’s record-setting field of 1,150 is down to 71 players. Day 2 was the end of the road for all but two of our remaining Red Spades and after a wild hand to end the night, Argentina’s Juan Pablo Franco bagged up the chip lead with 1,348,000. Brazil’s Andre Edson Coronel was the only other player to finish in seven-figure territory with 1,058,000.

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Day 2 chip leader Juan Pablo Franco

400 players returned for Day 2 including three players striving toward a second LAPT title: Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez, LAPT7 Vina del Mar winner Mario Lopez, and Victor Sbrissa, who won this very event last season. Nacho Barbero (the only player with two titles) was chasing a third, but he unfortunately found himself among the day’s early bustouts. Also exiting before the money bubble burst were Damian Salas, Ivan Freitez, Walid Mubarak, and 2013 BSOP champ Fernando Groww.

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Can Sbrissa repeat in Sao Paulo?

The money bubble burst at the end of Level 16, guaranteeing the remaining 167 players at least a R$ 7,000 return on their investment. After fighting through hand-for-hand play with little more than two big blinds, Rogerio Pitta bubbled when his pocket jacks were snapped off by Keiji Kimura’s A♦ 6♣ .

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The vultures circle

Over the next four hours, the field shrank by more than half. Alex Gomes, Bill Gazes, Team Online’s Jorge Limon, Mario Lopez, Day 1B chip leader Anderson Kim, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos and Team Pro Leo Fernandez all headed out the door in rapid succession, leaving Angel Guillen and Caio Pessagno as the last Red Spades standing.

While Pessagno’s stack bounced up and down all evening, Guillen steadily accumulated chips and ended the day just outside the top ten stacks with 660,000. Pessagno dipped as low as 70,000, but doubled twice in the last level to finish with 466,000.

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The shirt says it all

Rodrigo Quezada was at or near the top of the counts for most of the day, but in the final half-hour of play, Juan Pablo Franco took over the #1 spot. With the blinds up to 5,000/10,000, Franco defended his big blind from a 26,000 button raise and went heads-up to a 6♥ 6♦ 5â™  flop. Franco check-called the button’s 55,000 continuation bet and they went to the turn, which fell the 6♣ . This time, Franco check-raised to 110,000 and his opponent quickly called. Franco led out for 195,000 on the 2♥ river and the button snap-called with 9♥ 9♣ , but his full house was no good. Franco rolled over 10â™  6â™  for quads and moved up to 1.2 million in chips. By the time the clock stopped, he was up to 1,348,000, almost 300k more than his closest competitor.

For a look at how our 71 survivors stack up, check out the LAPT Brazil chip counts. And to see how your friends and favorites finished, look no further than the prizepool and payouts page.

We’ll return for Day 3 at 3pm local time (ET+1) and play down to the final table. Until then, bon noite e boa sorte do Brasil.

Photography from LAPT7 Brazil by Carlos Monti. Live streaming of the action in both Spanish and Portuguese is available via PokerStars.tv. You can also follow the Spanish feed at PokerStars or via Facebook, and the Portugeuse feed at PokerStars or via Facebook.

Kristin Bihr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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