As an American many thousand miles from home this Thanksgiving, your humble scribbler finds himself slightly disoriented today while readying for the start of Day 1B of the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final here in uncharacteristically sunny São Paulo.
The adjective “humble” is accurate, to be sure, given your itinerant reporter’s unfortunate lack of Portuguese. Indeed, “obrigado” (or “thanks”) turns out to be the highlight of a very limited vocabulary. Perhaps I’ll try to give out a few extra of those today in honor of the holiday.
Today picanha, empanadas, and brigadeiro will take the place the place of turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. And that other football, the round black-and-white one, might try to challenge the oblong-shaped brown variety, although the NFL is popular enough here there may well be a game streaming somewhere nearby.
That said, I’m glad to be enjoying time with the LAPT family, and thankful to spend another day in the spacious and accommodating Golden Hall of the World Trade Center São Paulo enjoying a favorite card game here in Brazil and all over the globe.
Yesterday saw 132 total entries for the first of two Day 1 flights in this R$10,000 buy-in event (~$2,650 USD), with just 62 players making it through to earn a seat to start tomorrow’s Day 2.
Like a family well prepared to serve dinner to a large crowd, the Brazilian Series of Poker staff here at the WTC is more than ready to handle however many arrive to play today. In fact there were more than a thousand players in action at once yesterday between the LAPT Grand Final and the many side events, and with 151 tables they can serve that many and more today if needed.
Speaking of family, Brazil’s Armando Sbrissa ended last night as the Day 1A chip leader after amassing a stack of 217,200. That surname is well familiar to the LAPT, of course, as Armando’s brother, Victor, won this very event here in São Paulo during Season 6. (Click here for a full list of chip counts for the 62 Day 1A survivors.)
Play starts in a few. We give thanks in advance for your following along.
Photography from LAPT8 Brazil by Carlos Monti. You can also follow the action in Spanish here and in Portuguese here.
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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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