Friday, 29th March 2024 04:42
Home / Uncategorized / LAPT8 Peru: Cautella’s satellite story still spinning

Read about how satellites work — the space kind, that is — and you learn all about rockets and propulsion, gravity and orbits, signals and sensors.

“Spinning” is a word used a lot in such discussions, describing both the circular path taken by the satellite as it travels about the globe and the way a satellite spins around on its own axis as a means to stay on course.

Read about how satellites work — the poker kind, that is — and it’s possible you’ll also encounter talk of rockets (pocket ones) and how they affected outcomes. Or orbits of hands being especially profitable or damaging. Or a big pot propelling a player upwards in the counts, enabling a deep run.

“Spinning” is a word used with regard to tournament satellites, too, such as in reference to spinning up a small entry fee into a much bigger buy-in.

Many playing this Latin American Poker Tour Peru Main Event did just that, as is always the case on the LAPT. Just yesterday we spoke with David Vamplew of Scotland, here playing his first LAPT (besides the Bahamas), a trip he likely wouldn’t have made had he not earned his seat via an online satellite.

Vamplew finished yesterday with a top five stack after doing some more spinning up on Day 1A. Another satellite winner hoping today to emulate the Scotsman’s progress is Brazil’s Flavio Cautella.

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Flavio Cautella
It was a Friday afternoon about a month ago, and Cautella had gotten off work early to get a head start on the weekend. Spotting a freeroll on PokerStars, he joined about 5,000 others and managed to finish in the top 50, a result good enough to earn him a seat in an LAPT Peru satellite two days later.

Around 300 played the Sunday one for which the winner earned a trip to Lima. “I played well, mostly tight” explained Cautella — quite appropriately, we thought, given that in Portuguese his name literally means “caution.”

“I had a good run of cards, too, especially down the stretch” he said. “And then I won — I ended up finishing first and winning the LAPT Peru package.”

Having earned his way from Sao Paulo to Lima, he’s continued to be “cautella” during the first couple of levels today, not getting involved too much and finishing the second hour with just under the starting stack. We spotted him during the first break taking a picture of a table in the corner. It was one our photographer Carlos Monti had also taken earlier today:

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Since the beginning of time, the stars have moved men to achieve great things. This summer it was PokerStars that moved Cautella, and even though he’s already a winner, he’s going to keep right on spinning to see what comes next.

Photography from LAPT8 Peru by Carlos Monti. You can also follow the action in Spanish here and in Portuguese here.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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