Thursday, 28th March 2024 10:22
Home / Uncategorized / LAPT7 Chile: It’s Villa-Lobos, again!

There he is again. And again. And again.

We’re speaking of Brazil’s Nicolau Villa-Lobos, one of those battling here on Day 1B of the LAPT7 Chile Main Event which has now crossed into Level 8. Following this one will come one more break and two last one-hour levels, then play will conclude for the night.

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Nicolau Villa-Lobos playing Day 1B

There are two ways to take that reference to Villa-Lobos’s repeatedly catching our eye. One has to do with the fact that after busting multiple times yesterday, he managed to re-enter more than once today as well, firing six bullets altogether. We’ve yet to receive the final numbers, but that’s likely one of the higher number of re-entries of anyone this week.

But Villa-Lobos has been popping up again and again in other ways, too, not just here but all over the globe where he’s made his mark on several different tours within the space of two short years.

On the Brazilian Series of Poker, Villa-Lobos has collected a handful of cashes, including a runner-up finish in the 2012 BSOP Main Event in Rio de Janeiro.

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Nicolau Villa-Lobos at the 2013 BSOP

Then in early 2013 Villa-Lobos made history as the first ever Brazilian to win a title in Europe when he won the UKIPT3 Edinburgh Main Event, topping a field of 612 entries to win a £101,000 first prize.

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Nicolau Villa-Lobos making history on the UKIPT

To Europe Villa-Lobos traveled, turning up at EPT10 Barcelona to make a deep run in the Main Event to finish 18th. Then it was over to London for the EPT10 London stop, where he did even better, taking 13th in the Main Event there.

The World Series of Europe was next, and after winning a satellite entry into the €25,000 High Roller, he made it all of the way to heads-up against Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu before finishing second for a big €450,000 score.

The list is getting out of hand, we know. But there’s one more important item to add. One other not insignificant score in a tournament known affectionately as SCOOP.

In last year’s Spring Online Championship of Poker, Villa-Lobos popped up one more time at the top of the leaderboard in the $1,050 Main Event (medium). Playing as “nicofellow,” Villa-Lobos earned a $472,209.35 payday after a four-way chop including Team Online member Randy “nanonoko” Lew.

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He’s virtually everywhere!

Nicolau’s dad, Dado Villa-Lobos, forged a path to fame before him as a guitarist and founding member of Legião Urbana, a legendary rock band in Brazil from the ’80s and ’90s. (Read more about Nicolau’s family and his own rocking year here.) Now Nicolau’s the one touring the world and earning fame of his own.

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The Nicolau tour in London

As noted, the re-entry period is over now, but with his sixth and final try Villa-Lobos has already done well, spinning his stack up over 70,000 rapidly after the dinner break.

Something tells us we’ll be seeing more of him.

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Photography from LAPT7 Chile by Carlos Monti. Follow live streaming coverage throughout LAPT7 Chile in Spanish at PokerStars or via Facebook as well as in Portuguese, also at PokerStars or via Facebook.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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