Just 32 remain from the big 426-entry field that began the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final Main Event.

That means just four of the 151 available tables in the Golden Hall at the World Trade Center São Paulo complex will be needed for the tournament today — a good thing, as the Brazilian Series of Poker Main Event and several other side tourneys will be doing a great job filling the rest of those tables in what promises to be another busy day of poker in Brazil.

The Golden HallBut most of the attention — especially as today wears on — will be on the four, then three, then two, and finally one table being used for the LAPT Grand Final. The 32 players will become just eight today, with a champion finally emerging from tomorrow’s final table.

A late rush near 3 a.m. last night helped Brazil’s own Alisson Piekazewicz grab the chip lead to start play today. He’ll have 722,000 to start today.

Alisson PiekazewiczPiekazewicz has a few BSOP cashes to his credit but this marks his first time in the money in an LAPT event. He’s already locked up what will be a career-high score for himself, and he’s hoping like everyone else left to make that cash as big as possible.

Right on Piekazewicz’s heels — not even a big blind behind — is one of three former LAPT Main Event champions still left in the field, Chile’s Patricio Rojas who won LAPT6 Peru with 713,000.

Patricio RojasAlex Manzano — winner here in São Paulo in the LAPT4 Brazil Main Event — will also be back today with an above average stack of 456,000. And last year’s champion, LAPT7 Brazil winner Caio Hey, will be at one of the four tables, too, hoping to spin up his 129,000 (not quite 13 big blinds to start today).

Alex ManzanoAriel Celestino (676,000), Felipe Difini (651,000), and Yuri Martins (642,000) round out the top five, with BSOP veteran and 2013 WSOP Main Event 15th-place finisher Bruno Kawauti also above the average.

Making the final eight means a guaranteed prize of R$85,730, while a huge payday of R$727,620 is scheduled to go to the winner.

Play starts at 3 p.m., and as always we’ll be on hand until these last four tables become one and tomorrow’s final table is set.

Today’s destinationPhotography 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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