Team PokerStars Latin Hero Wins — The Best Online Casino News - TheBestCasinoGuide.com
Team PokerStars has much to celebrate with the results of the LAPT Punta del Este Poker Tournament. First of all the tournament was a major success with a total purse of over one million dollars. The winners share was just under $280,000 and there were 48 players in the money out of a starting field of 307. The tournament was held in Uruguay at the lovely seaside resort of Punta del Este. The Mantra Casino & Resort hosted all the action and the crowds witnessed a well run, thrilling LAPT Event.
Giving Team PokerStars more to celebrate is Team PokerStars.net Pro Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero, who became the first Team PokerStars Pro to win an LAPT tournament as he took home the winner’s share of $279,330. Making the celebration sweeter, is the fact that “Nacho” is the only second Latin American player to win an LAPT Tournament and the crowd was absolutely ecstatic. European players have done most of the winning during the first two seasons of LAPT Tournaments and the partisan crowd was very happy to cheer a Latin American player to victory.
Heading to the last day, it certainly looked as if the odds were stacked in favor of a Latin American Player taking home the winner’s share since 7 of the 8 players at the final table came from Latin America. There were 3 players from Argentina, two from Brazil, one from Columbia and Norbert Ludger from the Host Country of Uraguay. Norbert was the chips leader at the beginning of the final day of play but he finished in fourth place with $72,960 for his efforts. The only Non-Latin American player who made it to the final 8 was French PokerStars qualifier Nicolas Cardyn, who took home a second place prize of $161,550 for his hard work.
Winner Jose Barbero comes from a interesting background. He got his start in another type of card game; one that involves fantasy and magic. He rose to prominence as an Argentinian National Team player for Magic: The Gathering tournaments. He then took up poker and went on to become one of the outstanding poker stars from Argentina. “Nacho” has had great success in world wide tournament play including 6 cashes in the World Series of Poker and 9th place for $28,220 in last season’s Mar del Plata Event. Look for great things to come from “Nacho”, now that he has his first major victory.
Jose “Nacho”Barbero uses the screen name ‘nachobarbero’ at www.pokerstars.net. Look for him and all the great TeamPoker Stars players at www.pokerstars.net.
