Latin America Poker's Next Frontier
In the wake of the UIGEA, American poker players could be heard yelling “the sky is falling!” over and again. The endless schools of fresh fi sh, driven to the mouths of sharks by the lure of televised fame and fortune, would dry up like so many seas, leaving the sharks to feed upon themselves. So the logic went.
The attitude was a short-sighted one. Granted, it would be tougher for casual American poker players to get their money online and the stigma of the UIGEA would scare some potential players away, but the American online professionals forgot one fundamental truth; it’s a big world out there. If casual Americans proved unwilling to brave those waters, poker would go fi nd some new fodder.
While organized poker has been played outside North America for decades, the spread of year-round, high stakes tournament play outside the US started with the European Poker Tour. Sponsored by PokerStars, the EPT would create a whole new star system within the ranks of European professionals, while at the same time educating the gaming communities of Europe’s nations about the game we’ve all come to love. In spreading the gospel thus, PokerStars ensured that theirs would be amongst the fi rst names considered in the minds of European players. In the process, they branded themselves in sync with poker itself. Think basketball in the US, you think of the NBA. Think poker in Europe and you think Poker- Stars.
The venture was remarkably successful. The fi rst EPT in Barcelona had a buy-in of $1,000 and a fi eld of 229 players. Three years later, that same event would draw 543 players despite a buyin now totaling $7,700 per entrant. With that kind of growth, it’s no wonder that PokerStars saw potential in other relatively untapped areas of the planet. So began the Latin American Poker Tour.
Latin America’s organized poker origins can be traced back more than two decades. It was in 1987 that three friends – Humberto Brenes, Max Stern, and Jose Rosenkrantz – who previously had only experienced the game at the home game level, made their way to Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker. “We thought it would be so easy,” remembers Stern. “We thought we’d be taking money from the fi sh. Only we found out that we were the fi sh.”
Armed with newfound respect for the levels poker could be played at and a number of nowclassic poker texts, the three men returned home and refi ned their games. They’ve made their way back to Vegas every year since, and their story is repeated in Latin American circles the way that of Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, and Sailor Roberts traveling the roads of Texas is in North America.
Slowly, with the growth of that legend, interest in poker spread in Latin America, with the emergence of online poker giving new opportunities to Latin American players who previously had to travel from nation to nation to fi nd tournaments. Ironically, with the birth of the LAPT, they’re back to traveling from nation to nation again.
“We started the LAPT to bring live, high stakes championship poker to Latin America, which is now the fastest growing region in the world for the poker industry,” says LAPT president Glenn Cademartori. “This market has tremendous potential. Like the EPT and APPT, PokerStars is the exclusive sponsor of the LAPT.”
“We knew poker would eventually be huge in Latin America, but not much had been done here prior to our launch of the LAPT,” Cademartori recalls. "We wanted to produce well-organized and successfully run events. We expected 200 players per event, and thought we might have a lofty goal of reaching 250. We far exceeded that with an average of 354 players per event in Season 1.”
That season consisted of three tournaments. The fi rst, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was a $2,500 buyin event that attracted 314 players. It was won by young Dutchman Julien Nuijten. Nuijten set three standards in that event that have held true throughout the circuit’s fi rst four events; he was young (19 years old), he qualifi ed online, and he traveled from outside Latin America to take the title. In all, he won $222,940.
The second event was held in San Jose, Costa Rica, home to the aforementioned Brenes/ Stern/Rosenkrantz home game. This time, it was Hungary’s Valdemar Kwaysser taking home $274,103, triumphing over a fi eld of 398.
The fi nal event of Season 1, held in Punta del Este, Uraguay, was won by Spain’s Jose Miguel Espinar. He took home $241,735 as a reward for besting a fi eld of 351.
“We looked for exotic locations that would attract both Latin Americans and poker players from around the world,” says Cademartori of the hosts for the three season one events. “Our average player pool for each event traveled from 33 different countries, so I think we did a pretty good job in choosing our locales.”
With each of the Season 1 events attracting somewhere in the range of 150-200 online qualifi ers along with a number of enthusiastic Latin American players, demand was high amongst countries in the region hopeful for a travel and tourism boost similar to the one enjoyed by the fi rst season’s host nations. After turning away a number of applicant nations, Cademartori’s team fi nally settled on an expanded schedule of six stops for Season 2, with the original three host nations now joined by Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.
Season 2 began on November 3rd, 2008 in San Jose with a Latin American record buy-in of $3,500. The winner was again a young online qualifi er, 20-year-old American Ryan Fee, who took home $285,773. Coinciding with the US election, attendance dipped as Americans stayed home to vote, but the prize pool of $1 million kept those who attended more than happy. They were also impressed by the increased professionalism at the start of Season 2.
“The tournament was extremely well run by Mike Ward,” Cademartori enthused. “I think the players enjoyed the best tournament room to date. We were constantly showered with compliments on the quality of the venue. I think that the quality of the players is continuing to improve here in Latin America, and that is illustrated in the representation of the local players. It is only a matter of time before we can crown a Latin American champion.”
That right there is the reason players from the world are so enthused about traveling to the LAPT. As of yet, only Alex Brenes of Costa Rica has managed a top two fi nish, and no Latin American player has managed a victory. This is a population that’s still learning the poker ropes and that means infl ated prize pools with relatively few viable champions. It’s a feeding frenzy for the sharks that endeavor to make the trip, and with television on the horizon, it’s only going to get better. Of course, fi nding the good games is a big part of what poker’s all about. Good thing the LAPT is out there fi nding them for you.
