Late registration has been closed for three full levels now. There are no more chances to re-enter. It's do or die. More than half of the field has already taken the "die" route, but almost all of the Latin American Team PokerStars Pros are going strong.
The shortest of the Red Spade Brigade - other than Humberto Brenes, who appears to have been eliminated - is Mexican Team Pro Angel Guillen. Guillen played yesterday and amassed a stack of more than 75,000 heading into the last break of the night. Then he hit a wall.
"I flew over from Melbourne and came straight here from the Santiago airport," Guillen said. "Things were going fine but I couldn't focus by the end of the night. I was just too tired." A few pots went the wrong way, leading Guillen to try again today. Right now he's sitting behind 35,000, which is roughly the average stack.
Jose "Nacho" Barbero and Andre Akkari are next up the Red Spade leaderboard. The two men each have about 45,000 in chips. Akkari is planning a bicycle outing for tomorrow morning regardless of what happens here tonight. He was flying high earlier at the feature table; maybe some of that good fortune will rub off on Barbero, who finds himself seated there now.
In 2nd place for Team PokerStars is Leo Fernandez. Fernandez, a long-time grinder, was a winner on the LAPT last season. He took down the first-ever LAPT event in Panama, earning $172,000 in the process. Today he is quietly working his stack. We haven't caught him in too many hands yet somehow he's up to 75,000.
And then there's Christian de Leon. "Grillo" is flirting with the tournament lead right now as he crests 100,000 in chips. He finds himself in the enviable position of playing against a whole table of stacks that range from 20,000 to 40,000 - not exactly short, but also not so tall that they can get out of line. Grillo has been pounding plenty of pots and taking most of them down uncontested. During a recent orbit, a turn bet of 6,700 into an 8,000-chip pot on a [7d][qh][jh][3c] board went uncalled. So did a flop bet of 3,600 into a three-way pot of 8,800 on a [2d][ad][3c] board. Each time Grillo was the pre-flop aggressor. Each time the table showed little resistance after the flop.
Surprising fact of the night: although de Leon has won a few LAPT side events and cashed in several more, he has never even made the money of an LAPT Main Event, never mind appeared at a final table. We're a long way from the final table, obviously, but maybe just maybe this is the LAPT Main Event where Grillo finally breaks through. And if his luck holds long enough, he could just join Barbero and Fernandez as Team Pros to take down an LAPT event.
Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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