From the Department of Little Known Facts, I give you this: São Paulo, host city for the 2013 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour Season 6 Brazil Main Event, is the most populous city in all of the Americas. More than 11 million paulistanos call the city home; another 9 million reside in the greater metropolitan area.
It's easy to feel that population density when you look out across the city from the 15th floor of a hotel in the city's center. Tall buildings are endless here in a way that other dense, high-population cities can't match. Even to a New Yorker like me, who has made multiple visits to Seoul, South Korea - a city that has a similar population to São Paulo and endless crops of clustered high-rise apartment buildings - this city almost feels overwhelming.
Julio Boaro, via WikipediaIt's the people that make a city, however, and the inhabitants of São Paulo (as well as Brazil in general) are as friendly as you'll find. That is surely one of the reasons that the LAPT continues to return to this fabulous city.
Right now roughly 100 people are sitting in a press conference here at the Tivoli Hotel as PokerStars introduces one of Rio de Janeiro's favored sons, football legend Ronaldo. They're probing Ronaldo's bona fides, they're listening to his responses, and they're laughing at his jokes. All the while Ronaldo is flashing the 1,000-watt smile that is as much a part of his legend as his role in helping Brazil secure its fifth World Cup title in 2002.
We'll have more on Ronaldo later as he makes his LAPT debut, but he's a major story here as the LAPT returns to Brazil for the fifth time in six seasons. He's not the only story though. There are 45 tables spread over two rooms and two Day 1 starting flights. Those tables are waiting for brasileiros, chilenos, venezolanos, argentinos, americanos, perhaps even some Australian, European, or Asian players. In keeping with the spirit of this fabulous Brazilian city, anybody else who wants to plunk down 4,000 Brazilian Reales (about US$2,000) to take a seat will be welcomed with a smile. Any one of them could be the LAPT's next big story, the LAPT's next champion.
This event, like the LAPT's last event in Viña del Mar, Chile, is a re-entry event. Players have the ability to execute unlimited re-entries during the first four levels of Day 1a and Day 1b. Given the numbers we saw in Chile (more than 700 unique players combined for more than 1,000 entries), it's entirely possible that this event could produce the largest prize pool and the largest top prize ever awarded in LAPT history.
That would be something, wouldn't it? The largest prizepool in LAPT history in the largest city in the Americas. There's a nice symmetry to that. Even if that doesn't happen, it would take a disaster of the highest magnitude for this event not to be a rousing success. Brazil has always been a gracious host to the LAPT, even if the edificios outside are intimidating at first blush. They're just standing silent witness, waiting for the next poker player's rise to greatness.
Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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