We're approaching the dinner break with five of the seven members of the Red Spade Brigade - Team PokerStars - still alive in the tournament. One of them may even be the current chip leader.
Definitely not the leader: Jose "Nacho" Barbero and Team PokerStars Sportstar Ronaldo. Both men suffered early exits from play today. Barbero will undoubtedly return to try his luck again tomorrow.
The man of the hour is Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez. Fernandez was seen gambling quite a bit towards the end of the re-entry period. Sitting with about 25,000 in chips at that time, he called a 55-big blind (11,000) all in from an early position player. Fernandez was gambling with [js][ts] against his opponent's pocket 6s. He flopped a gutshow draw, [kh][3s][9c], turned a flush draw and another gutshot draw with the [7s], then hit one of his 21 river outs by pairing up the [tc].
From there Fernandez has gone on a tear. At last check he was sitting behind 85,000 in chips, which could very well be the chip lead at this stage of the tournament.
The other Team Pros have more modest stacks. Angel Guillen has 20,000, as does Andre Akkari (looking sharp in the blazer he wore for today's press conference with Ronaldo). Team Online player Jorge Limon is a shade better at 33,000.
Then there's Cristian de Leon, who recently made what he called an "amazing" trip to the Galapagos Islands. "Grillo" had been contemplating a trip to New York City but couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Darwin's theory of evolution.
Evolution has been a theme that many players have touched upon over the last six months or so. The collective knowledge of poker players is constantly expanding; anyone who doesn't keep up with the latest information and trends risks being left behind.
That's not a problem for Grillo today. He's currently rocking a stack of about 45,000 and looks to be feeling good. After his near-bubble at LAPT6 Chile (where Grillo thought he busted on the bubble until he learned that he was the first player eliminated after the bubble burst), Grillo is surely looking to cement a cash here in Brazil without worrying about precisely when this Brazilian bubble bursts on Sunday's Day 2.
Five of seven may not be as sexy as 7 of 9, but that's what the Red Spade Brigade is looking at right now. After the dinner break, we'll see how many are able to plow through the last four levels of the night and how many will be joining Barbero in the re-entry line tomorrow.
Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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