Adios, Day 1!

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A thrilling opening day of the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este has come and gone. In true Latin American fashion, the day was a successful and entertaining one with tons of action and even more table chatter. At the end of eight action-packed levels, it appears that Martin Fuentes has bagged up the largest stack, his 118,000 chips barely fitting into his thin plastic bag. That's good news for the locals; Fuentes is one of the many players battling it out for his native Uruguay.

A total of 307 runners showed up at the wonderful Mantra Resort this afternoon, ready to duke it out in the third annual version of this event. Their entries generated a total prize pool in excess of $1,000,000. Neither of the previous two champions were on hand this time around, so we're guaranteed to crown a new victor come Saturday's final table.

A surprisingly solid contingent of familiar faces were in attendance, including Neil Channing, Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick, Jose "papadelpoker" de la Guardia, and Damian Salas. The Team PokerStars Pros were also very well represented, not surprisingly. Check out this list of those who represented their Latin American roots today:

Argentina: Leo Fernandez, Jose Ignacio Barbero, Veronica Dabul
Brazil: Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck, Alexandre Gomes, Andre Akkari, Gualter Salles
Costa Rica: Humberto Brenes
Mexico: Christian de Le��n, Angel Guillen

And, representing his rather far-away roots, we had Pieter de Korver from the Netherlands. Unfortunately for many of the Team PokerStars Pros, including de Korver, Day 1 was a tough and unkind day. Salles was one of the first to make his exit, and he was soon joined on the rail by Gomes, Akkari, and Guillen.

The board tells us that 145 players have survived this opening day, though it's likely to be a shade fewer when the bags are tallied and verified. We're hedging our bets on Fuentes as the top dog, but there are more than a few players right within striking distance. We'll post the full overnight chip counts as soon as they're available to us.

That does it for Day 1 here. We'll see you right back here tomorrow at noon local time for what promises to be another riveting day on the felt. Until then, goodnight and buenas noches from Punta del Este!

Tags: Martin Fuentes