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Poker is taking over Latin America with the Latin American Poker Tour enjoying great success and attracting some of the world’s best. See what’s going on in the tourney here.

The number of poker tournaments taking place around the world is impressive, and the latest of poker tournaments to have hit the globe is the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). Kicking off recently in Argentina at the Casino Central, the LAPT brought in 600 players comprised of both live tourney professionals and internet experts, to begin with a $5,200 main event. No less than 250 of them came from entirely other parts of the world.

The LAPT was structured like most poker tournaments, giving each player $10,000 in starting chips and blinds of $25-50 which increased each hour. The first day of play saw 140 players take part, among them many recognized names, such as Chris Moneymaker, Maria Myrinck, Fabián Ortiz and Boris Becker. Unfortunately, all of these people’s efforts were not enough to take down the Latino poker force, since all of them were outplayed by the end of the day, leaving only 27 players.

The last group of players left was made up on an interesting mix. The chip leader was a 77 year old player from Uruguay called Jaime Ateneloff, whilst the second biggest chip holder was a 19 year old local called Jorge Landazuri De Los Rios. None of the other players were known professionals, nor were they PokerStars Pros. 15 of them were from the countries Argentina, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands and Uruguay. The only player from the US was Ryan Smith, who qualified by playing in online poker tournaments.

The next day of the LAPT saw a few more poker stars hit the tables, including Dennis Philips, Joseph Hachem, Humberto and Alex Brenes, Andre Akari, JC Alvarado and the PokerStars Pro team. Some of the players even showed off moves typically reserved for more large scale poker tournaments such as the world Series of Poker. For example, American Zachary Hall, who won his entry by winning online poker tournaments, wore a rainbow umbrella which caught the eyes of the cameras on scene.

The LAPT is currently wrapping up its second season in Argentina after having held poker tournaments in Costa Rica, Uruguay and Mexico. Yet Its clear success could provide the basis for a possible third season.