LAPT Punta del Este: Day 2, Levels 13 and 14 (1,200-2,400, 300 ante)

6:33pm: Break Time The 52 remaining players are heading out on a 15-minute break.

6:15pm: Bad Beat of the Level It wasn’t pretty. Player in early position opened. Jose Capdevila raised. Mariano Rocca four-bet shoved. Original raiser folded. Capdevila snap called with K♥ K♣ . Rocca showed J♥ J♣ . The river was… the J♠ . Kings cracked. Rocca doubled up to almost 115K.

5:58pm: Zapiello dictating the flow Daniela de Lima Zapiello claimed another victim. Young American raised 9K in early position. Action folded to Zapiello. She defended her big blind with a call. The flop was 10♣ 8♥ 7♦ . Zapiello checked. Her opponent moved all in for about 32K. Zapiello called with A♥ 9♥ . Her opponent tabled Q♦ 10♦ . Zapiello trailed, but took the lead when the A♣ fell on the turn. The river was the 6♥ and Zapiello dragged yet another pot. She now has over 345K. Humberto Brenes, sitting at the adjacent table, wandered over to compliment the young Brazilian on her massive sack.

5:45pm: Daniela de Lima Zapiello takes the chip lead Thanks to two back-to-back pots, Brazil’s Daniela de Lima Zapiello has moved into the chip lead and is the first player to crack the 300,000-chip mark.

In the first hand, Zapiello defended her big blind to a pre-flop raise from the cutoff. The flop came down Q♣ Q♠ 5♠ . Zapiello fired out 8,000 and the cutoff called. Both players checked the 7♠ on the turn. The river was the 4♦ and Zapiello made it 25,000 to go. Her opponent quickly called and tabled A♦ Q♥ , but Zapiello turned a flush with K♠ 10♠ .

Only a few hands later, Bolivar Palacios moved all-in for his last 18,000, Zapiello moved all-in from the button to isolate, and the blinds folded. Her pocket jacks held up against Palacios’ A-T, the pot taking her stack just north of 300,000.

5:33pm: Blinds up! We’re now on Level 14. Blinds are 1,500-3,000 with a 300 ante.

5:27pm: 62 and counting… 14 players away from the money. The tension is mounting inside the tournament area. Short stacks are slowing down the action a bit, hoping they can stall into the money.

5:20pm: Humberto doesn’t gamble Humberto had won a couple of pots (one with pocket Aces) to move up to almost 90K, but he’s lost two since then. On one of those hands, Humberto opened for a 7.2K raise. His opponent on the button three-bet him for 26.4K. Humberto headed into the tank for several minutes. He took off his headphones. He shuffled his chips. He peeked at his cards. He counted his blue chips. He peeked at his cards a second time and showed them to the camera crew standing behind him. Humberto finally folded. One of the players at the table insisted that Humberto show the rest of the table his cards. Since he showed the camera, then he should show the entire table he argued. Of course, the player did not get his way. He’ll have to wait until the LAPT Punta del Este airs on local TV if he wants to see what hand Humberto folded.

5:14pm: Day 2 Intro Video We’re starting to think about dinner plans here in Punta del Este, but back home on the west coast, most poker players are just waking up. If you’re just joining us, this clip from PokerStars.tv will get you all caught up on the action.

4:58pm: Humberto doubles Humberto Brenes’ stack has been dwindling over the last two levels. At some point, we expected the Godfather of Latin American poker to make a stand. And he did… in true Humberto fashion. One player raised 7.1K from the cutoff. Humberto peeked at his cards and when he looked up he saw a video camera hovering over him. Humberto jumped up looked right into the camera, smiled, and announced… “Time for Humberto to gamble!”

Humberto pushed his stack (worth around 29K) forward. He placed one of his “sharks” on top of his stack and picked up the other one. Everyone within earshot rushed over to the table. Photographers whipped out their cameras and snapped photos of Humberto with his miniature shark.

“Time for Humberto to gamble!”

His opponent called and tabled A♥ K♥ . Humberto showed 9♥ 9♣ . Classic race. Classic Humberto. The flop was 7♠ 6♠ 2♣ . The turn was the 10♠ and the river the 5♠ .

“Humberto gambles… and wins!” he screeched.

Humberto Brenes pushed his stack over 60K.

4:48pm: Stevie Chidwick takes out Jose Gonzalez Usually, when a player busts out of a tournament, he can’t get out the door quick enough. Jose Gonzalez, however, just didn’t want to leave.

Stevie Chidwick opened for 5,500, Gonzalez three-bet to 15,000 and Chidwick set out enough of his large-denomination chips to set Gonzalez all-in. Gonzalez made the call, his A♥ 8♠ a big underdog against Chidwick’s pocket tens. Gonzalez couldn’t find any help on the board, and Chidwick claimed the rest of his stack.

Only… he didn’t leave the table. After a brief argument with the dealer over whether or not Chidwick had actually declared all-in (no matter, since Chidwick’s reraise was far more than the 25,000 he had behind) Gonzalez sat there in total disbelief for maybe two or three minutes before gathering his belongings and heading out the door. Did he think the dealer might give him two cards on the next hand?

Chidwick is now up to 165,000.

4:35pm: Players return from break We’re back in action with 1,200-2,400 blinds and a 300 ante. 69 players remain in the field. Nacho Barbero is still the chip leader with approximately 230,000.

LAPT Punta del Este reporting comes courtesy of bloggers Change100 and Paul ‘Dr. Pauly’ McGuire and photographer Carlos Monti.