Latin American Poker Tour Season 7 Schedule Announced

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – PokerStars.net today announced the schedule for the new Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) season to run throughout 2014. The LAPT’s seventh season will see stops in Chile, Brazil, Peru, Panama and Uruguay, with one more destination to be confirmed at a later date.

Season 7 aims to consolidate and build on the same values that generated a record-breaking sixth season, with prize pools in excess of $9.7 million, more than 4,000 players in Main Events alone, and almost 1,000 online qualifiers. In Season 6, players from 62 countries participated, with a growth in unique players of 25% year on year, and total entries (including re-entries) up 52%.

LAPT President, David Carrion, said: “Season 6 was LAPT’s best ever, with the number of unique players growing at a dramatic rate by any standards in the world. We are committed to maintaining our re-entry proposal, along with improvements in the overall schedule after taking into consideration player feedback. Our partners are committed to the festivals, and players are enjoying the repeated stops and similar dates. We have high expectations to continue to deliver an accessible tour with large fields and strong prize pools, always under the umbrella of superb service and authentic poker.”

Commenting on the schedule changes, LAPT Tournament Director, Michael Ward, said: “LAPT 7 is going to be more exciting than ever. We have added a $500 NLH Freeze-Out event with 30-minute levels, as well as a $500 NLH Deep Stack Turbo with a single re-entry to this season’s line-up. We have also standardised all Main Event buy-ins across the year at $1,700, except for the Grand Final at $3,000, and raised the buy-in of the NLH Unlimited Re-entry event from $500 to $1,100. I hope that our regular players enjoy the improvements in the schedule and that we attract even more new ones.”

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

The LAPT Season 6 ‘Player of the Year’ awards were recently settled after the Grand Final. The race went to the wire, with the Grand Final’s side events eventually determining the outcome. In the end it was LAPT regular, Amos Ben Haim, from Chile, who won the Player of the Year and a Main Event seat for each LAPT Season 7 stop.

CHILE START

LAPT Season 7 begins in Chile, at the Enjoy Casino & Resort, Viña del Mar, from March 19-23. Gino Breschi, Casino Manager at Enjoy Viña del Mar, said: “The Enjoy Group is proud to host the most important poker tournament in the Latin American region. Last year we gathered 1,024 players, making it the biggest event of the series, and we are working hard towards breaking this record. This tournament stop is recognized internationally and constitutes an effective way of promoting tourism in the area, making it a must for players from all over the world.”

Besides the traditional Chile launch, one of the newest features of Season 7 will be a special Brazilian stop, where LAPT and the Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) will join forces to run a co-branded festival in the city of São Paulo at the end of May. In addition, there is one stop still to be announced for the month of September, making this seventh season a six-event tour once again.

Players from across Latin America and around the world will have many opportunities to participate, either by buying in directly on-site or qualifying via live or online satellites.

 The easiest way to play the new LAPT events remains by winning a seat online at PokerStars.net. For further information please visit: http://www.lapt.com