KCasey

At the dawn of 2012, Daniel Negreanu set himself ten poker goals. In the recent Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) Grand Final in Sao Paulo Brazil he so nearly accomplished a few of them as early as March. But after the sounds of the samba beat had died down, Negreanu had nothing but a great tournament to look back on whereas Daniele Nestola had an LAPT title and $167,280 in his back pocket.

The LAPT Grand Final was spread over four days and as it kicked off so did Carnival. The streets of Sao Paulo were bursting with tourists but 376 people decided to ignore the carnival and instead settled down for a game of poker. Fans of Betfair will have been impressed.

Day 1 saw Jean Double finish as the days chip leader with 189,400 chips and joining him in the Day 2 field included the likes of Negreanu, Humberto Brenes, Leo Fernandez and Nacho Barbero.

Day 2 was an elimination slugfest with only 24 players remaining and former Sunday Million winner Caio Cesar Pimenta in charge with 607,000 chips. Daniel Negreanu and Humberto Brenes also making it through to Day 3.

Day 3 was all about the journey to the final table and after Joshua Ewing was eliminated in ninth place that final table was set with Daniele Nestola securing the top spot with 1,892,000 chips. Brenes had left the building but that man Negreanu was seated in fifth. Anyone looking at Betfair poker should remember this.

On the day of the final, Daniel Negreanu’s fantastic run came to an end in sixth place, and the man with all the chips at the start of the day had them all at the end of the day – congratulations to Daniele Nestola the new LAPT Grand Final Champion.