Two big PokerStars poker tours just wrapped up major main events, which means there are two new names to add to the rosters of 2012 tournament champions. This time those names are Aliro Diaz and Gordon Huntly, for winning, respectively, the Latin American Poker Tour Chile Main Event and the Australian New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney Main Event.
First to the LAPT Chile and winner, native son, Aliro Diaz. This event was the first main event of Season 5 of PokerStars.net’s Latin American Poker Tour and it attracted 651 players to Enjoy Casino and Resort in Vina del Mar. Diaz claimed $76,560 for his win. A fellow Chilean going by the singular name Leonardo took second and $66,000. Both players would have taken more had they not participated in a deal between the top 6 players at the final table to split up the prize pool based on the standings at the time. That gave 4th through 6th place larger prizes than they would otherwise have received. The next Latin American Poker Tour event is LAPT Uruguay, May 23 – 27.
Next we hop across the waters to Australia for the ANZPT Sydney, where Scotsman Gordon Huntly took the title and top prize of $226,812. The player field this time was 461. Liam O’Rourke took second place for $144,754. This is Season 4 of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour, with the next event being ANZPT Perth, May 2 – 6.
PokerStars.net is the free, play money version of the Poker Stars online poker site. It offers the same games but for play money (except in the case of satellites) and with no real money gambling taking place. Therefore, players from the U.S. are allowed to play at PokerStars.net, where satellites for the next events on these and other regional PokerStars.net poker tours are now taking place.