Fabian
Ortiz is First Latin American LAPT Champion, by
Dan Cypra - 23rd January 2009 (Credit:
Poker News Daily)
There
was $141,426 on the line in the PokerStars Latin
American Poker Tour (LAPT) Viña del Mar
event, held in Chile. Players from 27 countries
around the world descended on the South American
casino and, in the end, Fabian Ortiz became the
first Latin American champion in LAPT history.
He hails from Chaco, which PokerStars describes
as a "rural province" in Argentina.
The
Main Event at Vina del Mar had a buy-in of $2,700
along with a second chance tournament that sported
a $1,100 price tag. It was the LAPT's first tournament
since the event in Mexico ended abruptly with
federal agents descending on the tournament area
late last year. The Viña del Mar event
saw 50 Chileans enter and the entire final table
consisted of players from across Latin and South
America.
LAPT
President Glenn Cademartori commented in a press
release distributed by PokerStars on Friday, "Fabian
Ortiz's win demonstrates the growth of poker as
a Latin American sport. This is our first event
where the majority of the field was made up of
Latin American players. We expect many more local
champions as this sport continues to grow in popularity
in the region."
Team
PokerStars Pro members Humberto Brenes, who hails
from Costa Rica, and Andre Akkari, who resides
in Brazil, made their way to Viña del Mar.
However, neither sponsored pro made the final
table, which in the end shook out as follows:
Next
up for the LAPT is a stop in Punta del Este, Uruguay
at the Mantra Resort Spa and Casino. The $3,700
Main Event kicks off on March 18th and a winner
will be crowned two days later. A second chance
tournament has a $1,100 buy-in. The feature tournament
is capped at 500 players and the second chance
can accomodate a maximum of 300. Mar de Plata
in Argentina will host the season-end event in
April. No official dates for the tournament have
been announced.
PokerStars
is fresh off holding the largest live poker tournament
ever held outside of the United States. The most
recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure drew 1,347
players and awarded a first place prize of $3
million, which went to Poorya Nazari. The Canadian
defeated American Tony Gregg heads-up.
Profile
Latin
is an ancient Indo-European language that was
spoken in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire
and had de facto status as the international language
of mid and western Europe until the 17th century.
It is the base language for the languages spoken
in France, Italy and the Iberian peninsula and
through them to South America. The conquests of
Rome spread the language throughout the Mediterranean
and a large part of Europe. It existed in two
forms: Classical Latin, used in poetry and formal
prose, and Vulgar Latin, spoken by the people.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and
the rise of the Roman Catholic Church Latin became
the ecclesiastical language of the Roman Catholic
Church and the lingua franca of educated classes
in the West.
After
having lasted 2,200 years, Latin began a slow
decline around the 1600s. But Vulgar Latin was
preserved: it split into several regional dialects,
which by the 800s had become the ancestors of
today's Romance languages. English, though originating
as a Germanic language, derives 60% of its words
from Latin, largely by way of French, but partly
through direct borrowings made especially during
the 1600s in England.
Latin
lives on in the form of Ecclesiastical Latin spoken
in the Roman Catholic Church. Latin vocabulary
is also still used in science, academia, and law.
Classical Latin, the literary language of the
late Republic and early Empire, is still taught
in many primary, grammar, and secondary schools,
often combined with Greek in the study of Classics,
though its role has diminished since the early
20th century. The Latin alphabet, together with
its modern variants such as the English and French
alphabets, is the most widely used alphabet in
the world. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
