Fabian Fabulous in Chile

Latin America takes home a LAPT title. News from PokerStars below.

I'm off to Treasure Island this weekend, listen for poker players from Red Wing, MN begging for mercy from my deadly check-calls.

FABIAN ORTIZ BECOMES FIRST LATIN AMERICAN WINNER OF A POKERSTARS LAPT EVENT

Viña Del Mar, Chile - January 23, 2009: 39-year-old Fabian Ortiz, from Argentina, has become the first ever Latin American poker player to win a PokerStars.net LAPT title with his victory at the inaugural Chile event inViña del Mar.

Ortiz, who lives in the rural province of Chaco, (pronounciation: Chako) defeated a strong field of players from 27 countries to take home the title and first prize of $141,426.

A former disco owner he now does most of his dancing on the poker circuit where he has shown he is fearless on the felt with some success. Latin American players dominated the starting field with almost everynation represented. Fifty players were from the host country of Chile alone and every seat at the final table was taken by a player from Latin America -including Fabio Escobar, who won his seat to the event on PokerStars.

"Fabian Ortiz's win demonstrates the growth of poker as a Latin American sport", said LAPT President Glenn Cademartori. "This is our first eventwhere 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.

"The LAPT Viña del Mar event, at the prestigious Viña del Mar Casino and Resort, attracted a host of international poker stars including TeamPokerStars Pros Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica, Andre Akkari from Brazil, and the former Brazilian stock car racer and PokerStars sponsored player Gualter Salles.

Also representing Costa Rica were Max and Maria Stern, the only married couple who have both won WSOP bracelets. Ortiz bested Argentinian Veronica Dabul, who cashed three times at the WSOP in 2008.

The next event on the LAPT tour will be in Punta del Este, Uruguay in March, followed by the season finale in Mar del Plata, Argentina in April.

All the LAPT events will be broadcast by ESPN in Latin America later in the year.

Visit http://www.lapt.com for more information; for LAPT Viña del Mar reports, visit the PokerStars blog at http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/ and http://www.pokerstars.tv.