Bodog Beat

Costa Rican poker pro Humberto Brenes will be in Rio de Janeiro for the start of the Latin American Poker Tour. (Bodog Beat Image)

The Latin American Poker Tour is brand new, this will be its first year. So, let's assume that every time we mention the name of the tour or any LAPT event in this post, the word "inaugural" has been inserted in front of it. It's new, therefore everything is "inaugural." See, the word has already lost all meaning.

Anyway, the LAPT kicks off tomorrow in the Brazilian coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, making it a pretty ideal location for anything, much less a poker tournament. The LAPT Rio will take place at the Intercontinental Hotel at 1pm tomorrow local time. Pros expected to show their faces include Costa Rican poker pro Humberto Brenes, Gavin Griffin, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Victor Ramdin, Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso.

The second stop of the LAPT takes place in San Jose, Costa Rica, on May 22-24, and the third stop will be at the Mantra Resort Spa Casino in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from Aug. 7-9. All three events are have a cap of 300 players, which they are expected to hit, and have a $2,500 buy-in.

Since they are land-based tournaments with a less than $10,000 buy-in, the LAPT tournaments would fall under Bodog's "Player's Choice" promotion. And we can personally recommend a couple of these stops as amazing places to visit, so head over to the Bodog Poker room and check out the LAPT online poker qualifiers.

Charles Simmons contributes poker news to the Bodog Beat and hopes to travel to the LAPT stops to cover them live. *hint*