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The great American songwriter Randy Newman once joked, “South America stole our name!”

While Newman was commenting on the jingoistic atmosphere of the times, he might well have been predicting the advent of the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker (well, maybe not, not, but it’s close!). In any case, the Americas Cup is back, and it will pit countries from around the Americas (yes, all of them) against each other for the title.

From March 15-April 14 players from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Argentina will be battling for spots on their country’s team. There will also be a tenth team made up of the remaining Latin American counties.

In all, the players from the ten teams will compete in a series of points tournaments. The four players who accumulate the most points will represent their country at the live final–if their team makes it there.

When all the matches are complete, the six countries with the most wins will automatically qualify for the live final. The remaining four teams will then play off for the final two positions.

Then in May, the eight teams will travel to Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. There they will compete for a share of $150,000 and the Americas Cup title.

Photo: Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it

Even if you don’t want to spend the pennies it costs to get involved, tickets to the $0.11 tournaments are available in free SNGS that are running all the time in the Tourney-Regional section of the PokerStars lobby.

For a full schedule and more information, visit the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker homepage.

Good luck!

The great American songwriter Randy Newman once joked, “South America stole our name!”

While Newman was commenting on the jingoistic atmosphere of the times, he might well have been predicting the advent of the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker (well, maybe not, not, but it’s close!). In any case, the Americas Cup is back, and it will pit countries from around the Americas (yes, all of them) against each other for the title.

From March 15-April 14 players from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Argentina will be battling for spots on their country’s team. There will also be a tenth team made up of the remaining Latin American counties.

In all, the players from the ten teams will compete in a series of points tournaments. The four players who accumulate the most points will represent their country at the live final–if their team makes it there.

When all the matches are complete, the six countries with the most wins will automatically qualify for the live final. The remaining four teams will then play off for the final two positions.

Then in May, the eight teams will travel to Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. There they will compete for a share of $150,000 and the Americas Cup title.

Photo: Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it

Even if you don’t want to spend the pennies it costs to get involved, tickets to the $0.11 tournaments are available in free SNGS that are running all the time in the Tourney-Regional section of the PokerStars lobby.

For a full schedule and more information, visit the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker homepage.

Good luck!

There was a time when people believed poker belonged to America. When they said “America” they discounted everything but the “United States of…”

To be fair, the USA is where poker rose to popularity, but these days the game belongs to the world. Still, PokerStars saw fit to hold a competition to see which country in the Americas–that’s North, South, and everything in between–could claim poker as their own.

Tonight, that honor goes to Brazil.

PokerStars took its newest creation, the Americas Cup of Poker, about as far south as it could. Bariloche, Argentina played home to the competition over the last few days. The semi-finals saw the final four teams head into competition to fight for the $100,000 first prize.

In the first matchup, Team Canada faced Team Argentina in a series of six heads-up matches. The result? A tie. To determine a winner, the two team captains faced off in a two-hour marathon that ended in spectacular fashion.

Argentina’s Leo Fernandez raised from the small blind to 1,100 and Canada’s Darus Suharto re-raised to 2,700. Fernandez tanked for a moment before pushing the rest of his chips into the middle.

Fernandez: [As][4s]
Suharto: [Qd][Qh]

The flop ran out [Th][6d][9s]. Suharto remained in the lead, and looked good for the win after the [2d] fell on the turn. Then…the river…the [Ac]. The ballroom exploded and Argentina moved on to the finals.

The fight between Costa Rica and Brazil went much the same way. The heads-up matches ended in a tie and forced team captains Humberto Brenes and Alex Gomes to battle head to head. That match ended after an hour when Gomes made two pair to Brenes’ turned top pair.

It was as if fate willed the match up. Saturday will see the two rival countries Brazil and Argentina face off on the pitch. The Americas Cup of Poker would see the same battle.

It would end in fairly unspectacular fashion, however. In the end, Argentina’s Leo Fernandez couldn’t make ace-nine hold up against Brazil’s K-8 and Brazil walked away with the the Americas Cup title.

Congrats to our friends from Brazil on once again proving their place in the poker world.

With more than 35,000 entries into the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker, the pre-event favorites have pulled out to a commanding lead.

As you’ve likely heard, the Americas Cup is pitting people from all over North and South America against each other in a battle for bragging rights and big money at the end of the world. At stake, a chance at the live final in the Patagonia region of Argentina and a heck of a ski trip in September.

After one round of play, several of the divisions have seen serious blow outs. In Group A, the United States and Mexico have crushed Equador and preliminary qualifier Guatemala 8-0 in early action. Canada and Colombia have done the same thing to Uruguay and Panama in Group B. In Group D, Argentina (host of the live final) and Brazil skunked Paraguay and Honduras.

It’s only in Group C where things have stayed exceptionally tight. All four countries are still well within reach of making live final. As of right now, here’s how the teams win/loss records look.

Costa Rica (6 - 2)
Chile (4 - 4)
Venezuela (4 - 4)
Peru (2 - 6)

The top two teams in each group will be headed to the live final. This week, PokerStars announced that all teams that finish in third place will get a chance to play for the $10,000 ninth place playoff. That means that even those teams that didn’t fare well in the early going still have a reason to fight.

To see the full results so far, check out the Americas Cup results page.

There is a place at the end of the world, where snow falls in August, where the women can fell governments, and red meat is eaten with such fervor that the idea of a boneless, skinless chicken breast is, at best, quaint. Patagonia, this mythical sounding place in southwest of Argentina, will soon be home for a battle of the ages. There, in the land of beef and summer snow, the Americas will decide which country is deserving of the Americas Cup.

Today, countries from all over the Americas started fighting for their rightful spot at the final fight in Argentina. The Americas Cup is going to put online qualifiers together with Team PokerStars Pro for a live poker event like you’ve never seen before. On the line is national pride for 13 different countries and no small amount of money…$250,000 to be exact.

As if that wasn’t enough, people who make it to the live final get a chance to take one heckuva a ski vacation at the end of August and beginning of September. Seriously…there aren’t a lot of things that you’re going to do in the next two months you’re going to enjoy more.

Qualifiers are running now on PokerStars. If you’d like to see all the rules, see how you can get on a team, and see how the Americas Cup works, we suggest you head on over to the PokerStars Americas Cup home page.

In the meantime, we’re going to be fantasizing about a juicy steak and fresh powder.

Photo by Luca Galuzzi