12.25am -- We've lost another, and this time it was Micha Hoedemaker who took the walk. He found ace-king at the same time that Alex Marques had found aces. It all went in pre-flop and the board bricked. Hoedemaker, a PokerStars qualifier from Holland, takes $8,635 for 15th.

12.20 -- First hand back from the break and Andreas Riege doubles up. He gets it all in pre-flop behind pocket eights and Bruno da Cunha calls with pocket sixes. There are no horrific two-outers and Riege has 130,000 to play with.

With 15 players remaining, we took a full chip count:

1 -- Andreas Riege -- 60,000
2 -- empty
3 -- Bruno da Cunha -- 118,000
4 -- Eduardo Henriques -- 125,000
5 -- Rafael Pardo -- 205,000
6 -- empty
7 -- Juan Carlos Burguillos -- 202,000
8 -- Nicolai Senniger -- 245,500

Table 2

1 -- Farhad Sinaei -- 116,000
2 -- Julien Nuijten -- 625,000
3 -- Alex Brenes -- 240,000
4 -- Vitaly Kovyazin -- 340,000
5 -- Alex Marques -- 60,000
6 -- Severin Walser -- 153,000
7 -- Micha Hoedemaker -- 55,000
8 -- Alex Fitzgerald -- 250,000
9 -- empty

12.00 -- Ricardo Fasanaro is out in 16th. He found pocket sixes and got it all in, but Eduardo Henriques' kings and a bigger stack were always dominant.

A ten minute break followed for the 15 remaining.

11.40pm -- Juan Carlos Buguillos can do no wrong. He had just eliminated Eugenio Carmo with J-10 against kings, all in pre flop. The jack-ten made a jack-high straight and Carmo is out in 17th place. They're now redrawing and we'll have a full chip count momentarily.

11.35pm -- The brave resistance of Rodrigo Balbi is over. He's been pushing his short stack all in repeatedly and mostly getting them through. But this time, Juan Carlos Burguillos went nowhere with his ace-queen and Balbi's ace-seven was dominated. Balbi departs with $7,065 for 18th.

11.20pm -- Alberto Cunha is eliminated in 19th place. The Brazilian player calls the all in of Severin Walser, which is actually an undercall. Severin has 5-5, Cunha A-J and there's no improvement. The Swiss Severin moves up to about 163,000.

11.05pm -- Alex Brenes knocks out Nicolas Ragot. Ragot, in the big blind, is all in for 115,000, re-raising Brenes's button raise. Brenes calls. Ragot shows Q-J -- a semi-bluff, possibly suspecting a button steal -- but Brenes shows A-10. It goes all the way and the A-10 is good.

Our Brazilian blogger then caught up with Humerto Brenes, Alex's brother, to check whether he had a percentage of his high-flying sibling. "No," said the PokerStars Team Pro. "My percentage is just to see the Brenes name in the tournament."

11pm -- Double up, to more than 300,000, for Rafael Pardo. Rodrigo Balbi moves all in under the gun, for the second time in a row. Pardo thinks for a while, but eventually also moves in, for about 150,000. Everyone gets out of the way and they show J-J (Balbi) and Q-Q Pardo.

There's some excitement when the board comes 8-9-10, but when the jack comes on the turn to make Balbi's set, it makes the straight for Pardo. Balbi scratching the felt.

10.45pm -- There are pocket jacks, there are pocket kings and there are all the chips in the middle. Sjoero Bos has the jacks and Vitaly Kovyazin the kings, and the New Yorker (Kovyazin) wins a 250,000 chip pot. Bos takes 21st place.

10.35pm -- Short stack double up. Manecop has 6-6, Alex Fitzgerald makes a routine call with A-K. But the Assassinato fails to catch up and Manecop is up to 112,000 an Fitzgerald is down to 230,000.

10.30pm -- Jose Severino is eliminated by Eduardo Henriques. He gets a bit unlucky, finding his A-5 outdrawn by the Brazilian's K-J. Both king and jack flopped, and Severino was severed. He's out in 22nd.

10.25pm -- And Victor is all in again, this time with 6-6 versus K-Q. But a king and a queen flop, leaving Victor drawing to the final two sixes. They don't appear, and Ramdin is out in 23rd. That's good for $7,065 and although he's smiling, Victor wanted to go far further.

10.20pm -- Team PokerStars Pro's final remaining player, Victor Ramdin, gets his short stack in the middle behind pocket kings. They stand against pocket eights.

* * * * *

OK, let's try to catch up.

After a relatively slow period shortly before dinner, it's gone utterly rampant here in Rio. (Please bear in mind I could have written "nuts in Brazil" so please admire the restraint.)

There was an absolutely massive pot that played out on table four moments ago, when two of the chip leaders went head to head in a huge pre-flop raising battle that ended with about 650,000 in the pot. When they turned them over, we knew why.

Andrew Li was just outchipped by Julien Nuijten but Li had pocket kings. Nuijten had queens and the considerable tournament lead was up for grabs.

Li must have felt good, but it all went south when a queen came on the turn, giving the Dutch player about 700,000, a bad beat, and a huge chance to steam to the final table.

After that, they broke a table and we're down to three. We'll record all the action here.

Selected chip counts can be found HERE

A reminder of who has won how much so far can be found HERE

And full video coverage can be found over at PokerStars.tv

"You think there's any chance they can change that 'n' to a capital?"

Such was the primary concern of Ronnie "Ronasty" Bardah, the PokerStars qualfier from Brockton, Mass, who enters the second day of the tournament with close to 70,000 in chips. But let's not worry about a potential $785,000 pay-day when it's you're online moniker we're talking about.

"I made it a small 'n' when I signed up, but I really wish it could be a capital," he said.

There's no doubt that the stress on "Nasty" could be kind of cool, but for my money there's nothing cooler than taking down a major tournament. Still, this 25-year-old has seen all this before. He's got a condo rented for Vegas for the World Series, he's a regular around Foxwoods, the Commerce and any major tournament venue across the States.

"I chase the action," he explained, talking about the lucrative side games when all the sharks are in town. "I'm well known as a grinder," Bardah said, who is no stranger to the MTT scene but prefers to play cash.

It was more of a cash-game style approach that yielded him the most profit yesterday. "No one seemed to notice that I was playing tight," he said. "When I entered a pot with a big pair, they just wanted to re-raise me."

* * * * *

Update: All this talk about cool has spectacularly managed to usher in the dreaded cooler to our man Bardah. Within moments of the tournament re-starting, he saw a 140,000 pot heading in the wrond direction. He found 8-9 on a flop of 8-9-10. His opponent, Eduardo Henrique, from Brazil, had pocket nines for the flopped set. A jack tunrned, offering chop possibilities to the straight, but it never came.

Barduh shipped his last 10,000 into the pot soon after, and it never doubled. He's done.

Today has been no day to be a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Obviously, they have been typically well looked after away from the felt and have found a long procession of supporters in the halls wanting to shake their hands and pose for photos. But it's been brutal at the tables, with seven of nine already in the bar, in their bedroom or mixing it up right now on PokerStars.

The latest to join their number was Isabelle Mercier, who raised for about a third of her short stack from under the gun, holding pocket jacks. She was set in for about 5,000 total by a player in mid-position and the call was mandatory. Her nemesis flipped ace-king and they were off to the races.

That race lasted until the turn, when the king appeared. Goodnight Isabelle.

Sometime slightly earlier, Vanessa Rousso also slipped into the night. No one saw her go, but we're a Lady Maverick missing in the tournament room.

That leaves, by my reckoning, Gavin Griffin and Victor Ramdin as Team PokerStars Pro's last fighters.

And if you had to have two to go to the plate on your behalf, you could do a whole lot worse.

Update: And no sooner was it written than Gavin also hit the rail. At least he went out in spectacular fashion, finding all of his 20,000-odd stack in the middle staring at a board of Qh-6d-6c-4c-4h.

It's difficult to know what must go through a poker player's mind when someone calls a bet like that and you're forced to turn over 9d-2d for what amounts to a bluff gone somewhat awry. Bearing in mind that any card higher than a queen would be enough to take this one, his opponent's A-Q seemed excessive.

Griffin lives by the sword and this time died by it. But we always know we'll see more of him.

* * * * *

While it might be tough to be in the team, it's not necessarily so bad to be related to Team PokerStars Pro. Just ask Alex Brenes, younger brother of Humberto.

The shark himself has been floating around the tournament area all day today, despite his relatively early bust out. The reason is his support of his brother, and he has watched Alex climb onward and upward, somewhere close to 80,000 now.

No doubt Humberto would like to be sitting around the tables too, but he can hardly begrudge baby Brenes his spot. They're keeping it in the family, at least.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, tournament director Mike Ward has just announced that we'll be playing down to the end of level nine tonight, which means play will end at around 12.45 a.m. local time.

Currently, with two hours until then, we have 160 players remaining, approximately half the starting field. By this time tomorrow, we're due to be closing in on a final table of nine, which, at this stage, seems a long way away.

* * * * *

And if you want to see what we were all up to last night, the final edit of the PokerStars LAPT welcome party has just hit the screens.

Take a gander:

There's more where that came from HERE at PokerStars.tv.

You never want to be standing on the rail of a poker tournament listening to a frowning friend utter these words: "Bang, bang, you're dead."

But such was my lot moments ago, when I chased Dave Hardy away from the tables after his fairy tale ride from oil rig to Rio ended with a taste in his mouth as bitter and sickly as a gallon of crude.

Dave found kings and made a 3,000 raise. His opponent, the Brazilian Jose Vaughan Junior, shoved in over the top for 28,000, and Dave was delighted. When they flipped, he wasn't quite so happy, but also couldn't have been expecting what happened next. Vaughan Junior showed the other two kings. Chop, chop, surely.

Well, er, no. Two diamonds on the flop, another on the turn and yet another on the river. That's where the "Bang, bang, you're dead" line came from. Hardy was sent packing.

"It was great, though," he said, smiling even as he winced. "It definitely won't be the last, that's for sure. Costa Rica next," he said, before heading off into the Rio night, with a thirst -- and good reason -- to sink a few beers tonight.

* * * * *

There's still a long, long way to go into this dark, dark Rio night. But gradually the big, big field is thinning and fewer and fewer tables remain.

As players leave, others profit and we're getting a more distinct idea of the tournament leaders. Some of them have big, big stacks.

Everyone in the press room agrees that this man is our chip leader:

His name is Julien Nuijten and he hails from Amsterdam, Holland. He accounted for Team PokerStars Pro's Humberto Brenes earlier today and has never looked back. Current estimates have him at around 86,000.

Somewhere close behind is this man, who goes by the name of Piragibe Lindolfo Ataide:

Ataide was the player who made the most profit from Gavin Griffin's aggression earlier, taking a bunch from the Team PokerStars Pro when he filled up on the river. We have him near to 62,500.

Also worth a mention is PokerStars qualifier Ole Busborg Jensen from Denmark. I first met Ole at the European Poker Tour event in Deauville on season two, where he went all the way to the top twenty in ruthless silence. He's already up to around 30,000 here and is as unruffed as ever.

Our updated chip counts can be found by clicking HERE

The payouts are HERE

After much calculating, the numbers have finally arrived. The 314 players at LAPT Rio will be playing for a total prize pool of $785,000, distributed among them as follows:

1 -- $222,940
2 -- $117,750
3 -- $86,350
4 -- $62,800
5 -- $47,100
6 -- $31,400
7 -- $23,550
8 -- $15,700
9 -- $11,775

10-12 -- $10,205
13-16 -- $8,635
17-24 -- $7,065
25-32 -- $5,495

*Brazilian residents will be taxed 30 percent on the above; all non-residents 15 percent.

* * * * *

The players have just returned from their 90 minute dinner break and will play the final 30 minutes of level six. The blinds on their return are 200-400 with an ante of 50. There are 208 players remaining.

Just before that dinner break, Gavin Griffin, the high-flying Team PokerStars Pro, found his winged clipped somewhat. He made an aggressive all-in move on the river, staring at a board of A-A-8-7-Q. It might have got through had his opponent not been holding pocket queens for queens full of aces -- the final queen falling on the river, by the way.

He's down from the dizzy heights of 44,000 to about 12,000.

Selected approximate chip counts can be found HERE and we're currently conducting a sweep of the room to make sure this is up to date.

People play poker in all kinds of places, and they play for numerous reasons.

Dave Hardy, a PokerStars qualifier from Essex, England, plays during down time in his job. And there can sometimes be a lot of that, with not many options for other entertainment. Dave works on an oil rig, you see.

Stationed somewhere off the coast of Norway, Dave discovered the PokerStars tables when there really was nothing else to do. The internet connection can sometimes be patchy in the middle of the North Sea, but you'll tolerate the occasional disconnect when it's a choice between another night with the seagulls and the chance to qualify for tournaments in Rio de Janeiro.

And qualify he did, earning his passage over to Brazil for the largest live tournament of his career. And even if things don't go according to plan here in Rio, he'll have another chance in a couple of weeks. Dave also traded a face full of surf and salty winds last week for a qualifying tournament to the LAPT Costa Rica. And he qualified again.

That's two out of two for the man from Hornchurch. As we approach the dinner break, he's sitting with somewhere around 10,000. That's still enough to make some waves of his own in this tournament.

* * * * *

More bad news for Team PokerStars Pro as we are now down a World Champion AND a home favourite. Andre Akkari earned a bear-hug from team-mate Humberto Brenes, below, after he shoved his 4,000-odd pre-flop with his ace-queen and found the original raiser with kings. Good game, and Akkari was gone.

Moments earlier, Greg Raymer left the tournament arena surprisingly inconspicuously for one of the most recognisable faces in the game. But he's definitely gone, although no one knows the hand details as yet. We are searching for them right now.

* * * * *

Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break.

If you're checking the primitive and early chip count page -- click HERE if not -- you may have noticed some spectacular fluctuations by the name Gavin Griffin. No one has been mistyping, however.

The Team PokerStars Pro from Illinois found the early going pretty rough in Rio. He'd slumped to about 6,000 in the opening level, and trod water for a few hours more.

But just recently he has catapulted close to the chip lead and sits behind a stack of something like 33,000. About half of this came courtesy of an ace-jack, a board reading J-10-A-9-5 and an opponent with 10-9 for a smaller two pair.

He'll no doubt hope the trend continues in an upward direction.

* * * * *

It shouldn't really come as a surprise that the LAPT has already exceeded expectations. We should be used by now to setting the bar pretty high, only to have it soared over.

But even so, it's pretty remarkable to be able to report that the official numbers are in and that 314 players entered the first ever major poker tournament to be played in Brazil. Bear in mind that we began with estimates of around a 200 capacity, that it was gradually shifted to 300 tops, before today we were accepting alternates up to the end of level two, and that several more didn't get lucky enough to make it into the field.

The full list of payouts will be calculated soon -- the number-crunchers are on it as I type.

* * * * *

Greg Raymer is still holding firm on table 27, although he's now found himself the butt of several jibes from his fellow players. The reason is a discussion held during the last level concerning the official tournament ruling on whether players are obliged to show both cards if they decide to flash one at a showdown.

There had been some to-ing and fro-ing on this particular subject, before Greg decided to end the discussion once and for all. He beckoned to the floor manager, explained the ins and outs of the debate, then waited expectantly for the definitive ruling.

"I don't know," said this 'official'. "I'm a waiter."

According to our Brazilian floor reporter Andre, players at the table are reluctant to allow the Team PokerStars Pro to forget. "You want to ask the waiter about that?" they are apparently asking after most pots.

Greg, typically, has taken it in good grace and continues to smile.

* * * * *

Breaking news: Chris Moneymaker has hit the rail. As he so often does, he got it in good but found his pleas to stay good falling on deaf ears. The former world champion had kings, one opponent had jacks and another sixes. When all the money found its way to the middle, the flop was down and it wasn't looking too rosy for Moneymaker. It was ten high, but all clubs and Chris didn't have one. The other two players both did.

"No club, no club," he repeated. But while the turn was a blank, the river was the five of clubs and Moneymaker took the walk, leaving his nemesis, Renato Marquez, jubilant.

It's notoriously difficult to make sweeping generalisations about the early stages of these poker tournaments. You can double up early, win another monster pot, and still be home in time for tea without making any money. In short, you can't win a tournament on day one, but you can sure lose one.

Making his way out of the tournament arena moments ago was Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes, who lost the largest pot of the tournament so far to the now-chip leader Julien Nuijten, of Holland. They got it all in pre-flop but Humberto's ace-king never caught up against Julien's pocket kings. The sharks flashed their little LEDs, the great Costa Rican growled and snapped himself.

All to no avail, and Brenes made a slow walk from the floor, pausing for a chat with Greg Raymer, then to pose for photos with fans. We'll be seeing him again in Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. Nuijten, meanwhile, has about 34,000.

Better news for the aforementioned Raymer, who has been building a stack all afternoon. He cracked aces with five-six, flopping two pair and milking his opponent for about 7,000. I then dropped past as he had cards exposed in front of him, against a single all-in short stack. Greg had pocket fives, his opponent ace-eight, and they both knew they were racing.

The flop catapulted one of them miles into the lead: ace-ace-queen. The turn bricked, but the river was a five and the tortoise caught the hare in this particular race to the finish. Greg shaked hands and nurtured a stack approaching 24,000.

Chris Moneymaker also cracked aces earlier today when he got his small stack all in pre-flop with pocket queens. His opponent had a fairly easy call with the aces, and flopped a set. But there were also straight cards out there, and by the river Moneymaker was on Broadway. He still only has about 8,000, but is heading in the right direction.

Breaking news: Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown has just departed. Sitting to the right of the well-chipped Raymer, Chad had dwindled to about 4,000 when Andre Lichtenstein made up the blind, leaving just the two of them in the pot. Chad checked. The flop came Kh-4c-5c and the Brazilian player checked. Chad bet 325, he was check-raised to 1,000 and Chad moved all in.

When they flipped, it was pretty much a 50-50 shout. Andre had K-3o for top pair, no kicker. Chad showed 2c-3c for the open-ended straight flush draw. It had massive potential but delivered on none of it. Turn and river bricked and Chad was out.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, watching all this from the business side of a camera and editing board is our team of video bloggers. Here we have their first despatch from Day One in Rio:

Remember, you can find coverage of former PokerStars tournaments on the newly-launched PokerStars.tv site.

Like most players making their way to Rio, Tony Nikaj had a certain set of expectations of what he'd find.

He expected a slight increase in temperature this side of the equator, especially compared with his home in Puttnam Valley, New York. He was right about that.

He also expected to find some carnival atmosphere in this party town. Tony's grin at last night's exclusive cabaret suggested he was right about that as well.

He also confessed yesterday that he expected to find the field in this relatively new poker nation to be somewhat softer than those he's used to dealing with around the PokerStars tables, else in Vegas or Foxwoods, or the Borgata, Atlantic City.

He'll have to get back to you on that one.

Tony found his chair this afternoon on table 27, seat four. On table 27, seat one was a man named Chad Brown. On table 27, seat two was a man named Greg Raymer. At least Tony had position on them both.

"Hey, take a look at this!" he bellowed in my direction as I took my first sweep of the room. He then pointed at the Team PokerStars Pros, smiled, shrugged and laughed it off.

"Some soft field, huh," I offered. "Still, it'll make a good story."

Tony had previously filled me in on the other details. Born and raised in the original Little Italy area of the Bronx, New York City, he cut his teeth in the big games organised in the countless Italian restaurants, cafes and sports club that line the famous Arthur Avenue in Belmont. It was a tough education but one that served him well.

He turned pro about a year ago, and last month shipped his biggest cash to date, taking down the $5,200 freezeout on PokerStars, good for $100,000.

Although he prefers playing online cash -- where he goes under the moniker "Texpert" -- he's also now flexing his muscles in the live multi-table tournament arena, with recent visits to San Remo and Monte Carlo on the EPT.

There, he cheered from the bleechers as good friends Isaac Baron and Michael Martin made the final table. Soft field or no soft field, he's hoping to do something very similar.