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12pm: Shuffle up and deal - vamos!
Level 1 - Blinds 50/100

We're officially off and running here in Chile. The players start with 20,000 chips, and we'll be playing 10 one-hour levels today. --JS

11:30am: Who will set the bar in Viña del Mar?

Buenos días! We're here in the beautiful 'Garden City' of Viña del Mar in Chile for the Latin American Poker Tour Season 9's second stop. In a half hour's time, we'll be kicking off the festival with Day 1A of the $1,500 NL Hold'em Main Event with unlimited re-entries.

Viña del Mar has been a regular stop on the tour since Season 2 back in 2008, when Argentina's Fabián Ortiz took down the inaugural event. Last year it was Chile's own Oscar Alache who won the $131,962 first place prize and his second LAPT title, having also notched a win in Peru in Season 7. To scoop the trophy in Chile last year, Alache defeated a tough final table that also included two-time LAPT champ Jose Barbero.

So, the question is: will he try and go back-to-back, overtaking both Ortiz and Barbero to become the first player with three LAPT titles? We'll have to wait and see!

We're expecting an exciting day of play to get this Main Event going, and if other LAPT stops are anything to go by then that's exactly what we're going to get. We'll be back shortly when the players start to arrive and the cards are (almost) in the air - don't go anywhere. --JS

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at LAPT9 Chile: Will O'Connor and Jack Stanton. Photos by Carlos Monti. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog