Brasil Poker Tour
History of Poker in Brazil
While this write-up will focus on the biggest poker playing country in the region, in addition to Brazil I will be examining the entire South American region, as well as touching upon Latin American countries.
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Brazil, and all of South America for that matter, is another new entry into the world of poker, and following the Internet explosion, South American poker started to take off with Brazil at the forefront. By 2008 poker had a firm foothold in the region, and PokerStars.com even created the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) which has been growing by leaps and bounds since it came on the scene in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in March of 2008.
Now that Brazil and the rest of South America has become a desirable destination for poker players from around the world, Brazilians are starting to make their presence felt in the global poker world.
Famous Brazilian Poker Players
With such a short history in the world of poker, Brazil and South America haven’t produced a slew of big names, but there are quite a few up and coming stars that hail from South America. With the LAPT allowing South American players to compete in major tournaments, the top talent from the area now has a place to shine, and display their poker prowess. In just four years the LAPT has produced such notable names as Alexander Gomes, Andre Akkari, and Felipe Ramos, and when including the entire South American continent names like Argentineans Jose “Nacho”Barbero, Leo Fernandez, and Veronica Dabul can also be added to the list.
The big names in South American poker Alexander Gomes and “Nacho” Barbero, both of whom have won millions over the last few years at poker tournaments around the world.
Here is a look at the top South American poker players as well as some of their accomplishments:
Jose “Nacho” Barbero
- Two-time LAPT winner
- Approaching $2 million in career tournament earnings
- 2010 EPT London High-Roller winner
- Team PokerStars Pro
Alexander Gomes
- Over $3.4 million in career tournament earnings
- 2009 WPT Bellagio Cup winner
- 2008 WSOP bracelet winner
- Two-time EPT Main Event final table participant
Andre Akkari
- Team PokerStars Pro
- 2011 WSOP bracelet winner
- Nearly $1 million in career tournament earnings
- One of the top online poker tournament players
Felipe Ramos
- Nearly $500k in career tournament earnings
- Plays under the screen-name “Mojave” online
- One of the most feared internet poker players
- Full Tilt Poker Red Pro
Veronica Dabul
- Considered the top female player in South America
- 12 WSOP cashes on her resume
- Won 2009 charity event at LAPT Playa Conchal
- Nearly $200k in career tournament earnings
Online Poker in Brazil
Latin America and South America are the new emerging markets for online poker sites, and the game has quickly caught on in the region. While laws differ from country to country, playing online poker in South America is perfectly legal for the players, and no player has ever faced any form of prosecution for playing online poker. On the other hand, since very few laws have been passed regarding online poker, most online poker rooms are skirting local laws in South American countries.
Thanks to the foresight of PokerStars, which saw the emerging market well before their competitors, the largest online poker site in the world has a strong hold on online poker in the region. With the PokerStars LAPT now in its fourth season, PokerStars is the most recognizable brand in central and South America.
Besides PokerStars, a few other online poker rooms have managed to grab a piece of the South American market-share; here is a look at the top 3:
- Largest online poker site in the world
- Team PokerStars Argentina: Jose “Nacho” Barbero and Leo Fernandez
- Team PokerStars Brazil: Andre Akkari and Gaulter Salles
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- Member of the Merge Gaming Network, the largest US-friendly online poker network
- Over 25 sponsored poker pros including Latin players Frederico Silva, Ricardo Pereria, Miguel Tavares, and Emmanuel Ferreria
- Massive 200% deposit bonus up to $1,200 for South American players
- One of the longest-standing online gaming sites
- Known for very loose games
- Strong branding in Central and South America
Where to play poker in Brazil
There are only about eight casinos throughout the entire country of Brazil, and even though poker’s popularity is on the rise, Brazilian casinos are not the gaming Mecca like you’ll find in other countries.
Most of the casinos are located in the major metropolitan areas like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Florianopolois, with a few other smaller card-rooms located in some more out-of-the-way areas of the vast country.
The major Latin and South American hotspot for poker is still located in Costa Rica, with Argentina and Chile also becoming hot poker destinations in recent years.
Poker laws in Brazil
While laws vary from country to country in Latin and South America, I will focus on perhaps the strictest country when it comes to poker laws: Brazil. Basically, this is the strictest country in the region when it comes to laws governing poker, so any other country you visit or reside in will have far laxer laws.
Poker in Brazil is a dicey proposition as all casino games are forbidden in the country except in licensed establishments that use loopholes to offer the barest form of poker, which have become known as poker associations. These associations circumvent the 1960’s era law forbidding casino games by focusing on tournament poker almost exclusively –which seems to reside in a legal gray area in Brazil.
There are currently a number of measures working their way through the Brazilian legislature that would legalize poker in the country. However, the Brazilian legislature works at a very slow-pace, so it may still be some time before any of these measures are put in place.
Brazil is a huge country and takes up almost half of the area of the continent of South America by itself, and also has about half of the continent’s population. It’s also the fifth largest country in the world both in terms of area and population, with over 204 million people.
Brazil is a pretty wealthy country by Latin American standards, although they are only 77th in the world in terms of per capita GDP, at a little over $15,000 per person per year. Still though, this is the powerhouse of South America, and their economy is the biggest on the continent by a huge margin, and due to their sheer size, it’s also the eighth largest in the world overall. (1)
So this is a huge market for gambling, although gambling in most forms is currently illegal in Brazil. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go on though, and in fact the market, even though not legal, is estimated to be worth upwards of $8 billion a year. (2)
A lot of the gambling market here is of the illegal variety, and while online gambling now represents about half of the gambling market here, about $4 billion a year, the land based gambling still plays a big role here, contributing a further $4 billion to the market, which is a huge amount considering that most of the land based gambling in Brazil is illegal.
It‘s not that all land-based gambling is outlawed here, as one may play the lottery legally here as well as bet on horse racing provided the betting is confined to the horse racing tracks only, so in other words no off track betting is allowed. They also treat poker a little differently as we’ll discuss later. Any other form of gambling here is illegal, including bingo, although there are thousands of illegal bingo dens that operate here. (3)
Gambling at one time much more widely permitted here, and Brazil has had a history of going back and forth on this issue, but since 1946 most gambling has been prohibited here, and this has remained in effect since. (4)
Brazil Poker Tournaments
There is a movement to want to change these laws and permit more gambling, and most countries in South America do have legalized casino gambling, and they point out that about three quarters of the countries in the world have legalized gambling now, and about three quarters of the 25% who don’t are Muslim countries and disallow it based upon religious beliefs, which leaves them wondering why Brazil is among the 8% of countries in the world that disallow gambling and some think there isn’t any good reason to do so.
Some do think that gambling is immoral though, and feel strongly enough about it to set aside the economic benefits that allowing and regulating gambling would bring, and this is especially noteworthy given the huge size of the gambling market in Brazil in spite of their poker laws.
So people are gambling widely anyway here, and have to do so while risking possible arrest, but they do it anyway, and it’s a crime in Brazil to both operate land based gambling facilities and to be found gambling at them as well, but people do it anyway here, and do it a lot in fact.
Playing Poker in Brazil
Poker has really taken off in Brazil, and they rightly see poker as more of a game of skill here and even a sport, and the Latin American Poker Tour(LAPT) even is welcome here.
Perhaps the biggest boost to poker in Brazil has been the success that former football (soccer) superstar Ronaldo has had with the game, and Ronaldo is certainly a hero here, and has of late turned into the best spokesperson for poker that poker could ever want in this country. (5)
So these are real money tournaments, and while it’s probably true that the authorities do look the other way at least somewhat when it comes to other forms of gambling, especially bingo, poker does get special treatment here under the law.
Brazil Poker Tournaments 2019
So it’s legal to run poker “associations” where poker is indeed played for real money but this is seen as a sporting association so they get around the anti gambling laws that way. There are a lot of poker tournaments that run here, especially for a country where it’s supposed to be illegal, and they even have their own poker tours, such as the Brazilian Series of Poker that was started by Poker Stars a few years ago, who have a very strong presence in the country. (6)
So you don’t see a lot of poker clubs here but there certainly is ample opportunity for poker players in Brazil to play live poker and the availability of liver poker is much better than you see in countries where gambling isn’t technically legal, and even better than a lot of countries where it is legal.
It’s not illegal in Brazil to gamble online though, and this certainly includes online poker, and online poker in Brazil is very popular, and is one of the world’s biggest online poker markets in fact. All of the major online poker rooms happily accept players from Brazil, and it would likely take a lot to get them out of this market since it is so huge, but there is nothing preventing them at present.
Brasil Poker Tournaments
Brazil is definitely big enough for online poker regulation of any sort, even a ring fenced version, and they are several times larger than some European countries who have tried this, although the best approach here would be to allow Brazilians to play on the main sites that cater to players from many countries instead of just relegating them to being able to play against other Brazilians only.
There’s been some serious talk about gambling regulation already in Brazil, and this may be something we may see in the next few years, although it’s curious that they are so dead set against land based gambling but they are embracing online gambling.
For now though, things are wide open as far as playing online poker in Brazil, and there are even some pretty good options for live poker as well, so in spite of what the laws are concerning gambling in general in Brazil, things are quite good indeed here when it comes to poker.
Top Online Sites Accepting Players From Brazil
Given that there are so many choices open to you if you are an online poker player from Brazil, you will want to focus on playing at the best poker rooms out there, and some people automatically assume that the biggest one of them all, Poker Stars, is the best place to play, but although they do have a ton of traffic, the players there are tough, and if you care about your results you will want to look elsewhere.
888 Poker, the world’s second most popular site, is far less shark infested, and that’s a big deal when it comes to choosing an online poker site, and we don’t want to send you somewhere where either you will be food for the sharks or if you are one you’ll be fighting many other sharks. 888 Poker also happens to be an awesome poker site overall and is the best online poker site in the world in our opinion.
Titan Poker and Bet365 Poker are also a couple of excellent choices, with both being on the immensely popular iPoker Network. These two sites have a lot of experience in keeping players happy and they do a great job of that, and like all of our top sites, have lots of great poker variety as well.
Party Poker is another long standing top site and while they don’t take players from a lot of countries, they have no problem at all with Brazilians. Party Poker has really improved their game over the last few years and are strongly committed to winning and keeping your business.
Black Chip Poker is a relatively new site although they’ve been up and running for a few years now and have come a long way since. The traffic here isn’t quite as big as our other 4 picks but the competition here is particularly easy to beat and that’s a big thing in our books, as it should be in yours as well.
All of these sites offer nice bonuses to new players and all are worth your checking out.
References:
1. Brazil
2. Brazil Discusses Gambling Regulation
3. Gambling in Brazil
4. Online Gambling Sites in Brazil
5. Brazil: The Growth of Poker in the Country of Football
6. Online Poker Sites in Brazil
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