The PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour kicked off their 2nd season on Monday, with a $3,500 + $200 Main Event in San Jose, Costa Rica. This first event, which is being held at the Ramada Plaza Herradura Conference Center, attracted 219 players.

The similar 2007 Costa Rica event welcomed 398 players, so the field was down; however, given this year's buy-in is $1,000 more than last year's, the (unadjusted) total prize pool ended up being very close to last year's event. Of course none of this mattered much, as PokerStars generously guaranteed a $1 million dollar prize pool, providing a very nice overlay for the 219 happy players at the Ramada.

Despite the slightly smaller turnout, numerous big name players could still be found shuffling chips on Monday including Carter Gill, Victor Ramdin, Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet, and Humberto Brenes. Of those players, Carter Gill went the farthest, cashing in 14th place for $12,213.

The final table for the LAPT San Jose event is set to roll today. Please visit www.pokerstars.com, for updates, chip counts and photos from this exciting event.

Story by Mark Anderson