Recently in Humberto Brenes Category

Twenty-one years, one month and 15 days ago, a 37-year-old poker player from Costa Rica visited the cashout cage of Binions Horseshoe Casino, Las Vegas, to collect his first winner's cheque from the World Series of Poker. It was worth $12,500 and represented 14th place in the main event of the 1987 series, a relatively modest profit of $2,500 on a $10,000 buy-in to poker's glittering showpiece.

Something like two hours ago, the same man, now 58, visited a World Series cash-out cage again. By now, he pretty much has his own window there: it was the 52nd time he had done so in the intervening years, and the fourth time in the past fortnight. This time he picked up another relatively modest sum, $7,776 for squeaking into the money in the $1,000 re-buy event. But his trips to that cage have contributed a significant portion to the former baccarat player's $5,221,884 lifetime earnings from major tournament poker.

No prizes for guessing the identity of this star, this PokerStar. He is Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes.

"I think that's the 52nd cash," Brenes half-told, half-asked me when we caught up in the corridor of the Rio shortly after his latest result. I told him he was right. "The fourth this series," he said with some assurance, before looking quizzical again. "But I don't remember all of them. Do you know if there is a list somewhere?" For the past half hour, I have been copy-pasting Humberto's WSOP cash list from the various poker databases and forwarding it on.

It wasn't one of the most exciting jobs I have ever undertaken, but it made for some impressive reading. Humberto has two bracelets to his name, both from 1993, and three or four runners-up results from approximately 20 final tables. Not all of the older, pre-internet tournament professionals have managed to adapt their game to cope with the online invasion into live poker. But Brenes is an exception, and 20 of his cashes have come post-Moneymaker, including three final tables last year.

"What are you playing next?" I asked, just so I could tip off the cashiers to start inking "Brenes" on another cheque. "I don't know. What tournament is on now?" But he didn't fancy the stud hi-lo that had just started in the Brazilia room. "Mañana," he said. "I play mañana." And with that, he was off again, weaving through the corridors of the Rio and back to the family.

Mañana it is then. Get the chequebook out.

For some of us, the road to the Rio this year has taken some unlikely turns. Thanks to the advent and success of the PokerStars Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT), we've had the chance to visit the Rio of "de Janeiro" fame, that small place on the south coast of Brazil, home of Christ the Redeemer, the Maracana, Ipanema and Copacabana, as opposed to the other Rio, home of Penn and Teller, the Chippendales, and "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" on W Flamingo Road.

In its first season, the LAPT was characterised by raw, sometimes unhinged, enthusiasm as a whole new region of the world came to grips with the PokerStars tournament treatment. We had swarms of supporters, boisterous rails, dancing girls in body paint, and some all new stars on the poker scene. At the very centre of all the hijinks and hilarity there was usually a man named Brenes, if not always the Team PokerStars Pro Humberto, then definitely someone directly influenced by the Shark and somewhere on the same family tree.

In San Jose, Costa Rica, in particular, it sometimes seemed as though a poker tournament had been arranged in the Brenes family home, such were the number of players there bearing that name. And all were welcome: in Humberto, there was the gracious ease of a host to whose private party the hordes had finally found their way.

That was then, and this is now. That was there, and this is here. But surprise, surprise, any spectator taking a quick walk through the remaining 15 tables of the $1,000 re-buy event happening adjacent to the HORSE, will soon see that there's a Brenes in the line-up, the man himself, Humberto. And he's every bit as comfortable here as he was last month in Costa Rica. And why not? Humberto Brenes cashing in the World Series is about as common as a 100 degree day in Las Vegas. It seems to happen all the time.

This year has been no exception. Brenes has been in the money three times so far this series, for the 49th, 50th and 51st occasions in his career. That is a phenomenal record by anyone's reckoning, and he looks likely to add another in-the-money this time out. The $1,000 rebuy currently has 144 of its 879 entrants remaining, and Humberto has round about the average stack of 47,000.

He and the 143 others are contesting a prize pool of $3,240,174, of which the winner will snaffle $693,392. With one eye on that prize, Humberto is beaming away, shark protector sitting prettily alongside his heaps of chips. It should be another few hours, at least, before it gets its flashing mouth anywhere near the middle of the table. And by then, it'll probably just be to chomp down all the cash.

It wasn’t easy at the time to judge whether reading a magazine article entitled “Five biggest ‘what if’s’ in poker” was good timing or bad timing for the player about to lose most of his stack to Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes. He was swinging back in his chair, wearing a pressed shirt and tie for the classic look, crossed with headphones and shades for the modern look. Now that it was crunch time he’d left the magazine for a second and pondered the call...

At the start of play in the re-buy event two rooms split the field. Of the two the Brazilian Room was the quieter but had urgency to it, thanks to the efforts of tournament staff of shepherding everyone across the hall and into the same tournament area.

The process was copied for everyone. Under the command of suited tournament officials see-thru bags were distributed to players - chaotic scenes which evidently were choreographed well as a seamless migration took place - instructions of “Don’t carry the bags yourself” and “don’t seal the bags” being good advice.

One player who’d just made this trip was the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson, now with flashes of the familiar logo on his chest and sleeve. I’ve watched William play countless tournaments and his demeanour is always the same - an expression towards his opponent that asks “why did you do that?” as if privately he’s in search of every poker answer there is.

I didn’t want to sweat William too long so moved around a little. But in the time it took for me to scout out the rest of the room William had gone. Busted. A disappointing first day results-wise but at least an easy one to blame on the wicked kind of east to west jetlag.

Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso arrived at her new table shortly afterward, hers being the latest to be airlifted into place along with a bag of chips worth 14k. I chatted with her at the break and she explained the frustrations of being out sick for a few days but is back ready to record a second cash of the Series. It’s shaping up nicely as far as re-buys are concerned...

“I had four re-buys... that’s good for me!” She said, evidently in the right kind of chipper mood that helps the fighting spirit to prosper. After all there's a prize pool in excess of $3,240,000 at stake.

Back to the “what ifs” though. Humberto got the call and showed a full house - aces over jacks - for a pot that takes him up to 20k. His opponent took it as well as he could, talking to himself - an internal monologue that may or may not have blocked the screaming noise inside his head - before he picked up his magazine. He tried reading but looked distracted, probably reading the same sentence again and again.

But for Humberto it’s a great start. No noise from him just a smile shared with team mate Noah Boeken sitting opposite.

“Humberto, if you bust out you can play the HORSE” Noah joked. “Give me your chips, you go play the HORSE.”

‘What if’, indeed.