To be fair, the USA is where poker rose to popularity, but these days the game belongs to the world. Still, PokerStars saw fit to hold a competition to see which country in the Americas--that's North, South, and everything in between--could claim poker as their own.

Tonight, that honor goes to Brazil.

PokerStars took its newest creation, the Americas Cup of Poker, about as far south as it could. Bariloche, Argentina played home to the competition over the last few days. The semi-finals saw the final four teams head into competition to fight for the $100,000 first prize.

In the first matchup, Team Canada faced Team Argentina in a series of six heads-up matches. The result? A tie. To determine a winner, the two team captains faced off in a two-hour marathon that ended in spectacular fashion.

Argentina's Leo Fernandez raised from the small blind to 1,100 and Canada's Darus Suharto re-raised to 2,700. Fernandez tanked for a moment before pushing the rest of his chips into the middle.

Fernandez: [As][4s]
Suharto: [Qd][Qh]

The flop ran out [Th][6d][9s]. Suharto remained in the lead, and looked good for the win after the [2d] fell on the turn. Then...the river...the [Ac]. The ballroom exploded and Argentina moved on to the finals.

The fight between Costa Rica and Brazil went much the same way. The heads-up matches ended in a tie and forced team captains Humberto Brenes and Alex Gomes to battle head to head. That match ended after an hour when Gomes made two pair to Brenes' turned top pair.

It was as if fate willed the match up. Saturday will see the two rival countries Brazil and Argentina face off on the pitch. The Americas Cup of Poker would see the same battle.

It would end in fairly unspectacular fashion, however. In the end, Argentina's Leo Fernandez couldn't make ace-nine hold up against Brazil's K-8 and Brazil walked away with the the Americas Cup title.

Congrats to our friends from Brazil on once again proving their place in the poker world.

It started yesterday with the easy stuff. PokerStars Team Pros met their teammates for a drink and a trip up the mountain to ski at one of South Americas best resorts, Cerro Catedral.

After that, it was on to the poker. Here's how it worked:

The tournament started with six sit and gos of eight randomly seated players. The players accumulated points according to how they finished. The top three teams earned an automatic bid to the semifinals. The fourth and fifth place teams had a playoff to earn the fourth seat.

In all, the players were fighting for the following prizes.

1. $100,000
2. $60,000 .
3. $30,000
4. $20,000
5. $10,000
6. $10,000
7. $10,000
8. $10,000

Dennis Phillips was the first captain to be eliminated. His A-Q didn't beat his Mexican opponent's [Ac][5c]. With a club on the river for a flush,"Ratero1" eliminated the American captain and Mexico was looking strong.

Argentinian Team Pro Leo Fernandez and Costa Rican Team Pro Humberto Brenes took their jobs very seriously. They ended up winning their tournaments, giving Argentina a chance to compete in the play-off and pushing Costa Rica into second place.

Meanwhile, Canada's Darus Suharto helped his team to a fist place finish in the first round.

At the end of the first round of play, here's how the teams stacked up.

Canada - 37
Costa Rica - 34
Brasil - 31
Chile - 27
Argentina - 26
México - 24
Colombia - 18
USA - 19

In the playoffs, Argentina managed to beat Chile after Leo Fernandez and Gaston Catzman won their heads up matches.

Action continues today in Bariloche. Check back tomorrow to see how the teams fared.

Photo Credit: Carlos Monty and Reinaldo Venegas

As you've likely heard, the Americas Cup is pitting people from all over North and South America against each other in a battle for bragging rights and big money at the end of the world. At stake, a chance at the live final in the Patagonia region of Argentina and a heck of a ski trip in September.

After one round of play, several of the divisions have seen serious blow outs. In Group A, the United States and Mexico have crushed Equador and preliminary qualifier Guatemala 8-0 in early action. Canada and Colombia have done the same thing to Uruguay and Panama in Group B. In Group D, Argentina (host of the live final) and Brazil skunked Paraguay and Honduras.

It's only in Group C where things have stayed exceptionally tight. All four countries are still well within reach of making live final. As of right now, here's how the teams win/loss records look.

Costa Rica (6 - 2)
Chile (4 - 4)
Venezuela (4 - 4)
Peru (2 - 6)

The top two teams in each group will be headed to the live final. This week, PokerStars announced that all teams that finish in third place will get a chance to play for the $10,000 ninth place playoff. That means that even those teams that didn't fare well in the early going still have a reason to fight.

To see the full results so far, check out the Americas Cup results page.

Today, countries from all over the Americas started fighting for their rightful spot at the final fight in Argentina. The Americas Cup is going to put online qualifiers together with Team PokerStars Pro for a live poker event like you've never seen before. On the line is national pride for 13 different countries and no small amount of money...$250,000 to be exact.

As if that wasn't enough, people who make it to the live final get a chance to take one heckuva a ski vacation at the end of August and beginning of September. Seriously...there aren't a lot of things that you're going to do in the next two months you're going to enjoy more.

Qualifiers are running now on PokerStars. If you'd like to see all the rules, see how you can get on a team, and see how the Americas Cup works, we suggest you head on over to the PokerStars Americas Cup home page.

In the meantime, we're going to be fantasizing about a juicy steak and fresh powder.

Photo by Luca Galuzzi