Late last night, the Venezuelan poker team defeated Team Brazil in the finals of the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker. Led by the well-known captain Jesus Bertoli, Guillermo Alfonzo Arjona Torres, David Moncada, Orlando Álvarez, and Carlos Luis Pernia won a team prize of $32,500 for their efforts.

This was the fourth year for the Americas Cup. After a series of online competitions on PokerStars, six countries advanced to the live finals here in Panama to compete for the $100,000 in prize money. The two day battle pitted the countries against each other in a series of six-max and heads-up games. In the end, Brazil put up a strong fight, but Venezuela emerged with the victory.

Here are the final results for the 2012 Americas Cup of Poker. Congratulations to Team Venezuela.

2012 Americas Cup of Poker final results

1st place: Venezuela ($32,500 -- $6,500 per player)
2nd place: Brasil ($25,000 -- $5,000 per player)
3rd place: Chile ($17,500 -- $3,500 per player)
4th place Peru ($12,500 -- $2,500 per player)
5th place: Mexico ($7,500 -- $1,500 per player)
6th place: Colombia ($5,000 -- $1,000 per player)

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

What I didn't know at the time was that Mehrassa was not only set to play the LAPT Punta del Este main event, but he was also in Punta to play for Team Canada in the Americas Cup of Poker. What neither of us knew at the time was that Mehrassa would be among the players who pushed Canada to its second straight Americas Cup win.

"When we raise our kids in Canada, the first thing we teach them is poker," Mehrass joked.

Led by Canadian Team PokerStars Pro Greg DeBora, the Canadian team (DeBora, Mehrassa, Robert Van Thuyl, Henry Wong, and Jason Collins) skunked Team Mexico in the finals to earn the repeat victory and $25,000 in prize money.

"You're part of a team and you're representing your country. Everybody played hard and did well. Once again, Team Canada came through." DeBora said.

Seven teams from North, South and Central America battled for two days at the Mantra Resort, Spa and Casino. Here are the final results.

AMERICAS CUP OF POKER FINAL RESULTS

1st: Canada ($25,000)
2nd: Mexico ($20,000)
3rd: Venezuela ($15,000)
4th: Brazil ($12,000)
5th: Argentina ($10,000)
6th: Rest of Latam ($8,000)
7th: Colombia ($5,000)

While Newman was commenting on the jingoistic atmosphere of the times, he might well have been predicting the advent of the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker (well, maybe not, not, but it's close!). In any case, the Americas Cup is back, and it will pit countries from around the Americas (yes, all of them) against each other for the title.

From March 15-April 14 players from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Argentina will be battling for spots on their country's team. There will also be a tenth team made up of the remaining Latin American counties.

In all, the players from the ten teams will compete in a series of points tournaments. The four players who accumulate the most points will represent their country at the live final--if their team makes it there.

When all the matches are complete, the six countries with the most wins will automatically qualify for the live final. The remaining four teams will then play off for the final two positions.

Then in May, the eight teams will travel to Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. There they will compete for a share of $150,000 and the Americas Cup title.

Even if you don't want to spend the pennies it costs to get involved, tickets to the $0.11 tournaments are available in free SNGS that are running all the time in the Tourney-Regional section of the PokerStars lobby.

For a full schedule and more information, visit the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker homepage.

Good luck!

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