Ronaldo Joins PokerStars; WSOP APAC Latest; WPT Barcelona Begins

Football Star Ronaldo Joins PokerStars

One of the world’s greatest ever footballers, Ronaldo, has just been announced as PokerStars’ newest ambassador.

Representing Latin America’s poker community, the Brazilian will take part in various media campaigns, as well as play in events across the world.

The news first hit the forums last night after a tweet from Ronaldo hinted that he was moving into the poker world.

Soon after the tweet, PokerStars confirmed the rumours with a press release on their Brazilian blog. Commenting on the signing, PokerStars Latin America Director, Jose del Pino, said:

“Ronaldo symbolizes the values ​​we seek in poker: genius, talent, dedication and fibre. Having Ronaldo as brand ambassador is great and we’re looking forward to helping him improve his gaming skills.”

Ronaldo has made a number of appearances at various poker tournaments in Brazil, recently, lining up alongside the likes of Felipe Ramos and Andre Akkari.

WSOP APAC Event 1 Latest

The action has been coming thick and fast from WSOP APAC in the last 24 hours with the conclusion of Day 1A being met with another bumper field on Day 1B.

Indeed, after welcoming 329 during the first session of Event 1, the organisers collected another 337 entry fees earlier today.

Throughout the session a number of players returned to the felt with the aim of either righting the wrongs they suffered on Day 1A or bolstering their stacks even further ahead of Day 2.

There’s no doubt that the Accumulator format has proved popular with pros and at the conclusion of yesterday’s session it was French pro Antoine Saout who bagged the most chips.

On a day that saw almost 300 players hit the rail, Saout scooped 58,875 chips to finish ahead of such luminaries as: Melanie Weisner (36,600), Jeremy Ausmus (14,950) and Russell Thomas (9,500).

Stars Align for WPT Barcelona

While chips riffled on the other side of the world in Australia, a host of players were busy taking their seats for the opening day of WPT Barcelona.

Taking place inside the Casino Barcelona, the €3,500 Main Event has already welcomed the likes of Kevin MacPhee, Adam Levy, Guillaume Darcourt and former WPT World Champion, Faraz Jaka.

At the time of writing 76 players had taken to the felt, but as the day continues that figure is expected to increase.

Indeed, with re-entry available for those who lose their stack on Day 1, the prizepool should breach the €500,000 mark by the time registration closes on Day 2.

For live updates from Barcelona, click here.