Brazilian Players March to the partypoker Samba Beat in POWERFEST

The last time Brazil had cause to celebrate so much was probably when they won the 2002 soccer World Cup, but the first week of partypoker’s POWERFEST has had their poker players and fans doing samba’s in the lobby, with 40 victories landing them on top of the world leaderboard in the $60million festival!

According to the partypoker blog, ‘the South Americans lead the pack in terms of cashes, final tables reached and events won, having reached the money 6,962 times and final-tabled on 226 occasions’. The conversion rate is pretty impressive too - some 17.7% of those final table appearances resulting in victory for the green and yellow brigade.

Interestingly, the 40 wins have been by 40 different players, and the total crosses three POWERFEST buy-in levels almost equally - Low events (12 wins), Medium events (9) and Micro events (11) – and four apiece at the higher stakes - resulting in a total of $393,276.39 heading to Brazilian shores.

The UK, Russia and Germany seem to be the biggest rivals to Brazilian dominance, the UK’s ‘Paul_Folders’ managing 3 wins in the first week to boost a British tally that includes a phenomenal 28 wins in the Super High Rollers, the micros and low being the stronghold of the Russians overall.

The Brazilian love of the game has taken off in recent years, partypoker signing up Joao Simao to boost their presence in South America’s biggest market – the plan paying off in spades it seems, Simao regularly to the fore in the POWERFEST and pretty much everywhere else he plays…with close to $10million between his online and live earnings…

With almost two more weeks of POWERFEST action still to come, it will be a battle royale to see if the Brazilians can hold on to their lead, and Simao will surely be leading the samba from the front.