After an exciting first day of play at the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour in Florianopolis, it is the online qualifiers who have entered the stage.

The third season of the LAPT has reached the former royal Portuguese retreat of Florianopolis, Brazil, where 356 hopeful players had found their way into this fourth leg of the increasingly popular Latin American circuit.

Day one saw some intense play at the tables with the 19-year old Austrian Matthias Habernig taking an early lead after a day where everything seemed to go just right.

"I was on a really good run. I had set over set for a 60k pot. Ace-king versus ace-queen, then kings versus queens. So I was really lucky. I started very aggressive but I didn't need it! In the end I lost some chips but I sucked out on the last hand. A very good day" the Austrian summed up after his first day of play.

There is no Day 1b at the LAPT Florianopolis and instead the players gathered around the tables this morning, local time, to head straight for Day 2.

A total of 187 players made it through to the second round, and after a few hours play yesterday's chipleader had to see himself overrun by a scorching Joshua Alexander Neufeld. The American now has a massive chiplead with 370,000 compared with Habernig in second place with 130,000. Local boy David Bortnik is currently third with 108,000.

All three leading players have qualified for the event via online satellites, and in general LAPT Florianopolis seems to have favoured the underdogs - only four in the current top-ten have made the direct buy-in of $2,500 and among these the big names are largely absent. WSOP Main Event-winner Joe Cada was in the initial line-up, but a fatal run-in with QQ against KK put an early end to the young champion’s Latin American dreams already on Day 1.

LAPT Florianopolis will continue until Sunday with the conclusion of the Final Table. First prize is R$435,000 - roughly $250,000.