Chess > Backgammon > Poker | 2009 PokerStars.net LAPT Mar del Plata

Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez from Argentina began playing chess when he was five years old. By the age of 18, he became an International Chess Master. Looking for a change of pace, he turned his sights onto backgammon and quickly mastered that game. At one point he was ranked as one of the top 10 backgammon players in the world. It was inevitable that Leo would find himself playing poker. He quickly picked up the game and competed in tournaments all over the world.

The former chess and backgammon whiz has been a regular on the PokerStars.net LAPT. His most impressive feat included a 247th-place finish (out of 6,844 runners) at the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

In the opening level of Day 1b, Fernandez took a massive hit and lost over 90 percent of his stack. He welcomed the challenge and slowly built his 1,100 stack up to almost 7,000. Most players would have thrown away the rest of his stack, but he battled back to stay alive. He faded almost one-third of today's field with a shortest of short stacks.

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