Eric Brenes has been eliminated and his son Eric Jr. departed shortly thereafter, leaving us with three Breneses among the 143 remaining players. It was only a matter of time before two of them ended up at the same table. Sure enough, Roberto Brenes ended up moving to the two seat at the same table where his uncle Alex was seated in seat seven.

It was time for some Brenes-on-Brenes violence. And the Breneses like to play each other. Hard. Just ask Roberto, who just told us the story of how his older brother busted Alex out of a Season 1 even on the LAPT with a full house over full house. Their family home game (yes, they have one!) has to be one of the world's toughest.

With the board reading [Ks][As][Th][4d][3s] on the river, Alex checked to Roberto, who carefully counted out a 7,000 bet. Alex looked at the pot, at his nephew, and back at his cards. With the number of chips in the middle, it could have been a value bet, it could have been a bluff. Alex was genuinely puzzled. And after several minutes in the tank, he mucked his hand.

Roberto flashed the [9s][Ts] for a flush as the dealer pushed him the pot. Uncle Alex smiled and nodded, mumbling a bit in Spanish to the player on his left. The hand put uncle and nephew nearly even in chips, Roberto holding 32,500 to Alex's 30,000.

Across the room, Humberto wasn't looking nearly as exuberant as his usual self. Folding hands all day can do that. However, once his wife and daughter arrived to check on his progress, Humberto noticeably perked up. Once up to 40,000, then hovering around his starting stack for several hours, he's now on 37,500 in chips, good for the Brenes family chip lead.

Earlier today, we were remarking on how nice it would be to be Icelander Daniel Mar Palsson. That guy came down here from Iceland and spent the first few levels quintupling his stack. Since then, the ice has melted a bit and he's back down below 100,000. And so we posit that it may be better to be Tyler Netter.

If you don't know Netter (that's tnetter on PokerStars), you probably don't ever play tournaments online. The kid puts in some volume. Just counting his online cashes in November, we saw more than 30 in-the-money finishes in the last 19 days. That includes two fist place finishes in the high four figures and a massive fifth place finish in the Sunday Million for $63,000.

Now, he has spent most of Day 1 quietly eviscerating his opponents and at this hour sits on 130,000 from the starting 20,000 stack.

Netter, apparently is the real deal. That's how he ended up representing his country in poker's biggest national battle. A couple of years back, Netter represented Team USA in the World Cup of Poker. And, as expected, he and his team won.

Now he's on the LAPT and working on a title here. If the way he's been running in November is any indication, we might be using the old "better to be Netter" line more than a few times.

The LAPT fields are still what we like to call "manageable." With 259 players in the field, it's easy to see a lot of familiar faces. What makes them all the more familiar is the fact we have seen a number of today's players on the final table of other LAPT events.

Perhaps the most recognizable of the players in the field is local favorite Alex Brenes. His record on the LAPT, at least in terms of final tables, is unmatched. In the first two seasons of the LAPT, Brenes has made two final tables. Both happened in season 1 when he took fourth in the now-defunct event in Rio and then placed runner-up in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Those two cashes earned him around $200,000.

The same year Brenes made the final table in Punta, he was up against now-Team PokerStars Pro Alex Gomes. The Brazilian placed fourth that year for a $68,000 win. Since then, he's signed on with Team Pro and won big just about everywhere he's been.

The only LAPT champion in today's field is Fabian Ortiz. In the Season 2 event in Vina del Mar Chile, Ortiz came back from a single small blind at the final table to win the entire thing for more than $141,000.

We also have the possibility of some final table rematches. The starting field today included players who have met before on previous final tables. Last year in Costa Rica, Brent Sheirbon and Jesus Bertoli placed third and fourth respectively. A few months later in Punta del Este, Mexico's Angel Guillen took third and Bolivar Palacios placed seventh. Finally, at the season 2 grand final in Argentina, we saw Leo Fernandez (6th), Derek Lerner (7th), and Jose Barbero (9th).

Finally, we can't let this list of notables end without mentioning the man with the most creative hair stylist among LAPT final table players. That, of course, is Steven Thompson who made the final table of the Costa Rican event in season 2.

Who's to say we won't see these guys meet again at a final table. After all, they've been there before.

With the early exits of Maria Stern and former Costa Rican first lady Doris Yankelwitz, five women remain among the 171 players still in contention for the LAPT Playa Conchal title. Two of those five are South American-based Team PokerStars Pros and one is 3,000 miles from home, exchanging the sunny shores of Southern California for the tropical paradise of Guanacaste.

PokerStars player Shirley Rosario is no stranger to the LAPT. She made the trek to Costa Rica last season and was positioning herself for a deep run in Vina del Mar, Chile when her pocket queens were cruelly cracked by A-7. Rosario got off to a rough start this afternoon, losing about half her stack when she flopped top two pair, only to have her opponent catch a straight on the river. However, she was a able to climb back up to 17,000 after doubling through the player on her right, serial qualifier Aaron Lerner. Since then, she's been steadily building her stack and is presently up to 26,000.

Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck is experiencing an up-and-down day. Her pocket queens were cracked early on by a short-stacked player who pushed in with pocket eights and flopped a set. Then, with her stack whittled down to under 10,000, she moved in on a 4-4-3-9 board and got her opponent to fold, taking her chip count back into safe territory with 18,000.

A short time ago, Maridu was sitting in the big blind when she faced an opening raise from a middle position player. With the action folded around to her, she made the call, drawing a strange look from her opponent.

"I'm only calling! What, you just want the blinds and antes every time?" she laughed.

An [As][Qd][Tc] flop fell. Maridu checked to her opponent, who put out a continuation bet.

"No thank you," she said, opening up pocket fours and pushing them toward the muck. Her opponent showed [Kh][Jd], having flopped the nut straight. She can dodge bullets, baby.

Veronica Dabul's PokerStars screen name is "Princesa" and it's easy to see why. The perpetually tan Argentine beauty is always one of the most fashion-forward players in the room and today she is sporting some animal-print sandals that could drive this writer to thievery. Although Dabul took some hits early on, she's back up to 19,300 and cheerfully bantering with her tablemates.

As Level 6 draws to a close, 171 of our 259 runners are still alive and kicking and after two more levels of play, the survivors can bag up their chips and head to the bar.