One of the charming aspects of the World Series of Poker is that it is truly a world event. Players come from around the globe to take part in the tournament and one of those players, Brazil’s Luis Assuncao, was poised to make a move toward becoming the first Brazilian World Champion. He is known on PocketFives as eduardogarla and ultimately took 34th place in the 2014 WSOP Main Event for $230,000.

In 32nd place at the start of Day Six of the 2014 WSOP Main Event, Assuncao, under his official name of Luis Eduardo Assuncao Garla on the Hendon Mob database, had built up a nice resume over the previous year of play. His first tournament cash came at the 2013 Colombia National Poker Championship, a part of the Latin American Poker Tour, where he finished in 52nd place.

Things got a bit better for Assuncao during the Brazilian Series of Poker, where he made two final tables. Assuncao was also a part of the field that cashed in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2014 WSOP, where he finished in 67th place.

Assuncao somehow escaped the official WSOP standings through the first two days of the tournament, but on Day 3 he emerged as the 93rd place stack with 481,500 in chips. The Brazilian would move up the standings on Day 4, finishing the day off with 1.253 million in chips, and would more than double his stack in finishing Day 5 with a healthy 2.785 million in chips.

The history of Brazil pokerplayers is a small one. Andre aakkariAkkari, a WSOP bracelet winner in 2011, and Alexandre Allingomes Gomes, a WSOP bracelet winner in 2008, lead the brief list of Brazilians who have achieved poker’s most noteworthy achievement. If Assuncao were able to make the run to the World Championship at the WSOP, he would supplant them as Brazil’s greatest poker champion and perhaps begin a poker boom in that South American country.