Ramos Remains Steady, Social Media Buzzing for Brazil

For poker players and fans, the World Series of Poker Main Event is the biggest event of the year. While thousands competed in this year’s Main Event, the third-biggest of all-time, countless others are following on PokerGO, ESPN and other outlets throughout the seven-day marathon. For some players, making the money in the Main Event officially makes it real but many veteran professionals, Felipe Ramos included, know there is a lot of work to be done.

“Zero emotions, so far, zero.” Ramos said when asked if the excitement starts to rise at this stage of the Main Event. “I’m trying to play the best I can and so far, it is working out. That’s what I’m going to do until the end.”

So far, Ramos is doing the best he can despite some tough table draws. His Day 3 draw included Dario Sammartino, who has had a career-best year at the WSOP, bracelet winner Michael Tureniec and experienced professionals Ty Reiman and Sergio Castellucio. Through over five levels of play last night, that stacked lineup only lost one player, so there weren’t many chips to go around.

Today, Ramos has been given some more room to breathe with a slightly easier table draw but even though the excitement hasn’t taken hold of him yet, he realizes how important the Main Event compared to other events at the World Series.

“Contrary to what I said earlier, for me, even though I have that mentality, the Main Event is the most important tournament.” Ramos said, before adding, “Even though I play One Drop, the $50K and the $25K , the Main Event is above all those events.”

Fans in Ramos’ native Brazil are certainly feeling the Main Event energy as well and the Team PokerStars Pro has been flooded with messages of support over the last few days.

“It is still early on Day 4 but close to the bubble, they were following on Instagram, checking the stories. They were going wild, like it was the final table already.” Ramos said, when asked what the Main Event means to poker players in Brazil. “We have big hopes to get a couple of Brazilians there and because I’m an optimistic person, hopefully me too.”

It has been a few years since Brazil burst onto the WSOP Main Event feature table but after seeing the excitement for Bruno Politano, when he notched an 8th place finish in 2014, if Ramos is able to get there, there will be plenty of emotion and plenty of support from his virtual rail.