Leo Fernandez

Leo Fernandez

Leo Fernandez was Argentina’s first member of Team PokerStars Pro, and a look into his background reveals a player well equipped to make his name of the world poker scene. He began playing chess at the tender age of five, and this early start paid dividends when he was awarded the rating of International Master from the World Chess Federation at 18 years of age. At that time he also began playing backgammon and poker. In 1992 he ranked in the top 10 players in the world for backgammon and competed professionally, but it was poker that really caught his interest, and he now travels the world playing the game he loves. Despite his obvious talent for backgammon, Leo cites the combination of applied math, psychology, and the art of reading body language as the reason he focuses on poker.

The World Poker Tour provided Leo with his first taste of big money tournament success, when he finished 67th for $30,000 at the Five Star World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Around the same time he also had two big tourney wins in South American live tournaments, which added more than $175,000 to his bankroll. The World Series of Poker* has been a good event for Leo, with three cashes in his career so far. His run began in 2007 with an 18th place in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for $28,040. He followed that up in 2008 with two further cashes, 13th in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event, before a top 300 finish in the $10,000 Main Event for $35,383. Next up was a cash at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas, and he followed that up with a final table appearance and sixth place finish for $63,250 on home soil at the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final in Mar del Plata. The biggest cash of his career so far came in January 2011 at the PCA, where Leo finished 2nd in the $25,000 High Roller event for $554,924. Leo also finally won the major title he’d been aiming for in 2012, when he won the LAPT Panama Main Event for prize money of $171,930.

When he’s not playing poker, Leo is big fan of the arts and music, and if the excitement of live tournament poker wasn’t enough, he also likes taking part in extreme sports. Leo is mighty proud to be the first Argentinean member of Team PokerStars Pro, and he plays online as ‘LeoFernandez’.

Career Highlights