Joao Correia won the third and last stage of the first season of PokerStars Portugal Poker Series, held in Espinho. He sailed through a field of 143 players to grab, after three days of play, the title and the trophy.

Correia never seemed a favourite through the three days of play until reaching the final table on Sunday, where he scored a massive double-up against Day 1 chip leader, Victor Moreira, when playing three-handed. From that moment on, he never looked back until he sealed the win with a huge hug to Victor who, he admitted, "was the worst nightmare all the final table long."

"It's cool to win. When did I think that I could win this? Well, I guess that it was in the exactly same moment that the other 142 players thought the same: at the start! Otherwise nobody would come to play," he said after beating Victor Moreira with Q-3 against Q-9, turning two pairs.

And after all was said and done, another winner emerged from the field. Carlos Branco final tabled this tournament and finished 8th to overpass former leader of the PPS Leaderboard, Henrique Custodio, finishing with 111 points and becoming the Player of the Series.

After three tournaments that awarded almost €300,000 in prize money, the first season of Portugal Poker Series has come to an end. Congratulations to all the winers!

The PokerStars Portugal Poker Series heads now to Espinho for the last tournament of the year of this brand new live circuit. After the two first stages held in Vilamoura and Figueira da Foz, the circuit visits the north of Portugal . You can qualify now to this €700 + €70 event through the satellites now available at PokerStars.

For a little as €1,10 or 100 Frequent Player Points (FPPs) you can work your way to the best Portuguese live circuit, just as did local man João Costa, winner of PPS Figueira da Foz, did for €24.640. Find the satellites under the tabs 'Events' > 'Special' at the PokerStars lobby and qualify now for the chance to win your share of what is expected to be the biggest prize pool of the year in Portugal.

Casino de Espinho is the mother home of Portuguese poker and thanks to its room with capacity for up to 300 players has held the biggest tournaments ever in Portugal. From 7th to 9th October, Salão Atlântico receives this 3-day tournament which will attract - besides many PokerStars qualifiers - the cream of Portuguese poker players, including the members of Team PokerStars Pro Nuno Coelho, Henrique Pinho and João Nunes.

You can find all details from this PokerStars circuit at the Portugal Poker Series page.

Law student João Costa has won the PokerStars Portugal Poker Series Figueira da Foz event, taking home €24,640. The 22-year-old topped a 132-player field that generated an €89,630 prizepool.

Costa, who is from Portugal, dominated the tournament from the first to the last hand. He was the Day 1A chip leader, the Day 2 chip leader and only lost his lead for a few moments on the final table. And while you may not think that is unusual, consider that this was his first attempt at a live tournament!

After starting the heads-up behind Henrique Custódio, Costa managed to recover ground and win when, after three shoves, Custódio had [ah][7h] against Costa's [6d][6c]. The board held the young man's pocket pair and Custódio finished runner-up for €15,700.

Visit the PokerStars Portugal Poker Series site to learn more about the tour and how you can qualify.

The final table of the PokerStars Portugal Poker Series Figueira da Foz is set, with João Costa leading the way with 579,000 chips. He was chip leader after Day 1A and rarely lost his place at the head of the field.

Costa took advantage of his substantial lead and two long bubble periods to put pressure on his opponents and extent his lead further. The money bubble lasted one hour and fifteen minutes - and the final table bubble lasted 15 minutes more than that!

In both of them, Costa worked his stack well and it was he who busted the money bubble boy, João Bartolo, when he made trip fives to bust pocket aces.

Team PokerStars Pro, João Nunes bust a few places short of the money in a three-way pot where his A-Q lost a race against pocket jacks, with the third player also holding A-Q.

Play resumes today at 3pm CET (2pm GMT) and will only finish when a new champion of this PokerStars circuit is crowned. This is how the final table will start:

Seat 1: Alexandrino Caldeira, 124,000
Seat 2: Luís Fernandes, 135,500
Seat 3: Henrique Custódio, 160,500
Seat 4: Luís Barbosa, 124,000
Seat 5: Miguel Pereira, 96,000
Seat 6: Pedro Reis, 477,500
Seat 7: João Costa, 579,000
Seat 8: Paulo Nunes, 287,000

For full details about the tour, please visit the PokerStars Portugal Poker Series website, and if you want to follow live coverage of this final table, visit our sister PokerStars Blog in Portugal.

Portuguese man Carlos Frazão is the chip leader after the end of Day 1B of the PokerStars Portugal Poker Series Figueira da Foz, bagging up 123,400 chips at the end of nine levels. Ayaz Manji is second, more than 25,000 chips behind.

Now 42 players come back for Day 2, with Day 1A leader João Costa top with 204,700 chips.

Among the survivors are Team PokerStars Pro João Nunes, who bagged 38,800 chips after a solid performance which included the elimination of EPT Vilamoura Season 6 winner, António Matias.

Fifteen players will make the money, with the winner getting €24,460 from the €89,630 prize pool created by 132 players.

Check out the Portugal Poker Series website to learn more about this new PokerStars circuit.

Portuguese player João Costa built a massive chip lead during Day 1A of PokerStars Portugal Poker Series Figueira da Foz. After nine 60- minute levels, Costa bagged 204,700 chips, putting himself as a huge favourite to win this second event of one of the newest PokerStars tours.

That stack is even more impressive when you consider that, one of 54 starters on Day 1A of this €700+€70 tournament, he began with 15,000 chips. When he returns on Sunday for Day 2, blinds will be 500-1,000 (100 ante), which means he has a bit more than 204 big blinds. In total he has more than 25% of the 810,000 chips in play today, and his closest challenger, Eduardo Ferreira, has 83,700 chips!

Day 1A saw the demise of two Portuguese Team PokerStars Pros. Henrique Pinho lost his last chips in the end of the penultimate level of the day, just a little bit after Nuno Coelho had pocket kings... twice! First he lost half of his stack pre-flop against A-K, then he found himself on the wrong side of a K-K vs. A-A cooler.

Satursay saw another Team PokerStars Pro in play. João Nunes plays, but after a special heads-up challenge against Paulo Futre, one of the best Portuguese footballers ever, whose popularity levels in Portugal are, nowadays, higher than ever.

If you want to practise your Portuguese, visit our fellow PokerStars PT Blog, where you'll find all details of this Day 1A on the Live Coverage. While you do that, check out the Portugal Poker Series official website to learn more about this tour.

Figueira da Foz is most known for its beach and for being the mouth of the biggest Portuguese river, the Mondego. But from this weekend on, it will be also known as the city where one of the biggest poker tournaments held in Portugal took place. The Portugal Poker Series Figueira starts on 10th June and there is much more too see than a regular poker tournament. Starting on a heads up match between a former Portuguese basketball star and a former Portuguese football star...

That's right! Before the Day 1B starts on Saturday, Portuguese Team PokerStars Pro João Nunes - who is also a former basketball professional player - will face Paulo Futre, one of the best Portuguese footballers ever, in a Texas Hold'em heads up match in Casino da Figueira. Futre confesses that "João Nunes is the #1, but in 1987, when I was in FC Porto, we also defeated the huge Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. So... Why not?"

Futre is confident for the challenge, as he always was throughout his life. On the Portuguese national team he played 41 matches and scored 6 goals, during a career that included superb performances in Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Olympique Marseille, Reggiana, AC Milan, West Ham and Yokohama Flugels. After 15 years, 320 matches and 79 goals, Futre retired from the pitches and is nowadays a successful businessman who participated in many PokerStars events in Spain. This will be his first appearance in a poker tournament in Portugal.

That's just one more condiment of a big event that will attract to Portugal many pros and several PokerStars players who qualified for this €700+€70 tournament through the PokerStars satellites. Besides João Nunes, the other Portuguese Team Pros, Nuno Coelho and Henrique Pinho will be in Figueira da Foz from 10th until 13th June to welcome the visitors, as well as Team PokerStars Online André Coimbra.

In the first event of this brand new PokerStars circuit, held in Vilamoura last April, José Passos received €27.262 for the first place after defeating a field of 146 players, including Team PokerStars SportStar Fátima Moreira de Melo.

Check out the Portugal Poker Series website for the complete schedule of this event and to know how to qualify for the next tournaments.