Player Wins Latin America Poker Tour

A 27-year-old Spaniard, Jose Miguel Espinar, has won the PokerStars.net Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT). Espinar defeated 350 other players to take home the title including Costa Rican poker star Alex Brenes heads-up to take. Espinar took home the $241,735 top prize while Brenes walked away with $126,625.

Espinar, a former central heating salesman, has had a brilliant start to his poker career after he won $24,000 at the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure only one month after he began playing. He reached the final table on Sunday after he beat Team PokerStars.net professional player Vanessa Rousso who finished in tenth place. Espinar said, “I was lucky at the beginning but the five hours’ heads-up match against Alex was tough.”

The critical time in the match for the winner came when he went all-in with ace-ten but Brenes called with ace-nine and a nine on the flop looked good enough to oust the Spaniard. However, a ten on the turn put Espinar ahead and Brenes was left with only 40,000 before going out at the next hand.

The sponsors of the tournament revealed that nearly a third of the players at the tournament were from Brazil with more than 60 from the Unites States, largely represented by online qualifiers. Twenty-seven players from Uruguay also took part in the $2,500 buy-in No Limit Texas hold ’em tournament, which was held at the Manta Resort Hotel in La Barra just outside the centre of Punta Del Este.