Espinar of Spain Takes Poker Title

August 26, 2008

Jose Miguel Espinar of Spain grabbed the $241,735 first-place prize in the PokerStars.net Latin America Poker Tour Punte del Este Championship. Espinar beat out Alex Brenes in a head to head competition that left him the winner of the third and final lap of the LAPT inaugural year.

The final showdown was held in Punte del Este, Uruguay, and 350 players showed up to play the $2,500 buy in tournament on August 7th. There was a prize pool of more than $850,000m, and there were some big names rounding out the top 32 list.

Some of the big names were Humberto Brenes, Vanessa Rousso, Alexandre Gomes, and Gylbert Drolet. Espinar started his day by knocking out Paulo Cesar Ribeiro and Jose Perez. He then took down Sidney Chreem and Lisandro Gallo. Brenes was doing his own elimination at the same time, which is how he and Espinar ended up at the final together.

Espinar had a 4-3 chip lead entering the final showdown, and after a few hours of play Brenes ran his A-9 into A*10. It was pretty much over from there. Brenes came in second place with $127,675, Gallo took home $93,630; Gomes took $68,100, and Drolet rounded out the top five with $51,070.