Congratulations to Alex Komaromi, 2011 LAPT Punta del Este Main Event Champion ($244,720)!
After a swift four-and-a-half hours of final table action, we have a winner here at LAPT Punta del Este. Alex Komaromi, the lone Uruguayan to make the final table, has sealed it for the home country. With the victory, he is also the first Uruguayan to win a Latin American Poker Tour title.
The final table started smoothly for Komaromi as he stayed out of the way, letting second-in-chips Engelberth Varela take care of the first two players to fall, Rafael Monteiro and Fernando Arauja. With six players remaining, Komaromi began to run away with it. It started with eliminating Nelson Trad Neto in sixth place.
With 
, Neto was racing against Komaromi's 
. The board ran out 
, giving Komaromi a turned set of eights to score the elimination. About ten minutes later, Komaromi's 
held against Felipe Pasini's 
to leave only four players to vie for the title. Carlos Watanabe, who at no point had more than fifteen big blinds, bowed out in fourth place to Varela.
With three players left, Varela fell to Komaromi after calling all in on the river of a 
board with 
. Komaromi had him out-kicked with 
to take more than a 9:1 chip lead into heads-up play. It was then when things got bumpy for the the Uruguayan. Claudio Piedrabuena proved to be a formidable opponent as two double ups later, it was the Argentinian with the chip lead.
The next hand, though, Komaromi took the lead back. With 
, he doubled against when a king hit the flop to retake the big chip lead. It ended shortly thereafter at the 30,000/60,000/10,000 level. Komaromi opened to 150,000 on the button and Piedrabuena defended his big blind, landing a 
flop to the middle of the felt. Both checked, leading to the 
turn. A check from Piedrabuena resulted in a bet of 225,000 from Komaromi. An all-in raise for about 1.3 million was Piedrabuena's last move of the tournament as Komaromi snap-called with 
. Piedrabuena had outs with 
, but the 
was as harmless as can be for Komaromi.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Komaromi | Uruguay | $244,720 |
| 2 | Claudio Piedrabuena | Argentina | $141,220 |
| 3 | Engelberth Varela (PokerStars Qualifier) | Venezuela | $88,970 |
| 4 | Carlos Watanabe (PokerStars Player) | Peru | $65,430 |
| 5 | Felipe Pasini (PokerStars Qualifier) | Brazil | $46,600 |
| 6 | Nelson Trad Neto | Brazil | $37,190 |
| 7 | Fernando Araujo (PokerStars Qualifier) | Brazil | $27,770 |
| 8 | Rafael Monteiro (PokerStars Player) | Brazil | $18,360 |
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the Main Event here at the 2011 PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este. Congratulations to Alex Komaromi for an outstanding performance. Until next time, good night from Uruguay!