It looks like we'll have a brand new champion this year at LAPT Punta del Este.
We've been scouring the field for the first two winners of this event, Jose Miguel Espinar (Season 1) and Karl Hevroy (Season 2). It appears that neither of them have made the trip back to Uruguay this time around, so we'll be crowining a new winner come Saturday.
We'll be playing eight one-hour levels today on Day 1. There will be no dinner break, and we'll be stopping for a 15-minute break every two levels. That should mean the lights go out at about 9:15pm this evening, and we expect the field to have well under 150 runners remaining by that time.
Juan Jose Perez was all in for his final 2,675 on a flop of . He was finally called by his heads-up opponent, and the cards were on their backs.
The caller showed up for top pair, and Perez was looking to get there with . The turn wasn't a flush card, but the added a few more outs for the at-risk Perez. The river was a blank though, the , and that's the end of his day.
Juan Jose Perez made the final table of LAPT Punta del Este in Season 1, but there will be no repeat performance here this week.
The official number of runners for the third annual LAPT Punta del Este is 307. Of that total, 279 still remain in play. We'll post the prize pool as soon as it's made available.
Six players saw a flop of . Two players checked to Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck and she bet 1,500. Just two others came along to see the turn card. They all opted to check, landing the on the river.
The first opponent to act bet 1,500 and Maridu popped it to 4,200. The second opponent folded, putting the action back on the first opponent. Loudly, he announced call.
Maridu tabled for a straight and after a few seconds and looking over the table at Maridu's cards, her opponent slammed over his hand - for a full house. Maridu, a bit confused by the slowroll, laughed it off.
A player in middle position opened to 700, and Rodrigo Seiji three-bet to 2,300. In the small blind, Reggie Lyons came over the top with a four-bet to 7,200, enough to quickly fold the initial raiser. Seiji wasn't going anywhere though. He eyed up his stack for about a minute before moving all in for about 18,000 on top. Lyons nodded and called, the two men just about even in chips.
Showdown
Seiji:
Lyond:
Chuckles all around. The board wouldn't provide any freeroll nonsense as it came out . Both men will chop the chump change in the middle of the table, and it's on to the next shuffle.
Mike Brunner was the preflop aggressor for this hand, and he found calling action from an unknown player in the big blind. (We hope to have a full player list soon so we can dispatch with the "unknown player" moniker. In any event, it's all we got for now.)
The two men watched the flop come down . Brunner continued out with a bet of 800, which his opponent check-called.
The turn was the , and it drew another check from Mr. Big Blind. When Brunner fired another 1,600, though, he snuck in a check-raise to 5,000 straight. Brunner's cards quickly hit the muck, dropping him back to about 22,000.
The big board in the corner of the room shows that approximately 311 players have entered this iteration of the LAPT Punta del Este.
Registration has closed following the break, so nobody else will be allowed to join the party from here on out. We're just waiting for the staff to finalize the entries before we have the official total, but 311 is going to be awfully close.
It should be noted that the field size is down a bit from the previous two seasons. The staff seems content with the turnout, though, blaming the slight dropoff on the Americans. It's not all our fault, though. PokerStars themselves may have stolen a couple dozen entries by scheduling the NAPT Venetian against this event. Nobody's complaining, though, and the 300+ runners will still generate a handsome prize pool.
We'll get you the full official numbers as soon as they're in.