Roberto Bianchi, 42, works in a distributor of office supplies. He has played poker since he was 17 years old. He started off playing five-card draw in a friendly game and has worked his way up to LAPT stardom. He has won four major tournaments in Argentina and played four LAPT events including Costa Rica, Peru, Punta del Este, and Argentina. His best finish before the Grand Final was a 23rd place finish in Punta del Este.
William Ross, 26, is a PokerStars Supernova Elite. He is on track to earn 1.25 million VIP Player Points this year. When he isn't final tabling LAPT events, he grinds 20 tables of cash games or SNGs. Most of his success has come online, but he does have EPT Grand Final experience in Monte Carlo. Ross bought in to the LAPT event with his Frequent Player Points, had never been to South America and thought this would be a good opportunity to make the trip. Turns out, he was right.
Ivan Saul, 35, is a businessman. He's been playing poker for around five years and focuses most of his efforts on cash games. He has two WSOP cashes and a fouth place finish at LAPT Punta del Este.
Nico Fierro spent many an hour of the Grand Final as chip leader. Known as PKaiser on PokerStars, Fierro won the Super Tuesday event for $76,000 last spring. One of Chile's best-known online players, Fierro is a soft-spoken player who has proven his ability to weather the swings of live tournament play.
Matthias Habernig is 19 and from Klagenfurt in Austria. He is looking for back-to-back championships on the LAPT after winning the event in Florianopolis, Brazil last month. Having played online since he was 18, before his LAPT win, his career highlights include an $11 re-buy win on PokerStars and cashing in a $1,000 side event at LAPT Lima.
Martin Sansour hails from Peru and has already gotten close to an LAPT final table before. He placed 13th at the event in Punta del Este earlier this year. His final table here at the Grand Final will mark the biggest live cash of his poker career.
Bolivar Palacios, born and still living in Santiago de Veraguas, Panamá was an industrial engineer for five months until he received a check for $300 and deposited it online. Since that deposit, he has cashed for $350,000 in lifetime winnings online. Now a professional poker player for a year, he has two final tables under his belt. He took seventh place in the LAPT Mexico event and played another in Season 2 in Punta del Este. He think he is a better online tourney player than live tournament player, but he seems to be proving his theory wrong so far this week. He is a member of the "rat pack of Panama" along with his best friends, Jose Severino, Victor Lemos and Jose Miguel de la Guardia.
Daniel Ades, 62, is a man who has made his money in textiles. The Argentinian only started playing serious poker when in his late 50s. With five years of poker experience, he focuses his efforts in no-limit hold'em tournaments.
For the past few days the LAPT Season 3 Grand Final has been played at the City Center Casino in Rosario, Argentina. Today all of that action will climax with the crowing of a champion. Yesterday it took only five hours to reduce the field from 24 players down to the final eight. Among them are the Chilean, Nicolas Alberto Fierro Gottner, who managed to ride his massive Day 1 chip lead all the way to the final table; the chip leader and Argentinean, Roberto Bianchi, who has home field advantage on his side; and Matthias Habernig, the winner of the LAPT-Florianopolis event just one month ago. If Habernig manages to win today, he will equal Jose "Nacho" Barbero’s achievement of winning back-to-back LAPT tournament (Barbero did it this season at the Punta del Este and Lima stops).
If yesterday was any indication, the action will be fast and furious; in fact, the entire tournament has been characterized by unadulterated aggression. Without further adieu, here is an in-depth look at the final table:
Seat 1: Roberto Bianchi (Argentina) - 1,242,000
Seat 2: William Ross (USA) - 352,000
Seat 3: Ivan Saul (Argentina) - 179,000
Seat 4: Nicolas Alberto Fierro Gottner (Chile) - 406,000
Seat 5: Matthias Habernig (Austria) - 465,000
Seat 6: Martin Sansour (Peru) - 952,000
Seat 7: Bolivar Palacios (Panama) - 1,006,000
Seat 8: Daniel Ades (Argentina) - 514,000
Action is set to begin at 12:00 ARG when we will play to crown the Season Three LAPT Grand Champion. PokerNews will bring you all the action, LIVE, so stay tuned.
