Poker news

18-year old PokerStars qualifier Dominik Nitsche from Minden in Germany has won the LAPT Grand final in Mar del Plata, the richest LAPT in history. Dominik dominated the final table which also featured two local members of Team PokerStars Argentina; Pro Leo Fernandez and Jose Ignacio Barberra.

After less than 4 hours of final table play, Dominik fought himself heads up with a two to one chip lead against Mexican player Jorge Landazuri. Jorge, who qualified for the event free on PokerStars.net, had a huge number of Mexican supporters in the crowd, all chanting and hoping to see Mexico win back to back PokerStars main events following Mexican Team PokerStars Pro J.C Alvarado’s win of the PokerStars SCOOP main event the week before.

However it was not to be. Once the cards were in the air, the heads up battle lasted only one hand with Jorge underestimating Dominik’s hand strength and bluffing all-in against a set of Kings.

The four day poker festival was held in the Casino Central, in the beautiful seaside city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. 291 players entered the USD $5000 200 main event, including Team PokerStars pros Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Andre Akkari, Alex Gomez, Humberto Brenes, Leo Fernandez, Maridu Mayrinck and J.C Alvarado as well as tennis legend and PokerStars Ambassador Boris Becker.

This event was the last in season two of the PokerStars.net LAPT which also made stops in San Jose, Costa Rica, Vina del Mar, Chile and Punta del Este in Uruguay. The shows from these events have already started airing at prime time on all Latin American ESPN channels.

“We are extremely proud of the quality of all of our LAPT events” says LAPT President Glenn Cademartori.

“This has been the largest poker tour in the history of Latin America with three tournaments producing prize pools of at least $1 million USD. The Mar del Plata grand final shattered the previous prize pool record with over USD $1.4 million up for grabs. It’s a fantastic way to finish an incredible season.”


Final table/payouts:

1. Dominik Nitsche, Germany - $381,030
2. Jorge Landazuri, Mexiko - $211,760
3. Rodolfo Awad, Chile - $141,140
4. Jason Skeans,USA - $105,860
5. Sergio Farias, Argentina - $77,620
6. Leo Fernandez, Argentina - $63,520
7. Derek Lerner, Canada - $49,400
8. Alfons Fenijn, Netherlands - $35,280
9. Jose Barbero, Argentina - $28,200