Jose Miguel Espinar Wins LAPT Event |
| Written by Bishop Whitmore |
| Friday, 15 August 2008 |
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The final event of the Latin American Poker Tour season took place over the weekend and Jose Miguel Espinar took home the title. The 27-year-old Spaniard bested 350 other players to win the $241,735 first place prize. He defeated Alex Brenes in the heads-up battle. Espinar was able to beat a number of pros in the event including Alex Brenes who is the brother of Costa Rica poker pro Humberto Brenes. Espinar began playing poker just last year but has done well in a very short period of time. He was able to take out professional poker player Vanessa Rousso as he reached the final table. “I was lucky at the start but the five hours' heads-up against Alex was hard,” said Espinar. In the heads-up battle against Brenes the key hand was when Espinar held A-10 against the A-9 of Brenes. A nine came on the flop and it looked like Espinar was done but he got a 10 on the turn and won the biggest hand of the tournament. Brenes was left with only 40,000 and went out on the next hand. Brenes made the final table in two of the three LAPT events. Many of the players in the tournament were from Brazil. Over 100 players were from Brazil while about 60 were from the United States. A total of 27 players were from Uruguay. There were a total of 34 countries represented in the tournament. The tournament took place at the Manta Resort Hotel in La Barra just outside Punta Del Este. Fox Sports will broadcast the event next month in Latin America. The top nine finishers in the tournament were: |
