Home / Poker News March 2009 / LAPT Punta del Este Day 1 report
LAPT Punta del Este Day 1 report
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2009-03-21 11:56
After the setback suffered in Mexico three months ago, the LAPT’s organizers have been keen on providing high level professional poker action for the Tour’s participants. The Punta del Este event had all the makings of one such event.
The three-day event’s start saw a massive 327 player field belly up to the tables. Each one of these players posted a $3,700 buy-in, which made for a total prize-pool of over $1.1 million. The first day’s action concluded when only 64 players were left in contention. Despite the high rate of eliminations, the money bubble hasn’t been reached yet as almost half the remaining field still needs to go before the bubble bursts.
Set at 36th place, the money will most probably be reached on Day 2 though.
At the end of the first day of hostilities, it was Canada’s Oliver Rowe who topped the provisional leader board, on a stack which had largely been mustered after the dinner break. Spaniard Alberto Andres Font Rytzner finished the day in second, less than 1,000 chips behind Rowe’s 136,000 chip stack.
Some of the players who took part in the postponed Mexico event’s final table the day before, were also present at the LAPTs Uruguay Main Event. Victor Ramdin was one of these players, as was Helen and Josh Prager.
Other noteworthy presences in the field were those of Greg Raymer, Humberto Brenes, J.C. Alvarado and Dennis Phillips.
While both Helen Prager and her husband were eliminated early on, some of the other players from the Mexico final table managed to survive to fight on Day 2. Leonardo Emperador, Bolivar Palacios Vasquez and Alex Brenes (Humberto’s brother) are all going to make a bid for yet another LAPT money finish in just a week’s time. Of these three players however, it was only Palacios Vasquez who managed to get together a better than average stack, the rest of them will feel the pressure of the escalating blinds on Day 2.
Angel Guillen finished in third place with 111,200 chips, followed by Ibuki Fukui in 4th, with 105,900 and Mario Salvagno in 5th with 102,800.
Vialaret Ezequiel brought up the rear for the top 10 with 78,100 chips.
