Welcome to Day 4, the last day of the LAPT Peru Grand Final where the final Main Event champion of Latin American Poker Tour Season 7 will be determined.
We have a lot of variety among the contenders at today’s final table. Players from 35 different countries originally comprised the 692-entry field for the Grand Final, and all eight seats at the final table will be occupied by players with different nationalities. But while all eight have come to Lima from different locations, they all have one thing in common — the chance to earn a career-best tourney score today, not to mention earn a permanent place in LAPT history.
Before action begins, let’s get to know our final tablists a little better.
Seat 1: Jakub Kyrian (Czech Republic) — 1,710,000
As the only final table player not from Central or South America, 26-year-old Jakub Kyrian carries an impressive résumé of cashes with him over the Atlantic, many coming on the Czech Poker Tour plus cashes on the UKIPT and at this year’s PokerStars Marbella Poker Festival.
With nearly $175,000 in total career tourney earnings, the architecture student’s biggest previous score came after winning the €550 German Poker Tour Main Event in May of this year, good for a prize worth just over $46,000.
Seat 2: Jerson Backmann (Mexico) — 3,005,000
Current chip leader Jerson Backmann of Mexico has a couple of prior tourney cashes to his credit, including small one in a Daily Deepstacks event at the World Series of Poker summer before last and a $14,500 score for winning the $300 NLHE $30K Guarantee at the 2014 Summer Classic at the Wynn in Las Vegas in July.
A systems manager whose favorite pastime is boxing, this is Backmann’s first ever LAPT. He has been playing poker for 12 years and lists Humberto Brenes as having inspired to become a better player, crediting “the Shark” with having giving him good advice about which books to read and how to study the game.
Seat 3: Oscar Alache (Chile) — 2,235,000
“He has been on fire,” explained LAPT photographer Carlos Monti yesterday after the Chilean Oscar Alache took over the chip lead late in the afternoon.
Carlos is right. Earlier this year in Chile Alache won the second chance event at LAPT7 Chile for a nearly $40,000 score, afterwards describing his win for PokerStars.tv. Then in September he earned three more cashes including two final tables at the Latin Poker Series Millions II in Panama City.
Seat 4: Daniel Campodonico (Uruguay) — 1,005,000
Like Alache, 67-year-old Daniel Campodonico has been enjoying a handsome run of tourney successes of late, using expertise learned after a half-century of playing the game.
Campodonico final tabled a $500 NLHE Turbo side event at LAPT6 Uruguay, finishing third, one of several cashes he’s had in Uruguay over recent years. In May of this year he won a $500 NLHE event in the Nogoro Poker Series in Punta del Este for $31,277, then in July he won another $1K NLHE event on the Conrad Poker Tour for $35,700, also in Punta.
Seat 5: Jose Torre (Argentina) — 1,105,000
This marks the 34th Main Event during the seven seasons of the Latin American Poker Tour, and of the previous 33 players from Argentina have won eight titles — well ahead of nearest challenger Brazil with four.
Jose Torre comes to today’s final table hoping to add yet another win to his country’s leading total, having had various prior experience on tours in the region. Like Backmann, the 30-year-old Torre made quite a comeback during the almost six one-hour levels played yesterday, having begun the day 44th out of 45.
Seat 6: Luis Perez (Venezuela) — 1,570,000
Venezuela’s Luis Perez arrives at the final table with a handful of cashes over the past year in both Panama and Peru.
Perez has one previous cash in an LAPT Main Event of which to boast, a 44th-place showing at LAPT6 Panama for $3,200. He’s already guaranteed himself well above that by making it this far. When not at the tables, the 29-year-old businessman enjoys movies and playing basketball.
Seat 7: Carlos Sobenes (Peru) — 695,000
In Carlos Sobenes the home country has one last hope to earn a third title for Peru after Martin Sansour’s win at LAPT3 Argentina and Kemal Ferri’s victory here at LAPT4 Peru. The 55-year-old manager of a contractor business also enjoys motorcycles and soccer, and like so many was inspired to play poker after watching Chris Moneymaker win the 2003 WSOP Main Event.
Sobenes has the shortest stack to start today’s final table, but also brings the experience of previous cashes in events in Central and South America, including a $33,615 score for coming fourth in the $1,625 NLHE Main Event at the 2011 Punta Cana Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic.
Seat 8: Marcos Exterkotter (Brazil) — 2,150,000
Brazil likewise has hopes of earning a second LAPT title this year (after Caio Hey’s win at LAPT7 Brazil) and a fifth overall on the tour in the person of Marcos Exterkotter.
The 24-year-old entrepreneur has a couple of small cashes in Brazilian Series of Poker events, his biggest previous win being worth about $3,500 for finishing 16th in the BSOP Main Event at Balneario Camboriu in 2012.
Here is how the payouts are scheduled for the final eight spots:
1st: $197,540
2nd: $120,580
3rd: $86,140
4th: $65,240
5th: $51,920
6th: $39,840
7th: $28,820
8th: $19,660
Cards go in the air at 12 noon (Central time) in the poker room on the second floor of the Atlantic City Casino. We’ll be on hand from the first deal to the final showdown to see who among these eight becomes the LAPT Peru Grand Final champion and last Main Event winner of Season 7.
Photography from LAPT7 Peru by Carlos Monti. Check out the start-to-finish live streaming coverage (in both Spanish and Portuguese) at PokerStars.tv. Click here for live updates in Spanish, and here for live updates in Portuguese.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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