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Casinos> 2009
- Real Casinos News Archive> FABIAN ORTIZ BECOMES FIRST LATIN AMERICAN WINNER OF
AN POKERSTARS LAPT EVENT
Viña Del Mar, Chile – January 23, 2009: 39-year-old
Fabian Ortiz, from Argentina, has become the first ever Latin American
poker player to win a PokerStars.net LAPT title with his victory
at the inaugural Chile event in Viña del Mar.
Ortiz, who lives in the rural province of Chaco, (pronounciation:
Chako) defeated a strong field of players from 27 countries to take
home the title and first prize of USD 141,426. A former disco owner
he now does most of his dancing on the poker circuit where he has
shown he is fearless on the felt with some success.
Latin American players dominated the starting field with almost
every nation represented. 50 players were from the host country
of Chile alone and every seat at the final table was taken by a
player from Latin America - including Fabio Escobar, who won his
seat to the event on PokerStars.
“Fabian Ortiz’s win demonstrates the growth of poker
as a Latin American sport”, said LAPT President Glenn Cademartori.
“This is our first event where the majority of the field was
made up of Latin American players. We expect many more local champions
as this sport continues to grow in popularity in the region.”
The LAPT Viña del Mar event, at the prestigious Viña
del Mar Casino and Resort, attracted a host of international poker
stars including Team PokerStars Pros Humberto Brenes from Costa
Rica, Andre Akkari from Brazil, and the former Brazilian stock car
racer and PokerStars sponsored player Gualter Salles. Also representing
Costa Rica were Max and Maria Stern, the only married couple who
have both won WSOP bracelets. Ortiz bested Argentinian Veronica
Dabul, who cashed three times at the WSOP in 2008.
The next event on the LAPT tour will be in Punta del Este, Uruguay
in March, followed by the season finale in Mar del Plata, Argentina
in April. All the LAPT events will be broadcast by ESPN in Latin
America later in the year.
Visit http://www.lapt.com for more information; for LAPT Viña
del Mar reports, visit the PokerStars blog at http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/
and http://www.pokerstars.tv.
Final Table / Payouts
Name Country PokerStars Status $
1 Fabian Ortiz Argentina $141,426
2 Vincenzo Gianelli Venezuela $78,570
3 Damian Salas Argentina $52,380
4 Leandro Balotin Brazil $39,285
5 Hernan Villa Colombia $28,809
6 Fabio Escobar Brazil PokerStars Qualifier $23,571
7 Jyries Saba Chile $18,330
8 Eduardo Camia Argentina $13,095
9 Jaime Ateneloff Uruguay $10,476 |
