Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) - Media Releases
POKERSTARS QUALIFIER WINS LAPT SAN JOSÉ
San José, Costa Rica - May 24, 2008: Valdemar Kwaysser, 24, a professional poker player from Budapest, Hungary, has won the second LAPT event in San José, Costa Rica for $274,102. Kwaysser, who won his seat in a $200 satellite on PokerStars, was playing in only his second major tournament but is an accomplished online player. A year ago, almost to the day, he came 3rd in the PokerStars Sunday Million for $133,000.
Kwaysser admitted he'd had some lucky moments on his way to victory in San José and had managed to build his stack without many risks. He said: "I had some very lucky hands today as well but that's poker. Sometimes you play perfectly and don't get the results. This was different."
In the final hand against American Max Steinberg, Valdemar's Aces held up against J9 on a 889 flop. Max, 19, whose identical twin brother Danny also played in the event, takes home $144,773. Max and Danny took up poker at the same time when their dad celebrated their 18th birthday by giving them each a poker baseball cap and $50 to open up an online poker account.
A total of 398 players from 35 countries took part in the three-day sell-out event, including 175 who won their seats online with PokerStars. Six of the nine final table players were PokerStars qualifiers.
The prestigious LAPT San José event, the richest poker tournament ever held in Central America, also attracted a host of international poker stars including five members of Team PokerStars Pro - Andre Akkari from Brazil, Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica and as well as poker legend Daniel Negreanu, Victor Ramdin and Isabelle Mercier. Sponsored players also included US talk show host Montel Williams, Major League baseball players Orel Hershiser and David Wells, as well as Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons and Brazilian stock car racer Gualter Salles.
More than 45 Costa Ricans took the opportunity to play in an international, championship event on home turf - the 2,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament was held at the Cariari Country Club just outside San José city. Costa Rican Steve Thompson came 9th for $14,477.
"The inaugural Latin American Poker Tour event in Rio was a phenomenal success, but this second event in San José has topped all our expectations," said LAPT President Glenn Cademartori. "We were expecting a robust field of players full of enthusiasm, but having nearly 400 players turn up is truly overwhelming. Costa Rica is a recognized leader of poker in Central America . We have very skilled players with a great deal of experience, and that has certainly been demonstrated here in San José. We are also impressed with the number of players from 35 different countries around the globe that came to the tournament having won their seats online with PokerStars. Truly an amazing accomplishment for the LAPT and the world of poker."
The final stop for Season 1 of the LAPT is Punta del Este from August 7-9. Satellites are running now on PokerStars until late July and 15 players have already won seats and will be heading to Uruguay this summer.
For reports, see the PokerStars blog or PokerStars TV.
1 | Name | Country | PokerStars | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Valdemar Kwaysser | Hungary | PokerStars qualifier | 274,103 |
2 | Max Steinberg | USA | 144,773 | |
3 | Steven Silverman | USA | PokerStars qualifier | 106,167 |
4 | Alex Soderland | Sweden | PokerStars qualifier | 77,212 |
5 | Alec Torelli | USA | PokerStars qualifier | 57,909 |
6 | Pawel Sanojca | Poland | PokerStars qualifier | 38,606 |
7 | Ashton Griffin | USA | 28,955 | |
8 | Joe Ebanks | USA | PokerStars qualifier | 19,303 |
9 | Steven Thompson | Costa Rica | 14,477 |
Press Contacts:
Argentina: Alejo Zagalsky - Ketchum
e: alejo.zagalsky@ketchum.com.ar
t: +1 5411-4832-7700
Nordics - Sebastian Langer - Manning Selvage & Lee
e: sebastian.langer@mslpr.se
t: +46 709 405 833
USA: Matt Clark/ Mallory Dash - Lotus Public Relations
e: matt.clark@lotus-pr.com / mallory.dash@lotus-pr.com
t: +1 212-922-5885
