[user66118]
Juan Jose Perez - 7th Place
Jose Miguel Espinar has the button in Seat 3.
In early position, Juan Jose Perez comes in with a raise to 35,000. From the button, Espinar reraises to 92,000, and very quickly Perez moves all in for a total of 196,000. Espinar makes the call, and the hands are shown down:
Perez:
Espinar:
The flop brings a bit of a sweat for Perez, rolling out , giving his opponent a gutshot straight draw.
The turn is the , making Perez top set but not changing anything as far as Espinar is concerned.
River: . Espinar comes rallying from behind to make his Broadway straight and eliminate Juan Jose Perez. Perez nods knowingly, smiles, and makes his way to the cashier to pick up $25,535 in greenbacks.
[user66118]
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro - 8th Place
Juan Jose Perez has the button in Seat 8.
Jose Miguel Espinar raises under the gun to 26,000. Paulo Cesar Ribeiro announces a reraise, and makes is 52,000 total, a minimum raise. Espinar calls.
The flop comes . Espinar checks, and Ribeiro bets out 100,000. Espinar moves all in on a check-raise, and Ribeiro quickly calls. He is all in for 226,000 total and is at risk of elimination.
Espinar:
Ribeiro:
The turn brings the , meaning that Ribeiro is drawing completely dead. Just for good measure, the dealer reveals the on the river, making Espinar the winning quadruple kings.
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro is our eighth place finisher, taking home $17,025 in cash.
Alexandre Gomes raises under the gun to 27,000. Action folds around to Juan Jose Perez, who moves all in for 155,000 chips. Gomes thinks for a minute or two before folding his hand, and Perez scoops up some early chips.
[user66118]
We are all set to go here at the final table. The players have been introduced, and there is a rowdy crowd of spectators beginning to file into their seats.
Our eight finalists are prepared for battle, and by the end of the day, one of them will be $241,735 richer and be inscribed in the books as the champion of the 2008 LAPT Punta del Este!
[user66118]
"Eye of the Tiger" is being pumped throug the PA system, and the players are being mic'd up for television coverage. They are in their seats, and we will be underway in just a few minutes!
[user66118]
Juan Jose Perez
Juan Jose Perez is a 30-year-old professional poker player who took up the game four years ago. He began his career playing online at PokerStars, but quickly expanded to playing in live events as well. He still makes most of his money playing the online 3/6 and 5/10 games.
Perez has only played a few live tournaments, but says he has thoroughly enjoyed the LAPT. Though he's short-stacked, Perez says he plans to play aggressively. "My only goal is to win," he says emphatically. He starts play a little bit low on chips, but still has 167,000 to work with.
[user66118]
Alex Brenes
Alex Brenes, the 44-year-old brother of Humberto Brenes, is with us today from San Jose, Costa Rica. Alex used to watch Humberto and his other brother, Eric, play home games and eventually began to play himself. "There was a group of around 30 regulars at the casino. We used to have two tournaments a week, and at the end of the year, the top ten on the leader board would play a final table. I won it every year from 1988 to 1996," he said.
Alex has a fantastic record at the LAPT so far, having made two final tables in the first three events. In the Rio de Janeiro event, he racked up a fourth place finish. If he wins today, it still won't match his best tournament result. Apart from his previous LAPT final table, he's come second in two WSOP events and taken home the title at the WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.
Despite that, it's the LAPT title that he wants, and he is aiming for it today. He begins play with 457,000 chips.
[user66118]
Gylbert Drolet
Gylbert Drolet is just 21 years old and comes to Punta del Este from Quebec City, Quebec in Canada. He has been playing poker since he turned 18 three years ago and is finding some success early in his career. He qualified for this event as well as the LAPT San Jose via the step satellites on PokerStars. He has also won three $100 tournaments online and recently cashed in the Sunday Million.
In school, Drolet is studying technology and plans to expand his focus to include business studies at university. He says, "My parents aren't that keen on me playing poker, but they recognize that I'm pretty good at it." He added some thoughts about this event today: "I had a really good feeling about this tournament. It started very badly though. In the first hour, I was dealt but ran into aces, which took me down to 6,000. Despite that setback, I always felt very confident, however."
Drolet has reason to be confident. He comes into today in second place, working with 691,000 chips.
[user66118]
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro is 47 years old and comes to us from Belem, Brazil. He began playing poker about a year ago and has already found some good success. Online, he plays as "PC PORTUGA" and he also makes sure to set some money aside for live tournaments. He qualified for this tournament in an online satellite.
Ribeiro has played in all three LAPT events so far this year, and has been steadily improving his performance. In Rio de Janeiro, he was eliminated during Day 1, while he managed to make Day 2 of the Costa Rica tournament, busting short of the money. Finally today, he has gotten to the top of the hill, finding himself here on Day 3 at the final table. He sits on 281,000 chips, and hopes to bring the trophy back to Brazil.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, giving his opponent a gutshot straight draw.
, making Perez top set but not changing anything as far as Espinar is concerned.
. Espinar comes rallying from behind to make his Broadway straight and eliminate Juan Jose Perez. Perez nods knowingly, smiles, and makes his way to the cashier to pick up $25,535 in greenbacks.
, meaning that Ribeiro is drawing completely dead. Just for good measure, the dealer reveals the 
on the river, making Espinar the winning quadruple kings.
