Hungarian Shines in Costa Rica
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
The second leg of the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour has been won by young Hungarian Valdemar Kwaysser. The 24-year-old poker pro, who qualified via PokerStars for $200, outlasted 389 players on his way to winning the $274,102 first prize.
The second leg of the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour has been won by young Hungarian Valdemar Kwaysser. The 24-year-old poker pro, who qualified via PokerStars for $200, outlasted 389 players on his way to winning the $274,102 first prize. The final hand saw Kwaysser’s pocket rockets stay ahead of Max Steinberg’s J-9 to send the Hungarian to victory.
The win in Costa Rica was all the more impressive as it was only Kwaysser’s second live tournament. The young pro can obviously play though, as he demonstrated last year with a third place finish in the Sunday Millions event on ‘Stars for $133,000. American Max Steinberg ended up cashing $144,773 for his runner-up finish.
“I had some very lucky hands today as well but that’s poker,” said Kwaysser after the tournament. “Sometimes you play perfectly and don’t get the results. This was different.”
The Costa Rica leg of the LAPT saw some of PokerStars’ biggest named players attend, including Humberto Brenes, Daniel Negreanu, and Isabelle Mercier, none of whom could make it past the tough field to reach the final table.
The final payouts were as follows:
Valdemar Kwaysser (Hungary) - $274,103
Max Steinberg (USA) - $144,773
Steven Silverman (USA) - $106,167
Alex Soderland (Sweden) - $77,212
Alec Torelli (USA) - $57,909
Pawel Sanojca (Poland) - $38,606
Ashton Griffin (USA) - $28,955
Joe Ebanks (USA) - $19,303
Steven Thompson (Costa Rica) - $14,477