Down in Medellin, Columbia the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) was hosting the Colombian National Poker Championship and the event attracted a fairly international field, including some big names poker players. The tournament was the third stop on Season 5 of the PokerStars LAPT, and the turnout at the event saw Season 5 continue its excellent season for the LAPT.

One of the big names who happened to be in Colombia on vacation (taking a break from poker), Sorel Mizzi, actually had no intention of playing a poker tournament but simply couldn’t resist once he got to Colombia and found a Major Poker Tournament going on. Mizzi tweeted about his surprise, saying, “Went to Colombia to chill / try to learn spanish and somehow theres a @pokerstarsLAPT here … so obv i have to play… stop following me!”

Unfortunately for Mizzi (or perhaps fortunately if he wants to get back to his vacation) he wasn’t able to make a deep run and failed to cash in the tournament.

As far as the actual tournament goes, the LAPT Colombian National Poker Championship boasted a $3,820,000 + $380,000 buy-in, which isn’t quite as impressive as it first appears considering it takes 1,720 Colombian Pesos to equal $1 USD! The tournament attracted 337 entrants over the course of the two starting days, making the top payout of the tournament nearly $150,000.

The highest finisher among well-known players was Humberto Brenes, a member of Team PokerStars Pro, finished in 22nd place, collecting a decent payday for his efforts, a $9,000,000 payday (which is equivalent to about $5,200 USD.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the LAPT Colombian National Poker Championship:

1. Robbie Renehan — $148,709

2. Jayr Fregona — $114,857

3. Raul Paez — $69,914

4. Weider Gutierrez — $52,091

5. Cristian Velasquez — $39,960

6. Hernan Villa — $ 31,394

7. Ruben Ospina — $ 23,549

8. Luis Felipe Herrera — $ 17,840

The next stop on the LAPT will be in Panama, for the LAPT Panama, which will feature a $2,300 buy-in with a $200 tournament fee. The LAPT Panama will only feature a single starting day and will kick-off on September 27, 2012.

After Panama the LAPT will head to Lima, Peru for the LAPT Grand Final from November 14-18, 2012. The Grand Final will also feature a $2,300+ $200 buy-in and should attract a huge field, full of top-flight players.

Tags: American Poker, Colombia, Colombian Pesos, Cristian, Fregona, Intention, Latin American, Luis Felipe, Medellin Columbia, Ospina, Playing Poker, Poker Championship, poker players, poker tournament, PokerStars, Raul, Renehan, Sorel Mizzi, Tournament Poker, Weider

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.