LAPT Lima - won a side event, and still in for the main!

I just cashed in around $8500 by winning my first major live poker tournament! This is an incredible feeling ...

This was the $500 turbo event on day 1a of the Lima LAPT. About 120 players registered, and we played for around 10 hours, during which I think I can say I played very well. Just before the final table, I got lucky when after raising my pair of fives, a lady with a short stack 3bet me all-in and I called. She showed AQs, hit the ace on the flop and I made a runner/runner straight to the 5 on the turn and river.

At the final table, I had an above average chip stack, and about one hour later, I was chip leader, with 5 players remaining. Then, sitting on the button with pocket aces, the small blind who was second in chips, raises into me for 25% of his chips. I 3bet and he 4bets all-in, I call and my aces hold against his AKs.

That hand gave me a huge chip lead, and I used it grinding down the remaining players, taking down two of them in the process. So now we were heads up and my opponent is Argentinian pro Franco Spitale. With the advantage of having a chipstack at least 9 times as high as his, I kept playing aggressively. The final hand was him raising all-in his A5o with 3 BBs left, and I called with A2o and hit the deuce on the flop to win.

Check this link to see the interview with me after I won.

$8500 richer, my confidence has just been boosted considerably before going into day two of the main event, with a good enough chipstack to be a real contender!