Sotiropoulos' Star Continues to Rise with LAPT Bahamas Win
Georgios Sotiropoulos topped one of the toughest final tables a $2,200 buy-in is likely to produce to take down Latin American Poker Tour Bahamas. He banked $308,220 for topping the 851-player field.
It's the second-biggest live cash for Sotiropoulos, who is Greece's second all-time money winner in live tournaments with more than $1.6 million in cashes, trailing only Sotirios Koutoupas' $2 million. Sotiropoulos continues to roll after a great 2015 that saw him take home a gold bracelet at World Series of Poker Europe and ship the Sunday Million on PokerStars for $211,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgios Sotiropoulos | Greece | $308,220 |
| 2 | Taylor Von Kriegenbergh | USA | $187,220 |
| 3 | Knut Karnapp | Germany | $132,080 |
| 4 | Joe Kuether | USA | $99,060 |
| 5 | Will Molson | Canada | $78,080 |
| 6 | Chad Eveslage | USA | $58,440 |
| 7 | Darren Elias | USA | $41,100 |
| 8 | Ismael Bojang | Austria | $28,900 |
A final table that includes names such as Taylor von Kriegenbergh, Joe Kuether, Will Molson, Chad Eveslage, Darren Elias, and Ismael Bojang would be daunting for any player to overcome, as each of those names sports north of $600,000 in live cashes. Furthermore, Andre Akkari (10th), Aaron Massey (11th), Ole Schemion (16th), Jeff Rossiter (17th), and Mike Leah (20th) all made deep runs, adding to the stacked late field.
Sotiropoulos conquered them all though, and he said the key was coming in with the chip lead. According to the live updates, with 10 players returning for the final day, Sotiropoulos had 3.975 million in chips at blinds of 25,000/50,000/5,000, giving him a comfortable lead over second-place Kuether, who had 2.53 million.
"I was really aggressive and they couldn't play back at me because they had too few chips," he said. "There were some ICM (independent chip model) situations where they couldn't do anything. I just tried to extend my chip lead and win the tournament."
After the early eliminations of Akkari and Bojang, Sotiropoulos eliminated one of his most dangerous opponents, two-times World Poker Tour champ Elias. The Greek player was opening liberally and Elias picked up the 10♥10♦ and shoved over with his last 15 big blinds, only to have Sotiropoulos show down the goods with the Q♥Q♣. A queen on the turn was all she wrote for Elias.
Eveslage went out a bit later in sixith, and then Sotiropoulos got lucky to send Molson packing. Leveraging his huge lead, Sotiropoulos shoved all in from the button only to have Molson snap him off with the A♣K♦. Sotiropoulos was dominated with the A♠8♣, but he found an eight on the flop.
Sotiropoulos continued to run good after that as he shoved over an open from von Kriegenbergh while holding the Q♠9♠ only for Kuether to wake up with jacks in the blinds. A K♦10♠A♠7♦6♠ board later, Kuether was out courtesy of a flush.
Sotiropoulos had more than a 3-1 lead heading to heads-up play against von Kriegenbergh, and he finished it off without a sweat after limping and calling a raise and seeing 10♥6♥2♥ flop. Sotiropoulos called a bet on the flop and then bet the 7♦ himself after his opponent checked. Von Kriegenbergh shoved all in, and Sotiropoulos called immediately with the A♥5♥, having flopped the nut flush. Von Kriegenbergh was drawing dead with the A♦10♦ and congratulated his opponent.
"He played really well," he said.
Sotiropoulos, for his part, said he hadn't faced many tougher lineups on the felt.
"One of the toughest," he said of the group he defeated to become the first Greek LAPT champ. "They were good players. It's a really nice victory."
After finishing up winner's formalities and boxing up his trophy, Sotiropoulos headed straight for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event.
"No breaks," he said. "No breaks."
*Image courtesy of Carlos Monti/PokerStars.
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