Congratulations to Alex Manzano, Champion of the 2011 LAPT São Paulo Main Event (R$615,840)
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It's safe to say that most of the gallery was actively rooting against Chilean Alex Manzano at today's final table. Not because they had anything personal against Manzano; they were merely a partisan Brazilian crowd hoping to see one of the five Brazilians at the table be crowned the first Brazilian champion in LAPT history. Manzano, the chip leader of the tournament after Day 2, denied them that joy.
In order to hoist the trophy Manzano had to deal with a tough seat draw. He started the day sandwiched between Brazilian João "joao bauer" Neto (3rd in chips) and Argentina's Leandro Csome (1st in chips). He also had to deal with a delay of more than an hour to start the day due to rolling power outages in Sao Paulo.
When play finally did start Manzano laid low, letting Neto and Csome do the heavy lifting. He chose his spots carefully with strong starting cards. He sent short stack Bruno Politano to the chopping block when Politano's pocket 10s couldn't out-run Manzano's 
. Henrique Bernardes followed Politano about an hour later when he was forced to move a short stack into the middle with 
. Manzano picked up Big Slick again and sent Bernardes to the rail by flopping a king.
In between those two eliminations, Neto had to survive his own all in. He opened the button to 115,000 with 
, then shoved against chip leader Csome, who three-bet the big blind to 330,000. Csome took Neto on with 
, but was forced to pay off more than 1 million chips when Neto turned a jack, to the extreme delight of the heavily Brazilian crowd.
Neto, with a doubled stack, was able to apply more pressure to Manzano, Csome and the rest of the table. He tagged Csome again later by check-raising the river of a 
board after Csome bet 315,000 into a pot of more than half a million. Csome snap-mucked, prompting a pumped-up Neto to flash total air, 
.
Mexico's Santiago Nadal was the next player eliminated after escalating blinds briefly turned the final table into a game of pre-flop chicken. He moved against Csome with 
; Csome's pocket kings gave his stack a measure of health as they held up to finish off Nadal in 6th place.
Neto found another level after Nadal's elimination; Manazano continued to slide. It seemed every pot went Neto's way. He notched the next two eliminations, first by taking out Csome with pocket 9s against 
, then by out-racing Marcio Motta with pocket 6s against 
.
By the time three-handed play commenced, Neto had 6.6 million of the 10.7 million chips in play. Manzano and the remaining Brazilian, Marcelo Fonseca, were battling for the privilege of taking Neto on heads-up. Manzano's stack took a beating as the blinds went around the table quickly and he failed to keep pace.
With blinds at 50,000 and 100,000 two quick hands changed the tide and saved the day for Manzano. First, he put his last 1.5 million in pre-flop with 
and out-ran Neto's . A short time later, Neto put Manzano to the test by betting and three-bet-shoving a 
flop. Manzano tanked for two or three minutes before calling and putting his whole stack of 3.0 million on the line with 
, top pair. Neto was on the draw with 
and never improved.
Like that, Neto found himself the shortest of the three remaining players. Fonseca just barely covered him for a pre-flop flip, Fonseca's against Neto's pocket treys. Treys held up; a few hands later Fonseca was eliminated.
At the start of heads-up play, Manzano had 6.8 million chips. Neto had 3.9 million and the hopes of the entire gallery. But unlike his fictional counterpart Jack Bauer, Neto was unable to save the world. A deflated Neto was spotted walking down the hall after play concluded. Team PokerStars Pro (Brazil) Maria "maridu" Mayrinck was rubbing his back, a meek offer of consolation for coming up just short.
For his victory in São Paulo, Manzano will bring R$615,840 back to Chile.
In a few days the action shifts to Copenhagen for the next stop on the 2011 PokerStars.net European Poker Tour. PokerNews will have a team in place to bring you all the live updates from that tournament.
Until then you can find us at the bar.