19 Year Old Julien Nuijten Wins 2008 LAPT Rio de Janeiro
May 8th, 2008
Julien Nuijten has won the first Latin American Poker Tour tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 19 year old Dutchman came through a field of 314 players to record his first major tournament victory and take home the $222,940 first place prize.
At the start of the day’s play the chip stacks were as follows:
Julien Nuijten, Holland - 970,000
Vitaly Kovyazin, USA - 380,000
Alex Brenes, Costa Rica - 324,000
Nikolai Senninger, Germany - 318,000
Juan Carlos Burguillos, Venezuela - 297,000
Rafael Pardo, Columbia - 278,000
Eduardo Henriques, Brazil - 275,000
Oliver Kugler, Germany - 176,000
Severin Walser, Switzerland - 175,000
First to be eliminated was Severin Walser who couldn’t keep up with Rafael Pardo’s pocket aces. Next to go was Juan Carlos Burguillos going all-in against Oliver Kugler. The ace was enough to see off Burguillos.
Nuijten began flexing his muscles knocking out Pardo with a pair of kings against nines, while new chip leader Vitaly Kovyazin sent Kugler out of the tournament with a flush hand. The sole remaining Brazilian, Eduardo Henriques, was next to be eliminated by Nuijten’s two pairs of aces and fours.
Alex Brenes, brother of Humberto Brenes, failed to get the better of Nikolai Senninger’s pocket tens and finished in 4th place. Senninger didn’t last much longer against Nuijten’s pocket kings, which left heads-up play between Kovyazin and Nuijten.
With the chip stacks fairly even between them the chip lead swung back and forth before finally Kovyazin went all-in after the turn card. Kovyazin showed two pairs, queens and fives, against Nuijten’s triple sevens. The river card was no help to Kovyazin and Julien Nuijten held on to become the first ever winner on the Latin American Poker Tour.
The LAPT moves onto San Jose in Costa Rica from May 22nd-24th for the next stop in the LAPT season.
The third and final stop this season is at Punta del Este in Uruguay from August 7th-9th.
LAPT Rio de Janeiro Final Standings:
Julien Nuijten, Holland - $223,000
Vitaly Kovyazin, USA - $117,750
Nikolai Senninger, Germany - $86,350
Alex Brenes, Costa Rica - $62,800
Oliver Kugler, Germany - $47,100
Eduardo Henriques, Brazil - $31,400
Rafael Pardo, Colombia - $23,500
Juan Carlos Burguillos, Venezuela - $15,700
Severin Walter, Switzerland - $11,775
