What started as a casual holiday in Costa Rica for Iraqi-born Amer Sulaiman turned into the trip of a lifetime. Sulaiman only heard about the tournament after he'd arrived in Costa Rica and decided to play on a whim. The decision proved to be a wise one. After four gruelling days of poker, Amer Sulaiman is your first LAPT Season 3 champion!
Sulaimon will take home $172,095 in prize money for his first place finish -- the largest win of his poker-playing career.
Runner-up Sol Bergren was deeply disappointed after the match:
"I got run over once again," he told PokerNews. "I don't feel very good right now... third time in a major spot where I got second place again," said Bergren.
While second place is often bittersweet, Bergren will no doubt be able to use the $100,000+ he earned for second place to fund additional world travels. Bergren's finish here today was the second largest score of his young career.
Here's a quick look back at the rest of the final table results (and no, this tournament was not held in Canada):
1st: Amer Sulaiman (Canada) - $172,095
2nd: Sol Bergren (Canada) - $100,492
3rd: Rogelio Pardo (Costa Rica) - $61,551
4th: Eric Levesque (Canada) - $45,221
5th: Francis-Nicolas Bouchard (Canada) - $32,660
6th: Darren Keyes (Canada) - $26,380
7th: Carlos Giron (Guatemala) - $20,098
8th: Patrick De Koster (Netherlands) - $13,818
That concludes our coverage of the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Playa Conchal Main Event. Next week, the PokerNews live reporting team will be in two places at once, covering the PokerStars.com EPT Prague Main Event in the Czech Republic and the PokerStars.net APPT Sydney Grand Final in Australia.
Until then, from the Paradisus Playa Conchal Resort and Casino in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, good night and good luck!
Sol Bergren limped in from the button and Amer Sulaiman checked his option. The flop came down . Sulaiman checked over to the shorter-stacked Bergren who bet 90,000. Sulaiman raised to 400,000 and then Bergren moved all in for just under 600,000. He was met by a call from Sulaiman and the hands were revealed:
Bergren:
Sulaiman:
The turn brought the , leaving Bergren with only eight outs to make a straight. The river was the and that was all she wrote. Failing to complete his straight, Sol Bergren was eliminated in second place, earning $100,492 for his runner-up finish.
In a limped pot, the flop , Amer Sulaiman passed the first option to Sol Bergren who fired a 90,000 bet. Sulaiman called and the turn brought the .
Sulaiman then led out with a 220,000 bet -- about 1/3 of Bergren's remaining stack.
"Ok, push it one time. Go!" Sulaiman prodded.
Despite the invite, Bergren folded leaving himself with approximately 630,000 in chips. Sulaiman stacked up a tournament-high 4,550,000 in chips after the hand.
Well, we're kidding. There's not much going on as far as action is concerned. The players are limping into every pot and checking down to the river each time. Once in a while, someone will toss a bet in and take down the pot, but other than that, this has been no-action poker.
Amer Sulaiman fired a bet of 320,000 on the river of a board reading . Sol Bergren made the call and Sulaiman tabled for the wheel. He then requested to see Bergren's hand and Bergren's was turned over.
The first two hands after the break have gone as follows.
Hand #1:
Amer Sulaiman raised to 180,000 preflop and Sol Bergren called from the big blind. Both players checked the flop of to see the come on the turn. Bergren led for 200,000 and won the pot.
Hand #2:
On the next hand, Bergren limped the button and Sulaiman raised to 220,000. Bergren then moved all in and Sulaiman folded.