The eighth season of the Latin American Poker Tour, part of the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure festival, has just completed its $3,000 LAPT Bahamas Main Event. The tournament attracted a record number of 736 players and thus, a prize pool of $1,945,248 was created. It took three days of play before Josh Kay emerged victorious to capture $367,928, the biggest sum he has ever won in his poker career.
A total of eight players took part in the final table play on Day 3 of the event. Famous poker pro Mustapha Kanit, who finished fourth in the 2014 PCA $25,000 High Roller, was the first to go. The player was eliminated by Martin Finger and took $35,200 for his eighth finish.
The German high roller then sent Jonathan Borenstein and Dimitar Danchev to seventh and sixth places, respectively.
Taylor Paur, who is a one-time winner of a WSOP bracelet, was the next to go. He, too, was knocked out by Finger. Paur took home the amount of $94,920 for finishing fifth in the tournament.
One hand later, it became clear that Jose Carlos Garcia would have to go as well. He was the only player at the final table that was not eliminated by Finger. Garcia was defeated by Stefan Jedlicka and received $119,820 for his fourth place.
Thus, Jedlicka, Finger, and Kay were the only left at the final table. Jedlicka became Finger’s next victim. The Austrian poker pro could not hold up against his opponent and left the tournament finishing third and capturing $158,740.
The heads-up play began with Finger having a two-to-one chip lead over Kay who kept quite throughout most of the game. However, the American managed to quickly catch up and completely out of the blue, he became the chip leader holding almost twice as much as his opponent.
On the final hand of the event, Kay was holding pocket nines and Finger had [Qd][10d]. With the board showing [9c][8c][5h][10h], the soon-to-be-champion moved all in. Finger spent several minutes thinking whether he should call off. He desperately needed a Jack so as to be able to win the tournament. The board, however, showed [Qc] on the river and the name of the big champion became clear.
Finer took $223,900 for his runner-up finish.
Minutes after he scored the biggest win in his career, the American player shared with interviewers that he was really thrilled, since he was convinced he would not win the tournament. Yet, everything went unbelievably right for him and now he is $367,928 richer.
