10.3.2016, 10:13 | Autor: lapt | tisk článku | doporučit článek

Brazilian Rodrigo Santos is the newest LAPT champion

In a relatively short Final Table, a new champion of the Latin American Poker Tour in Vina del Mar, Chile, was defined. Rodrigo Strong took almost seven hours to gather all chips from his other seven tablemates in the halls of Enjoy Hotel & Casino.

Rodrigo faced local Fabian Chauriye heads up, with whom he reached a settlement. Chauriye would take $ 110,000 and Rodrigo $ 100,000, leaving $ 20,565 to the winner. Rodrigo managed to get the amounts in chips even and ended up beating the Chilean to make a $ 120,565 payday.

The Brazilian, a Barcelona resident now, beat a battalion of 565 players who arrived at Enjoy Hotel & Casino in Vina del Mar, the Garden City of Chile, and managed to form a prize pool of $ 737,325, in the second stop of the Ninth Season of the Latin American Poker Tour, sponsored by PokerStars.net. This has been his largest cash in his poker career. Prior to that, he had relatively low cashes in tournaments only Europe. Strong joins the list of Brazilian LAPT winners Murilo Figueredo, Marcelo Fonseca, Victor Sbrissa, Caio Hey and Yuri Martins.

Until recently, the Brazilian was an online player but after seeing that he was not progressing in poker how he'd like, he made the decision to change his entire life. He moved to Barcelona, Spain, he stopped drinking, he stopped partying and he changed everything about his poker game as well. He spent a full year working on the mental side of his game, knowing that that was the missing piece to his poker puzzle.

"I worked on the technical side of my game for ten years but I knew something was still missing." Strong said, adding that he battled with an ego and lack of self-confidence before his move to Spain. That move looks to be working out, as Strong won the Spanish Poker Millions Main Event in December for just over $50,000 and since then, he's taken to the live tournament circuit.

"Everyone starts watching final tables on YouTube, seeing poker on television, trophies, cameras." he said, while admitting that the competitive atmosphere around live poker is something he's always loved. He never got that during those years of online grinding and while he still plays nearly every day on PokerStars.es when he's home, he's certainly getting used to the winner's circle and hitting all the stops en route to his bigger goals.

Those bigger goals include continuing to travel the world, to some of poker's biggest events and now, fresh off an over $120,000 score, he's got his eyes set on the European Poker Tour. Strong lives off competition but he has to admit, that it doesn't matter who is at his table, his only opponent is himself.