Written by :
Published on :
American player Josh Kay has won the first ever LAPT Bahamas event for $367,928 after beating EPT Prague/EPT London Super High Roller champion Martin Finger heads-up. The 28-year-old from Michigan, who normally plays cash games, tweeted “I love tournaments” immediately after his win.
Kay is a Michigan native who currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida. He turned 28 just eight days ago and has now just more than tripled his lifetime live tournament winnings of around $110,000. Known as “Mapquest23” online, Kay cites Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker as his biggest poker influence.
1. Josh Kay, USA, $367,928
2. Martin Finger, Germany, PokerStars player, $223,900
3. Stefan Jedlicka, Austria, PokerStars qualifier, $158,740
4. Jose Carlos Garcia, Poland, PokerStars player, $119,820
5. Taylor Paur, United States, PokerStars player, $94,920
6. Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria, $71,780
7. Jonathan Borenstein, USA, $51,540
8. Mustapha Kanit, Italy, $35,200
With 532 players and 736 entries overall, the $3k tourney provided a spectacular start to LAPT Season 8. 111 players shared the $1,945,248 prize pool.
The final day, broadcast cards up live on the webcast, was a showcase for some of the world's best players with PCA champions Dimitar Danchev and Galen Hall, IPT Nova Gorica champion winner Mustapha Kanit and Austria's Stefan Jedlicka all making the final 11, alongside American prosTaylor Paur, Aaron Massey, Jonathan Borenstein and Kyle Frey.
After 7 hours of play Kay encountered Martin Finger heads up with a 2-1 chip lead in favor of the German. But Kay began battling back, picking up a few chips with a pocket pair, then another modest pot when he flopped trips. Then after picking up another pot he was up to 6.2 million, having closed the gap with Finger who'd slipped to about 8.2 million. When the final hand began Kay had 11 million against Finger’s 3.1 million. Then a hand in which the flop was 8c-9c-5h, Kay led for 325,000 and Finger made the call. The turn was a Th, but Joshua called, only to see Finger firing 525.000 to the middle with only 1.7 behing. Kay decided to go all in, and Finger took his time to call. 9s-9d for Kay and Qd-Td for Finger, giving Kay a 91% probability of winning that hand. The river was a Qc and that sealed Kays Latin America’s Caribbean Adventure in Bahamas.
Martin Finger almost had his opportunity to make his “Triple Crown” but takes home a juicy check of $223,900. Kay’s prize is going to be well-spent with his two-year-old son and wife.
Among those who cashed yesterday were Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, (51st for $7k), Jonathan Karamalikis, Max Greenwood, Robert Mizrachi, Alex Bilokur, Paul Volpe, Antonio Lafosse, Tom Hall, Jussi Nevanlinna, Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Zachary Korik.
