Julien Nuijten wins LA...

Tuesday, May. 6. 2008

Rio Grande! Nuijten Victorious at LAPT Brazil!

By Matthew Showell | Other

It's not every day that a major poker tournament escapes the iron grip of the PokerListings.com tournament reporting juggernaut but the inaugural stop on the PokerStars.com Latin American Poker Tour came close. After a long-drawn-out battle with the Brazilian embassy to get our visas we were forced to admit defeat and slake our thirst for action via our good friends at PokerStars.com.

And so we were forced to remain in the desolate wilderness that is Vancouver in May with nothing but Wikipedia pictures of Rio with which to console ourselves.

Thanks to our many well-placed operatives throughout the poker underground we've put together a clear picture of what went down and how a 19-year-old from Holland walked away with over $220,000.

The PokerListings.com news team was running a parallel investigation of the proceedings in question and brought us a detailed look at the nine lucky individuals who survived the first two days to earn a seat at the final table. Now that we're familiar with the participants, let's find out what sort of resistance young Julien Nuijten met on his way to his first major victory.

After the 314-player starting field was whittled down to the nine who had a legitimate chance at the title, the eventual champion was left in a commanding position with more than twice the stack of his nearest competition, Vitaly Kovyazin. In the end it would come down to these two going toe-to-toe to see who would be known henceforth as the best in Brazil.

The final table.

Before that could happen seven of their colleagues would have to go the way of the exit. This process didn't take long to get started as the short stack du jour, Severin Walser of Switzerland, shoved less than 30 minutes into the first level of the day. He picked a terrible time to do it, as it turned out, and saw his A-J absolutely crushed by Rafael Pardo's wired aces. $11,775 was his payment as the remaining eight continued with the business at hand.

Close to 90 minutes would pass before the next bustication, in which time Juan Carlos Burguillos found himself deep in the danger zone. With just $56,000, and blinds of $8,000/$16,000, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something had to be done.

That something turned out to be an all-in reraise over the top of an Oliver Kugler opener. Kugler, priced into the hand, made the call and saw his A-9 had a slight edge over Burguillos' Q-8. The board came and went, leaving ace-high the best hand and sending the all-in player on his way, $15,700 richer.

Colombia's Rafael Pardo was next on the block, getting the chop in seventh place after shipping his short stack with 9-T and getting called by both Julien Nuijten and Vitaly Kovyazin. After the flop came down K-9-4 rainbow Nuijten pushed Kovyazin out of the hand with a small bet and tabled K-Q. The all-in Pardo was in need of help but got none, taking instead the $23,500 seventh-place cash.

Chip leader no more.

During this time Vitaly Kovyazin had been amassing chips and managed to usurp Nuijten's position at the top of the leaderboard. Adding to said lead, Kovyazin sent Germany's Oliver Kugler home in sixth place. No pre-flop all-ins for these two. They played a hand all the way to the turn with Kugler doing the betting every step of the way.

With the board reading T 4 3 2, Kugler moved in and got a snap-call from his opponent. A 6 for Kozyazin had Kugler's Q Q drawing dead going to the meaningless river, resulting in Kugler taking $31,400 with him back to the Fatherland.

With Brazilians making up the largest component of the starting field it was surprising to see only one make the final table. Eduardo Henriques represented the hosting country's last hope, a hope that would soon be dashed.

Henriques picked a great spot to make a move but was snapped off by a shrewd call from the eventual champion.

Nuijten opened the pot to $55,000 and Henriques shoved for a little over $150,000. Nuijten paid the difference and turned over A 5, which was out in front of the hometown hero's 7 8. An eight on the flop gave Henriques, and his cheering section, a clear view of the double-up but that vista was quickly obscured by the ace on the river. $47,100 and his country's adulation went to Henriques for his fifth-place finish.

You mean Rio isn't just a casino in Vegas?

The only player even resembling a name in the poker world to make this final table was Alex Brenes, brother to the ever-understated Humberto. Brenes was in dire need of chips, working with next to nothing, and quickly found himself all-in with Q-3 to Q-9. Q-9 took the pot and Brenes took $62,800 for fourth.

Making way for heads-up play with his third-place elimination was Nikolai Senniger. Ending up all-in with pocket jacks to the cowboys of Julien Nuijten, he was unable to turn things around, but was rewarded with $86,350 for his effort.

As endgame began the stacks were near even, with Nuijten holding a negligible lead over Kozyazin. Through aggressive play and intelligent decisions Nuijten took control of the match and soon had the makings of a dominant chip lead. Enduring a few bumps along the road coming in the way of miracle cards for Kozyazin, Nuijten finally got his opponent all-in and was able to make it stick.

Nuijten opened pre-flop and got a call, allowing both players to see the flop of Q 7 7. A flurry of betting and raising ensued before the turn brought the 2.The rest of the money went in and Nuijten tabled 7 8 for the flopped trips and the turned flush. His opponent was drawing to the over-full with Q 5. The river was not a queen though and that, as they say, was that.

Ship it back to Holland.

$222,000 and change plus the first-ever LAPT title now represent the first major notches in Julien Nuijten's belt. Vitaly Kovyazin had to settle for $117,750 and a brush with victory.

PokerListings.com wishes it could have been in Rio alongside the winner and the always-affable PokerStars crew but it just wasn't in the cards this time around. Special thanks go to PokerStars for keeping us in the loop as well as to Joe Giron for snapping the scintillating photos you see adorning this page. As always, we implore you to hop on PokerStars and earn your way to a victory just like our young Dutch friend. If you play your cards right you can even do it for free.