PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – Chile’s poker pro Roberto Carvallo has defeated field of 382 entries to take home $97,590 after striking a heads-up deal during Punta Cana Poker Classic 2017.
The event attracted 382 entries to the beautiful five-star Melia Caribe Tropical Hotel Resort on the easternmost tip of the Dominican Republic, the CardPlayer reported.
The $1,650 buy-in tournament sported a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 which was easily surpassed by the strong turnout. In the end $555,810 in total prize money was awarded to the top 45 finishers in this event, with the largest share going to eventual champion Roberto Carvallo.
“The final table was tough, I started the day with only a few chips and had the luck to win some flips,” Carvallo said in a video interview on sponsor Americas Cardroom’s YouTube channel.
ACR ran online satellites to the event which awarded $4,900 packages to the tournament, including airfare, six-night accommodations, food and beverage packages, entry into the tournament and much more.
Carvallo, who won a live satellite into the main event, entered the nine-handed final table in sixth chip position with 448,000. The chip leader to start the day was Santiago Soriano with 3,945,000. Soriano was ultimately eliminated in third place when he called an all-in shove from Carvallo. Soriano was ahead with the AClub Suit4Diamond Suit but failed to hold up against Carvallo’s KSpade SuitJDiamond Suit on a 10Diamond Suit5Spade Suit2Diamond SuitKHeart SuitQDiamond Suit board.
Soriano earned $50,025 as the third-place finisher and Carvallo entered heads-up play at a slight chip disadvantage to American Jamin Stokes.
Carvallo and Stokes battled it out for a while, with a number of lead changes. At one point the two drew relatively level in chips, with Carvallo holding a slight advantage and the two agreed to chop the remaining prize pool for $97,590 each. They then went all-in on the next hand to determine who would be the official winner of the title and the trophy. Carvallo was dealt the 10Diamond Suit3Heart Suit and found himself up against the 9Club Suit8Diamond Suit of Stokes. The board ran out 6Diamond Suit3Club Suit2Heart Suit3Spade Suit7Heart Suit and Carvallo made trips to secure the pot and the title.
Carvallo followed in the footsteps of 2016 champion Eduards Kudrjavcevs, 2015 winner Luis Yepez and notable poker pro Ari Engel, who took home the title in 2014.
