Shakeeb Kazemipur Denies the Lady in LAPT8 Panama

In the end, it turned out that LAPT8 Main Event had Shakeeb Kazemipur's name written on the trophy all along and his fall to the second place in chip counts at the end of penultimate day was just a small setback.

However, his short fall of grace opened the doors for another player, Olga Iermolcheva from Ukraine to seize the lead and she was the one who started the day with the lead. Iermolchova just made it in time for the tournament as she flew half way across the world after the EPT11 Grand Final to play in Panama; her efforts paid off handsomely, but she couldn't outlast Kazemipur in the heads-up confrontation.

Canadian native seized the momentum at the very start of play, eliminating the short stack Derek Ecenarro who was all too happy to get it in with pocket Nines. However, he was way behind as Shakeeb turned over pocket Aces to end his Panama adventure.

Ecenarro took home $21,220 for his efforts while Kazemipur continued his mission to eliminate the short stacks, increasing his own chip count in the process. First fell Pierce Mckellar and then Damian Salas found two red fives in the hole and got his chips in the middle but couldn't win a flip against the Canadian who was clearly on fire again. Mckellar and Salas earned $29,880 and $39,760 respectively for their LAPT performance.

Ukrainian lady was silent during these initial stages of play, but she started to awaken sometime middle way through the final table. It was Iermolcheva who claimed the next scalp although it was quite a sweat. Francois Lincourt moved in with 57 and was in rough shape against Olga's pocket Nines. However, the flop of 678 gave Canadian all sorts of outs. None of them materialized by the river and Lincourt had to be satisfied with $50,740 payday.

It looked like Iermolcheva was about to pick up some speed but as it turned out, it wouldn't last. Shakeeb continued his dominance in Panama sending yet another player to the rail. This time it was Chilean Francisco Rocha who couldn't hold despite of getting it in with dominating hand. Fourth place finish was good for $64,700, but the dream of title had to postponed for another time.

Before the heads-up stage would be set up another player had to go and that one was Tullio Bertoli of Venezuela. He ran his a3 into pocket Kings of unstoppable Canadian and, not surprisingly, board bricked, sending him to the rail with $81,460 to his name.

And then they were two. Although Kazemipur eliminated all but one player from the final table, Iermolcheva started with a slight lead. After some play, she was able to grab a sizeable lead, leaving Shakeeb with a short stack and it looked like we would have a lady winner in Panama.

But it wasn't meant to be. Kazemipur managed to double up in a crucial flip and then, in sync with his great run throughout the tournament, interrupted only by small setbacks, he picked up pocket Aces at a decisive moment and the fat lady sang.

Olga Iermolcheva will not regret her rushing from Monaco to play here as she takes $113,580 back home to Ukraine, but there is always some pain after losing a heads-up. Shakeeb Kazemipur felt none of that pain as he was the one standing tall, picking up the trophy and some spending money in the amount of $180,112.

On to the next one!

Photos: Carlos Monti, PokerStars Blog