(Photo: Prensapoker.com)
After a tough final table, Chilean Roberto Carvallo outlasted 382 other players to win this year's Punta Cana Poker Classic.
The Punta Cana Poker Classic is a $1,650 buy-in tournament celebrated every year at the Melia Caribe Tropical Hotel Resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic and has a $500,000 guaranteed.
The 382 entries created a total prize pool of $555,810 awarded to the top 45 finishers with $120,425 going to the first place.
Winning Poker Network offered $4,900 satellites to the event that included airfare and a six-night stay and was Crypto currency friendly, with players being able to buy in and cash out in Bitcoin.
Carvallo entered the tournament through a live satellite that ran in the Melia Caribe Tropical Hotel Resort just before the main event.
Before this event, he had won the 2016 Enjoy Poker Series Main Event and a Latin Poker Series Montecillo Main Event, both celebrated in his home country of Chile, though neither was as profitable as his PCPC cash.
At the start of the nine-handed final table, Santiago Soriano from Spain had an overwhelming lead with 3,945,000 in chips, while Carvallo only had 448,000.
As players were eliminated at a rapid pace, Carvallo and the American player Jamin Stokes chipped away from Soriano's stack until he had 1,100,000 in chips, which he ultimately lost to an all-in shove from Carvallo.
Roberto Carvallo shoved from the big blind with a King of Spades and a Jack of Diamonds and Soriano called with an Ace of Clubs and a four of diamonds, the turn paired Carvallo's King eliminating Soriano from the tournament in 3rd place earning $50,025.
Carvallo played heads up with Stokes for a long while. Stokes entered heads up with a disadvantage but showed that he would not be pushed around like a tourist. The lead changed hands several times and the two were equally matched, leading to them equally chopping the prize pool for $97,590 each.
They both went all-in on the next hand to have an official winner which Carvallo took down with a trip of threes, becoming the official winner of this year's Punta Cana Poker Classic Main Event.
The Final Table results were as follows:
| 1 | Roberto Carvallo | $97.590 |
| 2 | Jamin Stokes | $97.590 |
| 3 | Santiago Soriano | $50.025 |
| 4 | Benjamin Craig | $39.185 |
| 5 | Julian Kaplan | $29.180 |
| 6 | Lucas Smith | $23.620 |
| 7 | Cristopher Cardinale | $18.900 |
| 8 | Kalman Dohany | $14.730 |
| 9 | James Casement | $11.395 |
You can watch Carvallo’s post-tournament interview below: