Mexican Poker Tour Event Concludes — Finally!

March 18, 2009 (InfoPowa News) — Online poker company PokerStar's live poker tourney in Mexico, the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour Mexico, was disrupted and the main event halted following a ban by local Nuevo Vallarta bureaucrats late last year (see previous reports), requiring the company to reorganize what was left of the main event to ensure it was fairly concluded for the 89 players still in action.
 
This week saw that conclusion achieved after the firm arranged an online freeroll for the survivors to play down to a final table of nine, eventually locating that final table event just prior to this week's LAPT Uruguay stop. In a handsome and generous gesture to the players, PokerStars added $50,000 to the original prize pool.
 
San Francisco player Rory Cox (26) started the game with a significant chip lead from the online competition and went on to dominate the final table, facing Alex Brenes, Helen Prager, Victor Ramdin, Bolivar Palacios, Pavel Naydenov, Martha Herrera, Steven Thompson and Leonardo Emperador across the felt.
 
Having eliminated most of his opponents, Cox went into the heads up against fellow American Helen Prager with a 5-to-1 chip lead, but the feisty Prager played with talent and spirit, doubling up twice to catch Cox and at one stage actually take the chip lead. It was not to last, however, and some two hours later Cox was declared the winner, pocketing a $15,000 check for a decent return on his original $2,500 Main Event buy-in. Prager took home $11,000 for her second placing.