When the day began we noted the presence of Rafael Pardo, the Colombian who was coming to his career fourth LAPT Main Event final table.
That puts him one behind the overall leader in that category, Team PokerStars Pro Jose “Nacho” Barbero, and immediately garners him respect among his peers as a player to contend with no matter the size of his stack.
Pardo had finished seventh twice and third once before at LAPT Main Events, and today managed to spin his short stack up quickly in the early going, even grabbing the lead momentarily before start-of-day leader Patricio Rojas of Chile seized it back.
He’d hang on all of the way to heads-up play against Rojas where he started with a greater than 4-to-1 disadvantage. He continued battling, though after a couple dozen hands hadn’t been able to improve his status and was down to 1.99 million while Rojas was nearing the 9 million-chip mark.
That’s when a hand arose in which Pardo limped in from the button, then Rojas reraised to 420,000 in response. Pardo hesitated a few moments, then announced he was all in, and Rojas sat in contemplation for a while before responding.
Finally the Chilean raised his head from the fist on which it rested and nodded that he was calling, and the players tabled their hands.
Rojas: A♥ 10♣
Pardo: A♣ 2â™
Aces for both, with Rojas’s kicker giving him the edge in the hand to go along with his advantage in chips. The 7♦ 4♣ Jâ™ was no help for Pardo and the Q♦ turn left him searching for a saving deuce on fifth street to survive.
Alas for Pardo, the river was the 8â™ . Another of the many roars we’ve heard all day from the crowd in attendance followed, and Rojas shook Pardo’s hand and gave him a hug, congratulating him for coming oh-so-close yet again at a LAPT Main Event final table.
Pardo earns an even $100,000 for his finish. Meanwhile, Rojas exhaled and pumped a fist, smiling a little with the knowledge he’d won at not only his first LAPT Main Event final table, but his first live tourney final table, period!
Back in a short while with a full recap of today’s action and another wild, exciting week on the LAPT.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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