Demo Kirlopoulos Triumphs At Punta Cana Poker Classic

Demo Kirlopoulos has won the 2011 Punta Cana Poker Classic after overcoming a field of 415 players over four days to lift the title, and collect the $136,950 first place prize.
The $1,500 buy-in main event at the Hard Rock Hotel Casino in the Dominican Republic managed to attract a whole slew of poker pros to the beautiful Caribbean resort.
Amongst the notable names falling by the wayside along the way were  Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Humberto Brenes, Peter Cross, McLean Karr, Melina Villegas, Amanda Leatherman Evelyn Ng and Tatjana Pasalic.
By the time the final table of nine had been reached, Jessica Bedoya was the last woman standing but was soon dispatched in 9th for $13,000. As the remaining finalists followed suit, eventually just Canadian player Demo Kirlopoulos and Evan Mauer from the USA were left to decide who would be crowned champion.
Despite Kiriopoulos (5.1m) starting the heads-up battle ahead of his rival Mauer on 3.3m, the American took the lead after his AK was up against the K-5 of Demo with the flop falling K-5-2. An ace on the river kept his tournament hopes alive, though, and the heads-up then raged on for around five and a half hours before the final hand was played.
Kirlopoulos had been dealt A-10 to Mauer’s K-Q and with the flop falling 10-K-10, all the chips were pushed to the centre of the table. This time, however,there was to be no lucky escapes and so Evan Mauer finished the runner-up for $82,792, while Demo Kirlopoulos became the 2011 Punta Cana Poker Classic champion.
Heaping praise on his heads-up opponent, Evan Mauer commented:
“It was a great ride and having all the Bodog players behind me at the end gave me a huge amount of confidence – I just wish I could have gone all the way but hat’s off to Demo Kirlopoulos, he played a fantastic game all week.”