It was another stacked final table -- the second one in two years -- for the Latin American Poker Tour Bahamas Main Event. The $2,200 buy-in tournament served because the launching point for Season 9 of the LAPT, and from a gaggle of decorated pros and top tournament talent, Georgios Sotiropoulos emerged because the champion and winner of a handsome $308,220 first prize.

Sotiropoulos becomes the primary ever LAPT champion to hail from Greece, and adds another nice piece of hardware to his collection after having won a WSOP Europe bracelet last fall plus a few silver spades previously earned in EPT side events. The money also ranks because the second-highest in his career, behind the €700,000 he earned for a runner-up within the EPT10 Prague Main Event.

Georgios Sotiropoulos - LAPT9 Bahamas Main Event Champion

From an enormous 851-entry field just 10 players remained to begin today's third and final day of play, with Sotiropoulos entering as chip leader. Andre Akkari of Team PokerStars Pro was a part of the overall day's group in addition representing Latin America from Brazil, but he would see his stack dwindle early before busting in 10th when his pocket sevens couldn't improve against Joe Kuether's pocket queens.

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari - 10th place

Not long after that Luc Greenwood of Canada was ousted in ninth in another battle of pocket pairs when his jacks couldn't overcome Taylor Von Kriegenbergh's pocket aces.

Luc Greenwood - 9th place

Sotiropoulos had lost the lead only briefly to Darren Elias throughout the early going today, but by the point the official final table began he was back in front and would never reliquish the lead again.

The LAPT9 Bahamas Main Event final table

Ismael Bojang, presently living in Austria although from Hamburg, Germany originally, was one of the vital short stacks with eight left, and he'd finally end up losing those chips to Elias after his pocket sevens couldn't hold against the latter's ace-deuce.

Ismael Bojang - 8th place

The pace slowed somewhat thereafter, but soon the blinds were simply too big for the shorter-stacked players to attend much longer, and a sequence of all-ins ensued with some called and others yielding double-ups.

Elias then found himself at the short side, and before long he was all in with a couple of tens against Sotiropoulos's pocket queens. A queen at the turn left the yankee drawing dead, and Elias was out in seventh.

Darren Elias - 7th place

Soon Sotiropoulos had become an amazing chip leader, moving up over 6 million at a time when nobody else had up to a 3rd of that. The circumstances were perfect for Sotiropoulos to exert pressure, and he did so relentlessly, opening most pots. He'd reraise-shove over others' three-bets as well, forcing folds and making things hard throughout for his more-than-worthy competitors.

Chad Eveslage will be the next out in sixth following a large three-way all-in hand through which his pair of queens was no match for Will Molson's ace-king or Von Kriegenberg's ace-queen after an ace came some of the community cards.

Chad Eveslage - 6th place

Molson then managed to seek out what gave the look of a great spot all in with ace-king against Sotiropoulos's ace-eight. But an eight came some of the community cards, and the Canadian who owns both a runner-up and a victory in PCA $25K High Rollers added a fifth-place finish to his impressive résumé.

Will Molson - 5th place

A little later Sotiropoulos will be the one knocking out Joe Kuether in fourth place in a preflop all-in that saw Kuether's pocket jacks fail to stick in front against the Greek player's queen-nine when Sotiropoulos rivered a flush. Kuether added nearly 100 grand to his tournament earnings, carrying him over the $5 million mark for his career.

Joe Kuether - 4th place

Knut Karnapp of Germany was the fast stack with three left -- much as he'd been for many of the day, in reality -- and he held on some time longer before finally running jack-ten into Von Kriegenbergh's pocket kings. Karnapp had no tourney scores to talk of previously, but now he has a pleasant line ending in "$132,080" to start out his page of cashes.

Knut Karnapp - 3rd place

That left Sotiropoulos and the yankee Von Kriegenbergh to battle heads-up, with Sotiropoulous having a greater than 3-to-1 advantage to start their duel.

Heads-up action

Von Kriegenbergh fought gamely, chipping up somewhat before finally succumbing in a hand that saw him flop top pair and get all his chips in at the turn, only to look that Sotiropoulos had flopped the nut flush and he was drawing dead.

Taylor Von Kriegenbergh - 2nd place

"I thought I played the hand well," Von Kriegenbergh said afterwards with a smile. "Sometimes the opposite guy just has the nuts!"

Indeed, both he and Sotiropoulos had done well to get to the tournament's final hand. Sotiropoulos noted how he well recognized the ICM implications resulting from the stack discrepancy early on on the final table, and thus correctly chose aggression to make the most. Von Kriegenbergh likewise remained wary of pay jumps and the stacks, picking his spots carefully to barter his way from ninth of 10 to begin the day to a runner-up finish.

Click here to read in the course of the live updates from today's exciting final day.

Georgios Sotiropoulous - LAPT9 Bahamas Main Event champion

LAPT9 Bahamas Main Event final table resultsEntries: 851Places paid: 127Prize pool: $1,650,940

1. Georgios Sotiropolous (Greece) $308,2202. Taylor Von Kriegenbergh (USA) $187,2203. Knut Karnapp (Germany) $132,0804. Joe Kuether (USA) $99,0605. Will Molson (Canada) $78,0806. Chad Eveslage (USA) $58,4407. Darren Elias (USA) $41,1008. Ismael Bojang (Austria) $28,900

Click here for an entire list of LAPT9 Bahamas Main Event payouts.

The LAPT next touches down in beautiful Viña del Mar for the LAPT9 Chile event in early March. But things are just really just getting started here on Paradise Island. Stick close here on the PokerStars Blog for continuing coverage of all the action from the 100-plus touranment schedule.

Want to be here next year? Join PokerStars and begin your journey. Click here to get an account.

Take a glance on the official website of the PCA, with tournament schedule, videos, news, blogs and accommodation details for the Atlantis Resort within the Bahamas.

Also all the schedule information is at the EPT App, that's available on both Android or IOS.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Latin American Poker Tour]