All good things must come to an end, and now the first season of the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) is in the record books. After Julien Nuijten in Rio de Janeiro, Valdemar Kwaysser in San Jose, the third and final champion has also been crowned and is another European. His name is Jose Miguel Espinar, from Valencia, Spain.

The rain on the Spaniard: Jose Miguel Espinar emerges from the ticker tape as a champion

Espinar came through a tough final in Punta del Este, Uruguay and won an epic heads-up scrap against Team PokerStars Pro Alex Brenes of Costa Rica. But at the end, it came down to one big hand when both players got their level chip stacks in the middle with A-10 and A-9. Espinar had the advantage with A-10, and although Brenes thought he'd outdrawn the Spaniard when a nine flopped, the ten on the turn sealed the hand for Espinar.

Delight turns to despair as Alex Brenes outdraws but then is outdrawn on

That left Brenes with just 40,000 in chips, not even a small blind, and Espinar's king-three was enough to win it on the next hand.

The celebrations began, and music boomed out from the speakers. Espinar and his friends from Spain wiped away tears as he was crowned a worthy champion.

After two days of stiff competition at the Mantra Resort in Punta play resumed with a typically formidable line-up. Leading the way was Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes, fresh from World Series success.

But not even Gomes could get away from a hand against Alex Brenes at about the mid-point of the day, when he flopped straight and flush draws but missed both. Brenes, in fact, hit his straight and sent Gomes out in fourth.

By then, we had already accounted for Brazil's Paulo Cesar Ribeiro, Argentina's Juan Jose Perez, Brazil's Sydney Chreem and Canada's Gylbert Drolet in an all-action opening couple of levels.

We were only five minutes in when Ribeiro was forced out: he got all his chips in with pocket jacks, but Espinar, whose king-queen had tripped up on the flop, had trapped him.

Out went the first Brazilian and Espinar was up and running

Next up for the guillotine was Argentinean Perez, who also ran into the immovable object Espinar. This time Espinar had a suited ace-jack and was behind against Perez's pocket aces. But the flop, turn and river got progressively straighter for the Spaniard and the king on the river ended it. We were down to six.

For a while, it was all Lisandro Gallo. The Argentinian busted Brazilian Sidney Chreem with pocket sevens against Q-10. Then Canadian Gylbert Drolet took the walk.

He had been card dead for the whole final and had been reduced to a small stack when he got it all-in with jacks. But the vibrant Gallo, the most vociferous around the table for the best part of two days, called with ace-queen and ended up making a flush.

Then it was time for Gomes to go, to leave Gallo, Brenes and Espinar to fight it out three handed. Gallo was the short stack and although he was up and down a couple of times he eventually ran a pair of sixes into a pair of jacks and then a nine high into aces. Gallo shrugged, smiled, shook hands and walked.

The heads-up battle pitched two of the most accomplished players against one another. Espinar is a familiar face from the European Poker Tour whilst Brenes had already been on an LAPT final table -- in Rio in March. This heads-up battle had been brewing and then we had what we wanted. They jabbed, they parried, they ducked and weaved.

It went on for more than three levels before that big hand with the ace-ten and the ace-nine. And after all the money had gone in and all the chips had been shipped, they shook hands, hugged and knew it would all happen again some other day.

The first season of the Latin American Poker Tour is over. But it will all start again in November.

Gracias y adios.

All photographs (c) Joe Giron/IMPDI