After a successful start that saw 242 players commit $2,700 in the first ever Mexican stop of the Latin America Poker Tour, tournament officials were forced to cancel the the event midstream under pressure from the Mexican government.

This unheard of situation is still in flux, but apparently after observing the tournament for most of Day 1, government officials abruptly decided to rescind the LAPT's gaming license. Soon after, players, media, and LAPT staff were forced to leave the tournament area of the Marvial Resort.

At the time of the tournament's suspension, 89 players still remained including PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer who was busy nursing a very healthy stack. The fate of the those final 89 was undecided for a while, but eventually the decision was made to officially cancel the remainder of the event and compensate those players who still had chips.

According to the live coverage of the event on PokerNews.com, the final 89 players will be given $5,000 each (basically double the buy-in) with the remaining money in the prize pool distributed based on the chip counts at the time play was halted. PokerStars has also promised to give $500 to each remaining player, for having to deal with the unfortunate situation.

In the official statement, which can be found at www.lapt.com, organizers confirm that they "cooperated fully and in good faith with the requirements outlined by the Mexican government." Despite their efforts, they were forced to cancel the event in Nuevo Vallarta, "due to an indefinite suspension served on one of its local partners."

Story by Mark Anderson