Kristina Jeney overcame illness, a monster field and an aggressive final table to score arguably the biggest result of her burgeoning poker career by taking out the $330 Sydney Championships Opening Event at Star City.

Buoyed by a breakthrough year in which she has cashed for well over $100,000, Jeney showed tremendous composure to build a big stack early and then dominate the latter stages of a final table that boasted the likes of 2010 NPL 500 champion Terry Tserdanis, noted tournament pro Patrick Fletcher and overnight chip leader Michael Ryan, who finished fourth at this year’s Aussie Millions.

She collected $37,408 for her win.“I played really solid,” she said. “I started Day 2 with about 30,000 in chips which was right on average but made it to the final table third which was really good. “It’s great to win but I’m exhausted now. I’ve been sick the past three days and wasn’t even supposed to play so I’m pretty happy to get this one.”

Jeney won a big pot early when she flopped a full house holding pocket Jacks but it was a massive flip against fellow big stack Michael Ryan with three players remaining that set her on the path for victory.

The pair had tussled throughout the day with Jeney at one stage calling time as Ryan tanked to consider a shove from a shorter stack with five players still in the hunt. Ryan, in disbelief, replied ‘Are you serious? You’re out of line’ before eventually folding but it was Jeney that had the final say when she later called Ryan’s shove to be racing with A-10s against his 3s.

The flop was a safe one for Ryan but running diamonds gave Jeney the nut flush and saw her take a huge 7:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Kris Nestorovic. Facing such a deficit, Nestorovic barely put up a fight as Jeney steamrolled her way to victory.

On the final hand, the chips all went into the middle on a 3-4-6 board with Jeney holding 10-5s for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw and Nestorovic with 4-7 for middle pair.

The 8 on the turn didn’t change anything but the river 2 gave Jeney the straight and the win. “I felt like I played heads- up pretty solid – I put the pressure on him,” she said. “I didn’t have amazing cards but I had the stack so I thought I could use that to put him to some decisions.
“Also, he was very aggressive so he was an easier player to play back at. “But I think I played the final table really well and I picked my spots. There were a few hands when I got a bit lucky but to win any tournament you’ve just got to play the best you can and hope that your hands hold. You can’t do any more than that.”

A total of 510 players – including Aaron Benton, Grant Levy, Brendon Rubie, Sam Khouiss, Andrew Scarf and Martin Rowe – stumped up the $330 entry fee for the Opening Event, creating a prize pool of $153,000 and setting the tone for a huge week ahead.

2011 Sydney Championships Opening Event Results

1st Kristina Jeney – $37,408
2nd Kris Nestorovic – $23,485
3rd Michael Ryan – $12,928
4th Yek Goky – $10,021
5th Patrick Vartuli – $8,109
6th Patrick Fletcher – $6,579
7th Marcial Dias – $5,049
8th Terry Tserdanis – $3,825
9th Joseph Deguara – $2,754

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker