Event 1: $330 Opening Event
Entries: 724
Prizepool: $217,256
1st – Naji Hassoun ($51,836)
2nd – Peter Prazis ($32,452)
3rd – Aaron Benton ($17,100)
4th – Luke Kelly ($13,176)
5th – Matthew Woodards ($10,781)
6th – Suzy Khoueis ($8,276)
7th – Ryan Davis ($6,098)
8th – Alan Casas ($4,356)
9th – Tristan Earl ($3158)
10th – Osama Hassan ($2286)
11th – Ross Coveny ($2286)
12th – Gerhard Niess ($2,286)
13th – Adam Ratten ($2069)
14th – Peter McCarthy ($2069)
15th – Laurence Hall ($2,069)
16th – Mark Longhurst ($1,851)
17th – Steven Faulkner ($1,851)
18th – Tu Tran ($1,851)
19th – Samuel Kennedy ($1,633)
20th – Ronnie Shabtay ($1,633)
21st – Robert Chapman ($1,633)
22nd – Alex Wayne ($1,415)
23rd – Alexander Trevallion ($1,415)
24th – Milad Elazzi ($1,415)
25th – Christopher Wong ($1,200)
26th – Rodrigo Meneses ($1,200)
27th – Mark Grant ($1,200)
28th – Florian Taube ($1,200)
29th – Joseph Falcomata ($1,200)
30th – Troy Parkinson ($1,200)
31st – Hun Wei Lee ($1,200)
32nd – Joe Logozzo ($1,200)
33rd – Kenrick Leh ($1,089)
34th – Con Diakovasilis ($1,089)
35th – Fred Madon ($1,089)
36th – Darren Cottrell ($1,089)
37th – Michael Malki ($1,089)
38th – Aaron Mordey ($1,089)
39th – David Mahone ($1,089)
40th – Chris Lee ($980)
41st – Zhanghua Chen ($980)
42nd – Hussein Mrad ($980)
43rd – David Pham ($980)
44th – Nick Velcic ($980)
45th – James Tysoe ($980)
46th – Peter Patrick ($980)
47th – Tony Kondevski ($871)
48th – Karam Bahi ($871)
49th – Russell Davies ($871)
50th – Brad Fowler ($871)
51st – Cezary Klimczak ($871)
52nd – Tomas Navascues ($871)
53rd – Geoff Mooney ($871)
54th – Denis Jankovic ($762)
55th – Ivan Zadravec ($762)
56th – Charbel Boustami ($762)
57th – Stephen Dwek ($762)
58th – Weng Cheong Wong ($762)
59th – John Shin ($762)
60th – Charles Demanuele ($762)
61st – Nabil Edgtton ($653)
62nd – Todd Allison ($653)
63rd – Rick Solomon ($653)
64th – Darryl Lau ($653)
65th – Rathesnan Kulenthiraras ($653)
66th – Sean Lannon ($653)
67th – Sam Ioannou ($653)
68th – Ron Faul ($544)
69th – Anthony Tarabay ($544)
70th – Jamie Porra ($544)
71st – Ning Zhang ($544)
72nd – Hanna Nakhoul ($544)

Event 2: $1,100 Special No Limit Holdem
Entries: 98
Prizepool: $98,000
1st – Blaze Scott-Hutchinson ($29,400)
2nd – James Tai ($19,600)
3rd – John Shin ($14,210)
4th – Zac Boustani ($9,310)
5th – Hong-lin Jiang ($6,860)
6th – Jim Pizanias ($5,145)
7th – Chris Lee ($4,410)
8th – Haibo Chu ($3,675)
9th – Michael Tran ($2,940)
10th – Jackson Zheng ($2,450)

Event 3: $440 Semi-Shootout
Entries: 78
Prizepool: $31,200
1st – Rabii Matouk ($11,544)
2nd – Chris Bridle ($7,800)
3rd – Mel Judah ($4,680)
4th – Alan Bustany ($3,120)
5th – Andrew Scarf ($2,340)
6th – Lawford Edwards ($1,716)

Event 4:$550 Six-Handed
Entries: 126
Prizepool: $63,000
1st – Timo Pfutzenreter ($16,380)
2nd – Rick Solomon ($11,025)
3rd – John Maklouf ($8,190)
4th – Benjamin Pockett ($5,355)
5th – Dale Marsland ($4,095)
6th – Nurlan Boobekov ($3,309)
7th – Daniel Saade ($2,047)
8th – Antonis Kambouroglou ($2,047)
9th – Ross Stevenson ($2,047)
10th – Hung-Tu Wang ($1,575)
11th – Eddie Saade ($1,575)
12th – Jason Pritchard ($1,575)
13th – Martin Kozlov ($1,260)
14th – Andrew Mellado ($1,260)
15th – Manuel Hansimikali ($1,260)

Event 5: $440 Team No Limit Holdem
Teams: 65
Prizepool: $26,000
1st – Alexander Antonious & Nabil Edgtton ($8,450)
2nd – Peter Aristidou & Toan Nguyen ($5,460)
3rd – Colin McComley & Dave Traynor ($3,900)
4th – Olivia Andre & Valerie Defossez ($2,600)
5th – Fabrice Ho & Florent Mathey ($1,950)
6th – Sidney Brandon & Robert Harris ($1,430)
7th – Robert Spano & Peter Dykes ($1,170)
8th – Jazz Mathers & Garan Sharpe ($1,040

Event 6: $440 Pot Limit Omaha
Entries: 89
Prizepool: $35,600
1st – Dennis Huntly ($10,680)
2nd – Tommy Yi ($7,120)
3rd – Simon Palmer ($5,162)
4th – Albeir Moussa ($3,362)
5th – Andrew Stergiotis ($2,492)
6th – Ludovic Citerne ($1,869)
7th – Andrew Mellado ($1,602)
8th – David Maclean ($1,335)
9th – Liem Tran ($1,068)
10th – Marcus Pritchard ($890)

Event 7: $2,200 ANZPT Sydney Main Event
Entries: 461 players
Prizepool: $922,000
1st – Gordon Huntly ($226,812)
2nd – Liam O’Rourke ($144,754)
3rd – Anthony Aston ($80,214)
4th – Stewart Ballard ($62,696)
5th – Jason O’Brien ($48,405)
6th – Oliver Speidel ($39,185)
7th – Craig Blight ($29,965)
8th – Bradley Lancken ($23,511)
9th – Martin Rowe ($17,518)
10th – Alec Smith ($11,525)
11th – Erich Stadler ($11,525)
12th – Nicholas Heather ($11,525)
13th – Mishel Anunu ($9,220)
14th – Stephen Lindeblad ($9,220)
15th – Kristina Griffiths ($9,220)
16th – Sam Capra ($7,837)
17th – Toby Ryall ($7,837)
18th – Jason Pritchard ($7,837)
19th – Jim Collopy ($6,454)
20th – Laurence Hall ($6,454)
21st – Luke Downes ($6,454)
22nd – Damien Walsh ($5,532)
23rd – Peco Stojanovski ($5,532)
24th – John Parker ($5,532)
25th – Luke Brabin ($5,071)
26th – Luke Edwards ($5,071)
27th – Bill Kennedy ($5,071)
28th – Nicholas Polias ($4,610)
29th – Jim Sachinidis ($4,610)
30th – Lee Hun ($4,610)
31st – Zhu Wei ($4,610)
32nd – Daniel Ibrahim ($4,610)
33rd – Didier Guerin ($4,610)
34th – Shaun Elliot ($4,610)
35th – Zhixin Yao ($4,610)
36th – Jason Hamilton ($4,610)
37th – Dean Yuen ($4,149)
38th – Suzy Khoueis ($4,149)
39th – Toan Nguyen ($4,149)
40th – Paul Roseta ($4,149)
41st – Ronnie Shabtay ($4,149)
42nd – Nabil Edgtton ($4,149)
43rd – Adam Bevis ($4,149)
44th – Edgar Monenegro ($4,149)
45th – Chad Awerbuch ($4,149)
46th – Tony Kondevski ($3,688)
47th – Omer Silatozija ($3,688)
48th – Michael O’Grady ($3,688)
49th – Nicholas Lamport ($3,688)
50th – Guy Delahaye ($3,688)
51st – Rhys Gould ($3,688)
52nd – Andrew Mellado ($3,688)
53rd – Dean McIver ($3,688)
54th – Gerhard Niess ($3,688)

Event 8: $220 Turbo No Limit Holdem
Entries: 117
Prizepool: $23,400
1st – Peter Aristidou ($6,435)
2nd – Adam Cosgrave ($4,446)
3rd – Dale Marsland ($3,276)
4th – Martin Comer ($2,223)
5th – Philip Dong ($1,638)
6th – Peter Matusik ($1,229)
7th – Brian Mcallister ($994)
8th – Uday Poonia ($819)
9th – Russel Davies ($703)
10th – Alan Bustany ($585)
11th – Mitchell Macedo ($526)
12th – David Lacchia ($526)

Event 9: $5,000 Challenge
Entries: 23
Prizepool: $109,250
1st – Grant Levy ($54,625)
2nd – Michel Bouskila ($32,775)
3rd – Jai Kemp ($21,850)

Compiled by: Poker Asia Pacific

After thirteen days and nine events Sydney Championships has finally wrapped up.

The third annual Sydney Championships was a successful campaign and had many of Australia’s top pros participating.

Congratulations to Star City Big Game Poker’s management Stephen Ibrahim and Julie Smedley (pictured), Poker marketing manager Peter Yang and all the poker staff  for designing and running a magnificent tournament campaign.

Congratulations also goes out to all the winners of the nine events.

There are more big  poker tournaments to come at Star City. We will keep you updated as they are announced.

Below are the results for each event:

EVENT 1 – OPENING EVENT NLH
1st – Kristina L. Jeney – $37,408
2nd – Kristivoje Nestorovic – $23,485
3rd – Michael Ryan – $12,928
4th – Yekta Gokyidrim – $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
10th – Michael J Harrington – $1,989
11th – Kiel Cram – $1,989
12th – Benny Phillips – $1,989
13th – Adrian Liew – $1,607
14th – Sam Khouiss – $1,607
15th – Brendan Rubie – $1,607
16th – Todor Kondevski – $1,377
17th – Ashley Johnstone – $1,377
18th – Todd Allison – $1,377
19th – Chris Lee – $1,224
20th – Christopher Harris – $1,224
21st – Fereno Matus – $1,224
22nd – David Hirst – $1,071
23rd – Nathan Sawyers – $1,071
24th – Jason Pritchard – $1,071
25th – Shuai Chang – $918
26th – Adam Agresta – $918
27th – David J Menz – $918
28th – Shiva Panchalingam – $841
29th – En Xin Jan – $841
30th – Alan Casas – $841
31st – Jimmy Ghobrial – $841
32nd – John Dale – $841
33rd – Joshua Foster – $841
34th – Chris Bridle – $765
35th – Marcus Pritchard – $765
36th – Ross Stevenson – $765
37th – Tat Hung Wong – $765
38th – Chris Ayoub – $765
39th – Teresa-Ann Natoli – $765
40th – Matthew J Rolfe – $765
41st – Quoc Nguyen – $689
42nd – Joey Masangcay – $689
43rd – Timothy De Pater – $689
44th – Jeremie lopez – $689
45th – Jonathone Prime – $689
46th – David Ndaira – $689
47th – Mete Teoman – $689
48th – Sam Capra – $612
49th – Khee-Trung Tran – $612
50th – Simon Cartile – $612
51st – Peter Apostolu – $612
52nd -Azz Benton – $612

EVENT 2 – AUSTRALIAN POKER WEEKLY NLH
1st – Rhys Gould – $18,270
2nd – Steve Zhou – $11,340
3rd – Effie Bouyioukos – $7,245
4th – Amit Shahi – $5,040
5th – David Logan – $4,410
6th – Nathan Davis – $3,780
7th – Vlastimil Kral – $3,150
8th – Simon Palmer – $2,520
9th – Obrad Milinkovic – $1,890
10th – Giuseppe Gumina – $1,575
11th – Craig Blight – $1,260
12th – Michael Weiss – $1,260
13th – Julian Malki – $1,260

EVENT 3 – LADIES NLH
1st – Cheryl Paton – $2,660
2nd – Suzy Khoueis – $1,596
3rd – Ruth Jones – $1,064

EVENT 4 – $1K SYDNEY SPECIAL NLH
1st – Nhon Ta – $21,450
2nd – Eddie Saade – $13,860
3rd – Nicholas Wright – $9,900
4th – David Sanis – $6,600
5th – Trudie Sultana – $4,950
6th – Honglin Jiang – $3,630
7th – David Menz – $2,970
8th – Wei Zhu – $2,640

EVENT 5 – POT LIMIT OMAHA
1st – Minh Hau Nguyen – $12,838
2nd – Gregory Cook – $8,097
3rd – Neil Mortimer-Fox – $5,333
4th – Martin Poytress – $3,752
5th – Zhixin Yao – $2,963
6th – Anthony Kanaan – $2,567
7th – Michael Mariakis – $2,173
8th – Michael Cook – $1,777

EVENT 6 – SIX HANDED NLH
1st – Daniel Neilson – $15,260
2nd – Ciaran Sharpe – $10,220
3rd – John Donohue – $7,840
4th – David St Eloi – $5,320
5th -Andrew Scarf – $3,920
6th – Kyle Greenway – $2,940
7th – Jackqeline Glazier – $2,100
8th – David Rodwell – $2,100
9th – Peco Stojanovski – $2,100
10th – Michael Comer – $1,400
11th – Nhon Huu Ta – $1,400
12th – Guilano Nobili – $1,400

EVENT 7 – TEAMS NLH
1st  -  Michael Barnes / Tom Barnes – $8,100
2nd – Toby Ryall / Nick Polias – $4,500
3rd – Nashman Nashaar /Adrian K Liew – $3,240
4th – Graeme Putt / Joseph Cabret – $2,160

EVENT 8 – MAIN EVENT
1st – Errolyn Strang – $119,542
2nd – John Donohue – $75,600
3rd – Kamyar Ekrami – $42,525
4th – Michael O’Grady – $33,075
5th – Graham Hounsell – $27,169
6th – Tom Motherwell – $22,207
7th – Nick Polias – $17,483
8th – Narbeh Hovsepian – $13,703
9th – Hang Ngoc Nhan – $9,923
10th – Daniel Leather – $7,087
11th – Maryann Farrugia – $7,087
12th – David Campbell – $7,087
13th – Yekta Gokyildirim – $5,906
14th – Jason Gray – $5,906
15th – Nhon Huu Ta – $5,906
16th – Jackqueline Glazier – $5,198
17th – Hun Wei Lee – $5,198
18th – John Thompson – $5,198
19th – Trudyie Sultana – $4,725
20th – Tty Ly – $4,725
21st – Justin Cohen – $4,725
22nd – Bruce Hall – $4,253
23rd – Michel Bouskila – $4,253
24th – Nabil Edgtton – $4,253
25th – Sheldon Mayer – $3,780
26th – Connie Lal – $3,780
27th – Sam Steindl – $3,780
28th – Laurence Hall – $3,307
29th – Chris Bridle – $3,307
30th – Obrad Milinkovic – $3,307
31st – Jason Ward – $2,835
32nd – Minh Hau Nguyen – $2,835
33rd – Marc Liddell – $2,835

EVENT 9 – CHARITY EVENT
1st – Joel Cohen – $1,400
2nd – Phillip Baker – $600

After an eventful fortnight that has seen seven new side event champions crowned, the long awaited Sydney Championships Main Event finally got underway yesterday with 135 players taking their seats and a shot at winning one of Australia’s most prestigious titles.

The first of two flights lasted just under 10 hours with 48 players surviving the cut to progress through to Saturday’s Day 2 and despite the generous blinds structure the action was fast and furious in the closing stages as the short stacks endeavoured to go hard or go home.

Among those to fall short 2007 APPT Sydney champion Grant Levy, the always dangerous Andrew Scarf, 2010 APPT Sydney fourth-place finisher Peco Stojanovski and Martin Comer.
However there were no such worries for Australia’s top female player, Jackie Glazier, who cruised through with a healthy stack of 106,400 – good for third spot in the chip counts.

“I pretty much sat around with double the average all day which was nice,” she said. “I actually turned up about two hours late but I pulled off a big bluff early on and the pot was fairly big so it all went from there. “I didn’t actually have a lot of showdowns today which is always a good thing. I’m pretty happy with how it all went and the structure is good too.” Asked about wielding one of the big stacks on Saturday, Glazier smiled “Yeah, I’m going to win it!”

Although Glazier is looking good for a deep run this week, she still trails the two monster stacks of the day with Hun Wei Lee and Julian Malki almost doubling their nearest flight one rivals.

Lee currently leads the way with a whopping 212,000 while Malki isn’t far behind on 198,600.

Also through to Day 2 are Michael O’Grady, Justin Cohen, Sheldon Mayer and Aaron Benton who endured a roller-coaster ride through the day before a late double-up allowed him to stack up a very playable 31,000 with blinds at 500/1,000 when play resumes on Saturday.

Flight Two kicks off just after midday today with a big field expected to take their seats including last year’s Main Event champion Andrew Capelin.

Top chip counts after Flight 1:

Hun Wei Lee – 212,000
Julian Malki – 198,600
Jackie Glazier – 106,400
Eamon Lunders – 97,600
Michael O’Grady – 91,100
Honglin Jiang – 90,500
John Donohue – 86,600
Obrad Milinkovic – 85,300
Manase Ova – 83,400
Mark Abay – 83,000
Minh Nguyen – 81,400
Trudie Sultana – 68,800
Justin Cohen – 68,200
Chris Ciardi – 68,000
Sheldon Mayer – 66,900

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

Already known as one of Australia’s top live tournament players, Daniel Neilson added yet another trophy to his rapidly growing cabinet last night with victory in the $550 6-Handed event at Star City.

The sixth event on this year’s Sydney Championships schedule attracted a quality field of 112 players with the likes of Jackie Glazier, Grant Levy, Jai Kemp, John Caridad and Aaron Benton all hitting the felt but none could match it with Neilson.

Having won the High Stakes event at last year’s Sydney Champs for $103,500, he continued his impressive run in the Harbour City as he proceeded to make light work of the final table over the course of three hours last night.
“It’s always good to get another win but it was a bit of a roller-coaster,” Neilson said.

“I kept losing hands at showdown at the start, I couldn’t win one, but I just kept raising and getting chips back that way. The table was pretty tight other than Ciaran (Sharpe, runner-up) so it gave me some good opportunities to build my stack.”

Ironically, Sharpe finished third in this same event 12 months ago – as well as running deep in the Main Event – and went one better this time around but fell agonisingly short of a breakthrough win.

On the final hand, Neilson turned two pair holding K-9 on a 9-6-7-K board and snap-called Sharpe’s 4-bet shove – the latter showing K-10 and unable to catch his three-outer on the river.

“Ciaran was playing pretty well – he took the chip lead at one stage heads-up and he was tough to play against but he got unlucky on that last hand,” Neilson said.

While Sharpe will have to wait a while longer to score his first trophy, Neilson added yet another notch to his belt to take his 2011 earnings to around $130,000.

His deep runs over the past 12 months alone have included his win in the High Rollers event at last year’s Sydney Championships, success in a Turbo NLHE tournament at ANZPT Darwin, sixth in the APT Macau Main Event (good for $30,000), second in the 6-Handed event at the Aussie Millions for $56,175 and another win in the High Stakes event at ANZPT Perth for $50,000.

He joked after his win that it might be time he finally bought himself a trophy cabinet, “because I haven’t actually got one yet”, but more satisfying was matching the feat of good friend and 2010 APPT Sydney champion Jonathan Karamalikis who won a WCOOP (World Championships of Online Poker) event only hours earlier (with Neilson, ironically, finishing seventh in the same event).

The pair have made any number of final tables together over the years – particularly in High Stakes events – and are always quick to let each other know about their own achievements.

“There is a definitely a rivalry there to see who can win the most trophies,” Neilson laughed.

The final table placings were as follows:

1st: Daniel Neilson – $15,260
2nd: Ciaran Sharpe – $10,220
3rd: John Donohue – $7,840
4th: David St Eloi – $5,320
5th: Andrew Scarf – $3,920
6th: Kyle Greenway – $2,940

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

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