The schedule has been released for the first ANZ Poker Tour event of 2012, with the national poker spotlight set to shine on The Star in Sydney from March 14-25.

ANZPT Sydney has consistently been among the larger events on the tour since Paren Arzoomanian won a staggering AUD $246,000 in 2009, which was the largest ever ANZPT event. Since then, he’s been joined on the honour roll by Angelo Hanataj (2010) and Michael Kanaan (2011).

The series kicks-off with the $330 Opening Event that offers three day one flights and a repechage format, meaning players can re-enter if eliminated on either day 1A or 1B. Next up is the PokerMedia Australia $1k Special, offering a generous start stack of 15,000 and 40-minute levels.

The schedule also includes a $440 NLHE Semi-Shootout, $550 NLHE Six-Handed event, $440 NLHE Teams Event, $220 NLHE Turbo along with a $$0 Pot Limit Omaha tournament.

The highlights of the series are the $2200 ANZPT Main Event – one of only three such events scheduled so far for 2012 – and a $5000 buy-in NLHE Challenge on the final day.

Join the Star Poker team of Grant Levy, Aaron Benton, Brendon Rubie, Daniel Neilson and Jonathan Karamalikis at The Star for one of the highlights of the 2012 Australian tournament schedule from March 14. Check out www.starpoker.com.au for details of satellites in coming weeks.

2012 ANZPT Sydney schedule

March 14 (6.15pm) Event 1: $300 + $30 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event day 1 flight 1 (start stack 10,000, 40-minute levels)

March 15 (6.15pm) Event 1: $300 + $30 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event day 1 flight 2 (repechage, start stack 10,000, 40-minute levels)

March 14 (12.30pm) Event 1: $300 + $30 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event day 1 flight 3 (repechage, start stack 10,000, 40-minute levels)

March 17 (12.30pm) Event 1: $300 + $30 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event day 2

March 18 (12.30pm) Event 2: $1000 + $100 PokerMedia Australia No Limit Hold’em Special (start stack 15,000, 40-minute levels)

March 18 (4pm) Event 1: $300 + $30 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event final table

March 18 (6.15pm) $220 + $30 ANZPT Mega Satellite (start stack 5000, 20-minute levels)

March 19 (12.30pm) Event 3: $400 + $40 No Limit Hold’em Semi-Shootout (start stack 8000, 30-minute levels)

March 19 (4pm) Event 2: $1000 + $100 PokerMedia Australia No Limit Hold’em Special final table

March 19 (6.15pm) $220 + $30 ANZPT Mega Satellite (start stack 5000, 20-minute levels)

March 20 (12.30pm) Event 4: $500 + $50 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed (start stack 10,000, 40-minute levels)

March 20 (6.15pm) Event 5: $400 + $40 No Limit Hold’em Teams Event (start stack 8000, 20-minute levels)

March 21 (12.30pm) Event 6: $400 + $40 Pot Limit Omaha (start stack 8000, 30-minute levels)

March 21 (4pm) Event 4: $500 + $50 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed final table

March 21 (6.15pm) $220 + $30 ANZPT Mega Satellite (start stack 5000, 20-minute levels)

March 22 (12.30pm) $220 + $30 ANZPT Last Chance Mega Satellite (start stack 5000, 20-minute levels)

March 22 (6.15pm) Event 7: $2000 + $200 ANZPT Main Event day 1 flight 1 (start stack 20,000, 60-minute levels)

March 23 (12.30pm) Event 7: $2000 + $200 ANZPT Main Event day 1 flight 2 (start stack 20,000, 60-minute levels)

March 24 (12.30pm) Event 7: $2000 + $200 ANZPT Main Event day 2

March 25 (12.30pm) Event 8: $200 + $20 No Limit Hold’em Turbo (start stack 6000, 20-minute levels)

March 25 (2pm) Event 7: $2000 + $200 ANZPT Main Event final table

March 25 (4pm) $5K ($4750 + $250) Challenge No Limit Hold’em (start stack 15,000, 45-minute levels)

By Poker Media Australia

Aaron Lim has won the third gold ring of the Aussie Millions Poker Championships after taking down the $1,100 No Limit Holdem / Pot Limit Omaha rotation event late on Thursday.

After entering the heads-up battle with a near ten-to-one chip advantage over Ali Ghezelbash, the blinds were at 12,000-24,000 when Lim moved all in from the button during No Limit Holdem.

Ghezelbash made the call with K♣8♦ for the best hand as Lim tabled Q♠3♠. However the board of J♥3♥A♦J♠J♣ paired up Lim to take the title and $36,735 prize money.

At the start of the day it was Casey Kastle with the chip lead as Crown Poker Room regular Dean Francis was first to take a brutal hit. Francis was on the verge of moving into a strong position when he looked down at his K♠K♥ during No Limit Holdem and was shoved on by Eric Sclavos and his A♣K♣. Sometimes the poker Gods can be cruel as the 4♠A♠6♣3♣Q♠ flop rewarded Sclavos, as two other players commented that they had folded an ace. Sclavos doubled up as Francis tumbled down the leaderboard.

However Francis did manage a pay jump after Sam Vakili was first to visit the cashier in 9th place. During Pot Limit Omaha he got his chips in the middle with top pair and a gutshot straight draw against the bottom pair and nut flush draw of Aaron Lim. A third club on the turn was enough for Lim to complete his flush to end the tournament for Vakili.

With the blinds at 5,000-10,000, Francis was down to his last 40,000 chips which he committed preflop in a battle of the blinds with Casey Kastle in No Limit Holdem. Francis held 9♠7♥ and was happy to have live cards against Kastle’s K♠Q♥ , however the board ran out Q♦3♥8♠3♣4♥ to pair up Kastle and eliminate Francis in 8th place.

Kastle could manage no better than 7th, and he was soon followed by Eric Sclavos in 6th place who backed up from his final table in the Shootout event yesterday with another strong performance. Michael Benvenuti departed in 5th before the elimination of Khiem Nguyen in 4th place during the PLO orbit. Nguyen committed holding K♠K♣3♠8♣ and was called by Aaron Lim and his A♦Q♣J♣10♣ , but when the board of 8♠Q♦5♣2♠Q♥ was dropped by the dealer, Nguyen hit the rail.

Cheng Liu was next to go in 3rd place before Lim disposed of Ghezelbash to wrap up the title.

While the final table took over the feature table in the Crown Poker Room, there were just 47 players remaining at the dinner break from a starting field of 385 for today’s $1,100 No Limit Holdem 6-Max event.

Stefan Jedlicka was out in front with Brian Roberts of “Two Months, Two Million” fame and Australia’s World Champion Joe Hachem also with the chip leaders.

It was a stacked field for the 12:30pm start with the Asia-Pacific well represented by the likes of Simon Watt, Leo Boxell, Andrew Hinrichsen, Tony Hachem, David Gorr, Van Marcus, Aaron Benton, Jackson Zheng, Daniel Neilson, James Obst, Amanda De Cesare, Phil Willcocks and Jackie Glazier.

Jonathan Karamalikis, Jai Kemp, Peter Aristidou and Poker Asia Pacific blogger Matthew Wakeman were among the early casualties, with Wakeman’s pocket aces cracked by an opponent’s pocket jacks.

Michael Pedley also joined them on the ropes after he recalled to us that he got his chips in the middle with top set against two opponents who were drawing to straight and flush possibilities. Unfortunately for Pedley, an ace on the turn gave his opponent a straight to win the massive pot and send Pedley to an early exit.

Chris Moorman and Jesse “On The Mac” McKenzie were the early moves with McKenzie gaining most of his chips after turning a flush to leave his opponent drawing dead. On a multi-way flop, McKenzie called a bet of 2,100 on the flop of betting 3,100 on the 9♦ turn. His opponent check-raised to 6,200 before McKenzie moved all in. His opponent made the call with ace-queen for top pair but, without a diamond, he was without hope as McKenzie showed 7♦6♦ for the flush.

Later in the evening, the players got a chance to kick off their heels at the official player’s welcome party. The doors opened at 8pm at Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons with some quality food and plenty of beverages enjoyed. The evening also included the official Australian Poker Hall of Fame ceremony where Danny McDonagh and Leo Boxell were inducted as part of the class of 2011, while Jason Gray and David Gorr were announced as the new inductees for 2012.

By Poker Asia Pacific

For the last few days we’ve excitedly followed the progress of Australian Daniel Neilson at the EPT San Remo event. It’s been an epic run so far, but the journey has really only just begun as Neilson has now reached the final table…and he has the chip lead.

The event started several days ago, five of them in fact, with a massive field of 837 fronting up for the €4,900 buy-in event. Among them were a sprinkling of Asia-Pacific players with Tim Masters one to join Neilson in a deep run. Unfortunately Marsters fell just short of the money, while Neilson incredibly maintained his chip position in second place through the conclusion days two, three and four.

However it was Day 5 that Neilson decided to step it up a gear as the overnight field of 24 were reduced to just eight. It only took four levels of play as plenty of dangerous opposition were sent crashing to the rail.

WSOPE Main Event winner Elio Fox (23rd), previous EPT champion Mike McDonald (18th) and Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis (15th) were notable casualties however the key elimination for those following down under was the final table bubble.

Neilson opened with a raise to 105,000 before Johnny Lodden, from “Lodden Thinks” fame, three-bet to 275,000. Neilson casually four-bet to 570,000 before Lodden shoved for nearly 2,000,000. Neilson immediately called with Q♥Q♠ and was racing in an enormous pot against Lodden’s A♦K♣. The board bricked out J♠5♠5♥6♦2♠ to give Neilson the chip lead as the final table was set!

Final Table Lineup
Daniel Neilson (Australia) – 6,700,000
Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria) – 4,435,000
Jan Bendik (Slovakia) – 3,980,000
Andrey Pateychuk (Russia) – 3,105,000
Barny Boatman (United Kingdom) – 2,490,000
Yorane Kerignard (France) – 2,145,000
Rocco Palumbo (Italy) – 1,160,000
Kevin MacPhee (United States) – 1,115,000

It’s a truly International lineup with eight different nations being represented. Neilson has a healthy lead but will have to watch out for the experienced Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman and Kevin MacPhee who is looking to become the first player in history to grab two EPT titles.

Daniel has already locked up €63,694 but he will be gunning for the title and the massive €800,000 first place prize.

The action recommences later on this evening Australian time, so you’ll have to pull a very late night if you want to follow the coverage. Head to the PokerStars Blog to follow along where there will be blog updates and a live stream of the final table.

Good luck Daniel!

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

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

An eventful final table almost saw a remarkable comeback win before overnight chip leader Rhys Gould finally prevailed to clinch his first live trophy in the Australian Poker Weekly $550 event at the Sydney Championships last night.

The Sydney student looked set to cruise to victory after dominating early play to build a stack of over 1,000,000 in chips but a bizarre hand that should have seen him reach heads-up play inside two hours briefly threatened to turn the tournament on its head.

With four players remaining, Gould min-raised on the button only to see Yibo Zhou 3-bet out of the small blind. Amit Shahi then shoved from the big blind with Gould shipping all-in over the top.

Zhou tanked for a good three minutes before eventually folding Kings face-up. Gould showed Aces and Shahi Q-Q as the board blanked to cut the field to three. Zhou’s fold almost proved a masterstroke, however, as he proceeded to win a series of flips to take the lead in heads-up play before Gould regained the ascendency for the title. But he admitted afterwards that he was baffled by Zhou’s big fold.

“It was honestly a ludicrous fold – you never fold Kings there – but the previous day I saw him fold Queens twice in similar spots so I wasn’t that surprised,” Gould said. “At the end of the day it was good to pick up the win.”
Gould was by far the most aggressive player at a final table that boasted six players on little more than 10 big blind stacks at the start of play (Gould had more than 100) and his victory was well deserved.

On the final hand, he 3-bet all-in with Kings – Zhou calling with A-9 before a King on the flop all but sealed the deal.

“There were a lot of 10bb stacks so I couldn’t just aggress relentlessly but as soon as people got to 20 or 30 big blinds I started opening every hand to try and pick up every dead pot,” the 24-year-old said.“Everyone was fairly tight so it made it quite good for me.”

A total of 126 players took their seats in Event 2 including Brendon Rubie, Daniel Neilson and tournament host Tony Hachem with Gould picking up $18,270 for his win.

Left to right: Kamyar Ekrami APW champion 2009, Joel Cohen APW Champ 2010
and APW Tournament host 2009 and 2010 ANZPT Player Of The Year Tony Hachem.

APW Sydney Champs Event 2 final table

APW $550 Sydney Championships Event 2

1st: Rhys Gould – $18,270
2nd: Yibo 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 – $3,520
9th: Obrad Milinkovic – $1,890

Click here to see all the photos

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker