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

He might not be big on words but his actions spoke volumes last night as Nhon Ta crushed the final table in under three hours to win the $1100 Sydney Special event at Star City.

The fourth event of this year’s Sydney Championships, Ta and overnight chip leader Eddie Saade wasted no time in cutting down the field with the eight remaining players slashed to just three within an hour before Ta took control to claim the $21,450 first prize.

Saade had previously looked set to continue his impressive run through the 66-man field after cracking Nicholas Wright’s Aces when he flopped trip 9s to go into heads-up play on an even keel but Ta was ruthless as he proceeded to chip away at his rival before finishing the deal when his A-8 held on against Saade’s K-9 all-in pre-flop.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “I played very well today. He (Saade) liked to protect his blinds and I was very aware of that so I picked my spots against him and tried to get it in good. I wanted to wear him down and that’s what I did.”
Ta, 33, from Cabramatta, is a regular cash game player at Star City but can now count Sydney Championships tournament winner among his list of achievements.

However, the award for unluckiest player at the final table goes to sixth place finisher Honglin Jiang who got it in good with Queens against Ta’s A-10 early in the day only for an Ace to appear in the window. For those with long memories, Jiang enjoyed a stunning run at last year’s Sydney Championships with a win in the $1100 6-handed event for $19,600 and a third-place finish in the Main Event – good for another $48,461. He added another $3,630 for his efforts over the past two days.

$1100 Sydney Special NLHE Results:

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

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

It was a hectic day in the Star City poker room with two more events also kicking off as the Sydney Championships hit top gear.

The $300 Ladies Event was run and won within the space of around seven hours with the players quickly working their way down to the final table before Cheryl Paton emerged victorious.

Paton bubbled the final table of the Victorian Poker Championships two years ago but went all the way here in Sydney to pick up the coveted trophy for her efforts.
Suzy Khoueis finished runner-up with Ruth Jones third.

And the eight remaining players in Event 4 – $1,100 Sydney Special No Limit Hold’em – return today to fight it out for the $21,450 first prize. A total of 66 players took their seats yesterday including Daniel Neilson, Jackie Glazier and 2010 APPT Sydney fourth-place finisher Peco Stojanovski with the final table chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: Trudie Sultana – 138,000
Seat 2: Nhon Ta – 210,900
Seat 3: David Sanis – 128,500
Seat 4: Eddie Saade – 219,000
Seat 5: Honglin Jiang – 78,000
Seat 6: Wei Zhu – 53,000
Seat 7: David Menz – 52,000
Seat 8: Nicholas Wright – 107,500

Click here to see all the photos

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker