The 2012 Melbourne Poker Championships have concluded with Melbourne’s own Jackie Glazier claiming a memorable victory in the Main Event to take home the trophy and $95,000 in prize money.

It’s been another huge week in the Crown Poker Room as 433 players took to the felt over three opening flights in the repechage format of the Melbourne Poker Championships Main Event.  The field contained Melbourne’s finest, plenty of interstate invaders and a string of previous Australian poker champions.

After a couple of days of toil, the final table of ten formed today with talented young gun Ryan Hong holding a big chip lead.

After a cautious start, the players started to drop away as the big cards were passed around the table and the short stacks were unable to find the double ups they required to stay alive.  Ismail Ismail was first to go when his king-queen ran into Liwei Han’s ace-queen, before Paul Schembri pushed his ace-jack into the pocket jacks of Nishi Gamage.

Gamage was the wild card as he splashed around, but it was the elimination of Stelios Yenofkian in 8^thplace that kick-started the run of Jackie Glazier.  She moved all in on the river with a full house and induced a call from Yenofkian for his tournament life.

Glazier chipped up towards the chip lead while the other female at the final table, Sherrie Gelberg was unlucky to be next to fall.  Gelberg got her chips in with ace-king against Simon Moshi’s ace-jack but a jack on the flop was a dagger through the heart for Gelberg.  After final tabling this very same event last year, Gelberg was unable to improve on that result as she lands back-to-back 7^th place finishes.

Simon Kidson was one of the few short stacks who managed to get himself back into contention, but his run came to an end with ace-five against the ace-king of Simon Moshi, before Nishi Gamage was sent to the cashier in 5^th place.  Gamage moved all in with A♣6♣ as Moshi showed he was prepared to gamble with his 5♣5♦.  A third five on the flop and it was all over for Gamage as Moshi continued to climb.

Liwei Han was always in for a tough day at the office with the dangerous Ryan Hong on his direct left, but it didn’t help when Hong also found good cards.  When Han shoved Q♥J♦ from the small blind, Hong woke up with K♣K♠ in the big blind and made the easy call with the queen-high board leaving Han to depart in 4^thplace.

Hong was in front but a key hand went down three-handed on a flop of 4♣6♠2♠.  A bet from Hong, raise from Glazier, re-raise from Hong and then an all-in by Glazier saw Hong’s cards hit the muck and he never recovered.  Moments later his chips were all in with A♥K♣ as Moshi was able to win another race with J♦J♥ when the board ran out ten-high.

Simon Moshi held a small advantage over Jackie Glazier when heads-up play started, and with both players about 100 big blinds deep, we thought we might be in for a long haul.  But incredibly, on the very first hand of heads-up play, Moshi stuck it all in with K♥J♦ and Glazier made the call with 6♠6♣.  Moshi can coinflipped very well up until this point, but this one went the way of Glazier as the board ran out 3♥7♥4♦8♥2♦.

Glazier was back in control and it was all over soon after when a cheap pot saw the players get to the river on a board of 7♥4♠8♠5♣2♣.  Glazier surprised all by overbet shoving all in, and even more surprising was that Moshi called with Q♦7♦ for just second pair.  Glazier showed 8♣4♦ for two pair and it was all over.

Glazier was one of the first eliminated on the first two opening flights of this event, barely lasting the first level each day.  But she took full advantage of the repechage format, navigating her way through to Day 2 with her third bullet.  From there, she always loomed as a threat, making a surge towards the chip leaders day on Day 2 to sit third in chips when today’s final table got underway.

After finishing second in the Joe Hachem Deep Stack event at the start of the series, Glazier only had eyes on the title this afternoon.

With her victory today, Glazier will move into the top 50 Australian all-time tournament money earners and also into the top 50 female all-time tournament money earners from any country.  That’s an impressive accomplishment right there. She now also adds her name to the honour roll as Melbourne Poker Championships winners.  Congratulations Jackie!

Final table results

1st Jackie Glazier – $95,000
2nd Simon Moshi – $67,000
3rd Ryan Hong – $47,000
4th Liwei Han – $35,000
5th Nishi Gamage – $27,000
6th Simon Kidson – $21,000
7th Sherrie Gelberg – $17,000
8th Stelios Yenofkian – $13,000
9th Paul Schembri – $10,000
10th Ismail Ismail – $7,000

By Poker Asia Pacific

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

American music blogger Sandeep Pulusani has won Event three, $1,100 NLH Shootout at the 2012 Aussie Millions collecting $37,500 for his efforts.

Pulusani is a veritable legend in the music world and is the music blogger behind the website Vibe Addict. Pulusani’s has enjoyed moderate success in poker with his biggest cash to date being $13,020 at the 2011 WSOP where he finished 34th in the $1,500 NLH event.

This win represents the first major title for the American and it is safe to say that we haven’t seen the last of him in the poker world.

Local fan favourite Jackie Glazier was poised to take down her first Aussie Millions title however an ice cold deck would send the local female pro to the rail in a disappointing 6th place finish. Glazier had a horrendous run of luck when her Pocket Aces were taken down by Ace-Jack and her Ace-King was beaten by Ace-Seven sending her to the rail.

In the end, it was the final table chip leader and previous Aussie Millions Championship Ring bearer Oliver Speidel who would go head to head with Sandeep for the title. Unfortunately for Speidel there was no repeat Championship for him as Pulusani would eventually walk away with the title and the glory of being the Aussie Millions Event 3 Champion.

1st- Sandeep Pulusani – $37,500
2nd- Oliver Speidel – $24,750
3rd- Ash Gupta – $17,250
4th- Matthew Pearson – $13,500
5th- Mario Ljubicic – $11,250
6th- Jackie Glazier – $9,750
7th- Joey Lawrence – $8,250
8th- Salman Behbehani – $6,750
9th- Eric Sclavos – $5,250
10th- Mark Segal – $3,750

By Rob Huxley of Miller’s Guide

The 2012 Aussie Millions is now in full swing with two championship rings having already been awarded in the past few days. Today will see yet another Aussie Millions Championship ring awarded as play at the final table of event 3 $1,100 NLH Shootout concludes at midday inside the Crown Poker Room.

Leading the charge at today’s final table will be Oliver Speidel who carries to the table the chip lead and enough experience to take down the title. Last year Speidel won a Championship ring at the 2011 Aussie Millions in the $1,100 NLH event, and to make things even more interesting he is joined by Englishman Mark Segal who has also experienced the thrill of winning an Aussie Millions Championship event taking down the $1,100 NLH event in 2010. Mark comes to the table relatively short in chips, but what he lacks in chips he no doubt makes up for in experience.

Without doubt though, all eyes will be on local favourite and female poker sensation, Jackie Glazier who comes to the final table third in chips and looming for a major title. Jackie burst onto the poker scene in early 2010 when she made a deep run in the worlds most prestigious poker event, the $10,000 buy-in World Series Of Poker. Jackie will be railed by a large crowd today hoping she can cement her position in the poker world as one of the best players on the tour.

Seat 1- Eric Sclavos – 34,000 chips
Seat 2- Salman Behbehani – 79,500 chips
Seat 3- Mario Ljubicic – 95,500 chips
Seat 4- Joey Lawrence – 135,500 chips
Seat 5- Mark Segal – 94,500 chips
Seat 6 – Sandeep Pulusani – 128,000 chips
Seat 7- Ashish Gupta – 270,000 chips
Seat 8- Oliver Speidel – 384,500 chips
Seat 9- Matthew Pearson – 74,000 chips
Seat 10- Jackie Glazier – 204,500 chips

By Rob Huxley of Miller’s Guide

IT took the best part of 14 hours on a dramatic Day 2 to get there but the final table of the 2011 Sydney Championships Main Event is set and ready to go.

A total of 121 players returned to the Star City poker room yesterday – every one of them hoping to reach the last nine – but in the end only a handful survived to take their shot at the $119,542 first prize.

Among those on the final table are local regulars Kamyar Ekrami and Graham Hounsell, John Donohue who ran deep in the same event last year and 2010 ANZPT Sydney final fourth-place finisher Michael O’Grady who is looking to put a run of near misses behind him with his first major live victory.
O’Grady currently sits second in chips behind chip leader and tournament veteran Tom Motherwell – the only player to currently crack the million chip mark.

Play began with a rush yesterday as the short stacks looked to double up or head home with the 121 surviving players slashed to less than 60 within only a few hours but play tightened up considerably as the money bubble approached.

The top 33 finishers at this year’s event were guaranteed a minimum of $2,835 with those to make the money including Connie Lai (26th), Sheldon Mayer (25th), Justin Cohen ($4,725) and Jackie Glazier ($5,198).

Mayer now holds the rare distinction of having reached the money in all three Sydney Championships Main Events since the tournament was first held in 2009.

The final table kicks off at 2pm today with the chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: Tom Motherwell – 1,222,000
Seat 2: Hang Nhan – 703,000
Seat 3: Nick Polias – 406,000
Seat 4: Graham Hounsell – 555,000
Seat 5: Errolyn Strang – 548,000
Seat 6: Kamyar Ekrami – 915,000
Seat 7: Michael OGrady – 978,000
Seat 8: John Donohue – 599,000
Seat 9: Narbeh Horsepian – 401,000

The final table payouts will be:

1st: $119,542
2nd: $75,600
3rd: $42,525
4th: $33,075
5th: $27,169
6th: $22,207
7th: $17,483
8th: $13,703
9th: $9,923

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

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