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

THE field was packed full of seasoned professionals and live tournament regulars but in the end it was a mother of two from Wollongong that outlasted them all to be crowned Sydney Championships main event winner.

Errolyn Strang, who returns to her full-time job as a TAFE teacher this morning, survived a rollercoaster final table and a heads-up battle that lasted an exhausting four hours to score the biggest win of her career and the $119,542 first prize.

Still shaking after finally dispatching of runner-up John Donohue at around midnight last night, Strang described her victory as one of the proudest moments of her life.

“I love playing poker and I’m just really excited – really, really excited,” she said. “I just felt good today and I had a great heads-up match that went for about four hours. The luck and the cards fell my way.”

Strang outlasted a field of 313 players, including former champions Jarred Graham and Andrew Capelin, to win the Main Event but it was the dramatic final table that will linger on her mind forever.

Playing the patience game early, she found herself short on chips at one stage before a huge double-up set her on her way when she got it in holding 6-7 on a K-5-8 board and rivered a straight. From there Strang was never short on chips and looked set to make light work of heads-up play until Donohue decided to make life difficult.

Three times the Sydney Pizza Hut owner – who also finished third in the 6-handed event earlier in the week – was all-in for his tournament life and three times he doubled up to get himself back in the contest.

The first of those saw him flop a set of 3s against Strang’s A-K all-in pre, while one of the more dramatic hands of the day saw him turn the nut straight to Strang’s on a board that read K-J-7-8-x.

“The adrenalin was just running crazy the whole time,” Strang said when asked how she coped with so many near misses before eventually finishing the job.

“I had to change my game so I limped in with Kings, flopped top set and he turned the straight. I only tried one massive bluff early in the day and that didn’t work so when something wasn’t working I’d think ‘Okay change that’ or ‘What does this mean?’

“But heads-up has always been a really weak part of my game so I had to just slow down and think more about the hands.”
Although she is far from a household name just yet, Strang has enjoyed an impressive run of results of late with a sixth place finish at the recent NPL 500 and a second in the Wednesday $440 at Star City in July.

Ironically, this latest success comes as she prepares to take a year off work in 2012.

“I’ve got a whole year off… so watch out,” she laughed. “The world here I come. “It’s been such an exciting week and I’m just so glad that women are coming to the fore in poker. I saw that another lady won the opening event too (Kristina Jeney) which is really good.”

The final table had initially looked set to finish in quick time when Hang Ngoc Nhan ran his top pair into Donohue’s set of 7s early on to become the tournament’s ninth-place finisher and overnight chip leader Tom Motherwell lost his advantage in similar circumstances against Kamyar Ekrami’s set of 4s.

But after the first four players were sent to the rail in a little over two hours, play grinded to a standstill five-handed as another three hours passed before we lost our fifth-place finisher (Graham Hounsell).

There would also be no breakthrough win for final table regulars Michael O’Grady or Ekrami – the latter taking an early chip lead but riding his luck throughout before he ran his A-Q into the Kings of Donohue to bow out in third.
Strang will forever hold a special place in Sydney’s poker history as the last person to win a poker tournament at Star City: this week represents the official relaunch of Star City Casino which will be known as The Star from now on following its spectacular $860 million redevelopment.

The Sydney Championships final table placings are:

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

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

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

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