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

The inaugural Star Poker Summer Series has been run with Andy Lee claiming the Main Event title just a week after winning the Pot Limit Omaha side event.
Day 3 of the Star Poker Summer Series $5,000 Main Event was expected to be the penultimate day of play, but with only eighteen players returning and play faster than expected, it became the final day as just one player was left standing.
Event 2’s $660 Pot Limit Omaha 6-Handed Champion Andy Lee (pictured) led the field, but had last year’s APPT Sydney Champion Jonathan Karamalikis, ANZPT Sydney Champion Michael Kanaan, Sydney final table regulars Tom Rafferty, Antonis Kambouroglou and Michael O’Grady, as well as the always lovable Ali Khalil still to contend with as a $270,000 first prize sat atop.
Although most of the talk over the past few days had revolved around the $221,000 shortfall in the $1 million guarantee, the focus today was on title, and right out of the door action was hot. Kambouroglou fell early before Khalil’s ace-king was downed by Karamalikis’ aces. Unfortunately it would be Nick Polias bowing out on the final table bubble after pushing a weak queen and running into pocket jacks to leave the final nine set as follows.
Final Table Lineup (blinds 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000-ante)
Seat 1: Peter Skouteris (505,000 in chips)
Seat 2: Michael Kanaan (561,000)
Seat 3: Jay Malig (346,000)
Seat 4: Tom Rafferty (604,000)
Seat 5: Jonathan Karamalikis (315,000)
Seat 6: Dien Nguyen (125,000)
Seat 7: Matviy Bilenky (708,000)
Seat 8: Mark Wright (441,00)
Seat 9: Andy Lee (1,291,000)
Action commenced with Dien Nguyen finding a double with pocket eights against ace-jack before his pocket tens trailed Matviy Bilenky’s queens when all the money went in on the flop. Jay Malig was bumped to the rail next when his ace-king unfortunately was unable to spike against chip leader Lee’s pocket kings.
Karamalikis – who also has back-to-back ANZPT Sydney High Roller titles in 2010 and 2011 – was searching for virtual back-to-back Sydney Main Event wins since the APPT Sydney stop was now non-existent and Star Poker had replaced it with this very event. Unfortunately for Karamalikis, his shove with pocket sixes would see him in a race against Kanaan’s ace-ten, and when a ten landed on the river there would be no repeat victory.
Mark Wright would exit in sixth when his ace-queen would be unable to improve against Lee’s aces, and with that pot, he would push out to hold roughly one third of the chips in play. ANZPT Sydney Champion Kanaan would unfortunately exit next after flirting with making a strong run at the win as Lee’s lead continued to climb further ahead. Peter Skouteris busted in fourth and Matviy Bilenky would be bounced in third to leave it a heads-up battle.
Andy Lee – 3,100,000 in chips
Tom Rafferty – 1,800,000
The heads-up affair wouldn’t be a long one like many would have expected. Instead it saw Rafferty – who has now made three final tables in three of Sydney’s biggest tournaments – push with pocket nines and Lee made the call with ace-queen. Two queens landed on the flop to send Lee the victory – his second for the series – as Rafferty was left to agonise at three close calls to claiming Sydney gold.
Final Table Results (164 players, $1,000,000 prizepool)
1st – Andy Lee ($270,000)
2nd – Tom Rafferty ($170,000)
3rd – Matviy Bilenky ($100,000)
4th – Peter Skouteris ($80,000)
5th – Michael Kanaan ($67,500)
6th – Mark Wright ($55,000)
7th – Jonathan Karamalikis ($45,000)
8th – Jay Malig ($35,000)
9th – Dien Nguyen ($27,500)
Notable Payouts: Michael O’Grady (12th), Ali Khalil (16th), Antonis Kambouroglou (17th)
Congratulations to Andy on collecting the lion’s share of the $1,000,000 prize pool as the last major Australasian tournament for the year is now in the books. Well done to Star Poker for hosting another world class tournament and thanks to Poker Media Australia for their live updates from the final table.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the Aussie Millions!

By Poker Asia Pacific

The third and final day of play in the Adelaide Poker Championships Main Event saw the final nine competitors enter the Adelaide Casino Poker Zone with the goal of becoming champion, and the Poker Asia Pacific Live Reporting team were on deck to watch it all unfold.

APPT Queenstown champion Marcel Schreiner entered with the chip lead while the other bookend was Australian poker legend Leo Boxell who entered with a very short stack. Unfortunately for Boxell, his final table ended on the very first hand of the day when his flush draw missed again his nemesis from yesterday, Stuart Gunn.

A cooler of a hand saw Craig Cockburn double with pocket aces against Michael Vanderhorst’s pocket kings. That left one time chip leader in Vanderhorst in trouble and he was soon to the cashier when his king-ten wasn’t enough against the ace-deuce of Cockburn on a 8♦T♥A♣2♦ board.

Craig Cockburn was the chip leader but that changed around again when Marcel Schreiner got three streets of value with pocket aces on an ace-high board. It was the beginning of the end for Cockburn as he was next eliminated in 7th place when he three-bet shoved with queen-jack but failed to improve against the ace-king of Schreiner.

George Vassilopoulos was soon to follow when he shoved his queen-nine into the pocket aces of Frank Trapodi before Joe Sandaev joined him after running pocket sixes into Shaun Scanlon’s pocket jacks.

We were quickly down to four-handed with Marcel Schreiner way out in front, but he didn’t have it all his own way as the locals started to fight back and even up the score.

Shaun Scanlon took a big hit, but recovered with pocket kings, while Frank Trapodi also found a double up as Schreiner slipped back to the pack. The four-way battle was intense but when the blinds kicked up to a hefty 30,000-60,000 with a 5,000 ante, something had to give.

It was Shaun Scanlon who would be next to go. After first surviving with a chop holding ace-queen against Frank Tripodi’s ace-king, Scanlon would try again with the same hand moments later but ran into the pocket kings of Marcel Schreiner. Despite flopping a queen and turning the nut flush draw, Scanlon missed
on the river to be eliminated in 4th place.

Schreiner was back in command at the top of the counts but it was not a position that the German could hang onto. As the blinds were rising rapidly, Schreiner moved all in with Q♣J♠ as Stuart Gunn made the call for his tournament life with a dominating A♣J♥. The board bricked out and we had a new chip leader in Stuart Gunn.

A few moments later and again it was queen-jack that led Schreiner astray, as Frank Tripodi evened things right up with a big double up holding ace-seven when he flopped a full house.

Schreiner stole some blinds to get back into it, however the crippling blow was in a battle of the blinds when Schreiner moved all in with A♦6♦ and Stuart Gunn called with pocket tens. Schreiner flopped a straight draw but that’s as far as he could connect as Gunn had again landed a big double up. Schreiner was down to small change and out moments later in third place to add another impressive result to his resume, and $17,650 to his back pocket.

That left us heads up for the title:
Stuart Gunn – 2,650,000
Frank Tripodi – 1,600,000

As was fitting for the action we’d seen over the past three days, the heads-up battle took just one hand as the tournament ended in dramatic fashion.

Frank Tripodi was all in preflop holding A♣5♣ and Stuart Gunn had him covered holding A♣T♠. Tripodi would need to find something special, and he did as the flop contained a five, but his joy was short-lived as Gunn found a ten on the turn which was enough to take the title.

1st Stuart Gunn – $43,400
2nd Frank Tripodi – $25,750
3rd Marcel Schreiner – $17,650
4th Shaun Scanlon – $13,250
5th Joe Sandaev – $10,300
6th George Vassilopoulos – $8,830
7th Craig Cockburn – $6,620
8th Michael Vanderhorst – $5,150
9th Leo Boxell – $4,050
10th Illias Sagias – $4,050
11th Nigel Brown – $4,050
12th Alvin Cheam – $4,050

By Poker Asia Pacific

The Crown Poker Room was abuzz with activity this weekend as the spin king himself played host to the inaugural Shane Warne Super Stack event with Steve Baker emerging victorious to grab the $35,000 first place prize.

To get there, Baker had to overcome a field of 606 entries which is an excellent turnout for a $300 event. Players enjoyed the generous 30,000-chip start bank and plenty of game time that saw the field reduced to 138 after the first day of play. Shane Warne was among the chip leaders late in the day before crashing and burning, with Ben Pockett leading the way.

Only the top 54 players would finish in the money, so there were a few nervous moments around the bubble, but the rapid eliminations throughout the day saw the final table reached by the dinner break. Some of the notable players to reach the final few tables included Nick Porta, Andrew Watson and Andrew Demetriou.

Steve Baker carried the chip lead into the final table, but the rapidly rising blinds and antes soon shook things up.

Chris Whitmee and Alex Ung were first to go in a double KO as they ran into Canaan Johnson’s pocket kings, before Jeffrey Harris launched his pocket tens into the set of eights held by Katrina King.

Day one chip leader Ben Pockett fell in for 7th place when his pocket queens were cracked by the king-jack of John Tuckman, before Crown regular Petar Vujic bowed out in 6th place.

When Katrina King ended John Tuckman’s run in 5th place, King and Canaan Johnson held the majority of chips in play but with the blinds so large, the swings were keeping everyone in the game.

Janine Atkinson fell in 4th place before the remaining three players settled on a deal to divide up the prize money and duke it out for the title. That of course encouraged the action, with Katrina King quick to fall in 3rd place, before the final hand of the event saw Canaan Johnson move all-in preflop with ten-eight and Steve Baker made the call with king-jack. The board bricked out to secure Baker a tremendous victory!

1st Steve Baker – $35,000
2nd Canaan Johnson – $22,555
3rd Katrina King – $14,200
4th Janine Atkinson – $11,010
5th John Tuckman – $9,440
6th Petar Vujic – $7,865
7th Ben Pockett – $6,290
8th Jeffrey Harris – $4,720
9th Chris Whitmee – $3,150
10th Alex Ung – $1,890

The next big event on the Crown Poker calendar is the upcoming eighth instalment of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series (November 10th-20th) where 12 events will grace the schedule with buy-ins from $50 up to $550. Get down to the Crown Poker Room to and qualify today!

By Poker Asia Pacific