It was a case of “third times’ a charm” for Andrew Davis as he defied all comers in the $1K Sydney Special (Event3). Andrew had previously made deep runs in Events 1 and 2 of this years Summer Series finishing 11th and 5th respectively, so the spoils were just desserts for this retired poker lover from Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. It was certainly a day of twists and turns, and starting the day with a meagre stack of just $59K (4% of all chips in play); even Andrew’s most ardent supporters wouldn’t have given him much hope.

The day was only three hands old when we had our first casualty. Seasoned poker pro Sam Khouiss would be the first to go after shoving all-in after hitting top pair on the turn. Unfortunately for Sam, chip leader Ali G was “slow playing” his flopped trip 7’s and Sam would have to settle for $2,700.

One of the more “sicker” hands of the tournament would be responsible for the demise of our next player. Martin Rowe would open the action with his “standard” button raise, only for Paul Elliott to come over the top from the SB. Martin would then re-fire with a four bet hoping to push Paul off his hand, but Paul was going nowhere having “woken up” with Aces. Martin rolled over 96 off! A flop of 46J still seen Paul nicely out in front, but when a 9 appeared on the turn, Paul was heading to the bar for a “stiff” drink. Martin’s two pair held on the river and Paul had to settle for $3,240 to accompany his bad beat story.

Roni Makeem, who had been fairly quiet all morning, was the next to “ship” all his chips in the middle. Unfortunately for Roni his KJ was dominated by Alec Smith’s AJ and he would be calling it a day in 8th position ($3,780). Overnight chip leader Ali Ghezelbash failed to recover from his flopped top two pair being run down by Alec Smith’s bigger two pair and he was next to go. His final hand would see him shove with “big slick” only to run into Andrew Davis’s Aces. Ali would walk away with $4,590 for his efforts.

The two perennial short stacks for the day, Mark Griffiths ($5,670) and Todor Kondevski ($7,650) were next to go after both shoving fairly “light” and being unable to improve. Given the plight those two lads were in with their short stack all day, I think they “overachieved”, and should be mighty proud of their efforts.

Our next major confrontation would be of gigantic proportions, with the two big stacks colliding head on. All the money would go in on a flop of K43 with Alec Smith beautifully playing bottom two pair after being the pre flop aggressor. Unfortunately for Alec, Martin Rowe was running like “god” at the time, and after making the call with KJ another “cowboy” would appear on the turn giving Martin an unbeatable lead. Just to add further salt to Alec’s wound, the river was a 4, giving both players a “full book”. Alec had to settle for $10,260 today, but I’m sure there are bigger pay days ahead for this exciting young prospect.

It seemed at this time Martin was untouchable, however he lost a few crucial “races” not long after and quickly came back to the field. Frustrated by this, Martin was quick to put all his chips in the middle with T8 suited. Andrew Davis made the call with QJ and after the board ran out Jack high, Martin was heading for the exits $15,120 better off.

Heads up play would start fairly evenly with Andrew holding a slight lead on Fred Alam. It would be just two hands in, when we would find our winner. With blinds $20K/$40K/$4K, Fred would move all-in for his remaining $750K, Andrew made the call. Fred tabled A8. Andrew showed AT. The flop was 632 before an 8 would appear the turn, much to the delight of Freddy’s “raucous” cheer squad. However, with Freddy having one hand on the trophy, the T of spades would appear on the river giving Andrew a much deserved victory.

Catching up with Andrew after the victory, it was great to see the amount of joy the win had brought him. As most Star poker regulars would know, Andrew lost his beautiful wife Helen to cancer just over a year ago, so to see him grinning from ear to ear was very heart warming indeed.

1st Andrew Davis $29,700
2nd Fred Alam $20,520
3rd Martin Rowe $15,120
4th Alec Smith $10,260
5th Todor Kondevski $7,560
6th Mark Griffiths $5,670
7th Ali Ghezelbash $4,590
8th Roni Makeem $3,780
9th Paul Elliott $3,240
10th Sam Khouiss $2,700

By Perry J Tilted
Sponsored by The Star

Julia Alqahtani has been crowned this year’s ladies champion after taking down the $400 Ladies NLH (Event 4). 21 enthusiastic poker loving ladies made their way to the felt, not only searching for a nice pay day and some finely crafted crystal ware, but also the chance to grab the illustrious tag of Sydney’s finest female poker player. With some of the best female names in Sydney taking part, including Sydney Champs opening event victor Kristina Jeney, Catherine Owens (who has 3 Star Ladies events to her name), Jane Howard (a regular earner at The Star weekly tournaments) and Suzy Khouiss (sister of the legendary Sam Khouiss) it was certainly going to be no easy feat to come out on top.

But it would be part-time poker playing student Julia Alqahatani who would take down the coveted prize. Julia showing nerves of steel against her much more fancied rivals, built up a good stack early, held the chip lead at the start of the final table and at no stage looked in any real danger. The first big surprise of the day came when Kristina Jeney was one of the first eliminated. It capped off a rare bad day at the “office” for Kristina who was earlier bundled out of the $1K Sunday Special (Event 3). With a further two big names in the form of Suzy Khouiss and Catherine Owen following not long after, it was certainly a case of anyone’s title.

It wouldn’t take long for Julia to put her opponents to the “acid test” on the final table and assert her authority. Almost one by one Julia and the other big stack Carolyn Kohlman were picking opponents off at will, until we reached the final four where the screws started to tighten somewhat. Unfortunately for Shelley Maclean she would toil hard for just over 7 hours for no reward, ultimately finishing in 4th (top 3 getting paid) after being outdrawn by Carolyn Kohlman. Susan Bunt would finish 3rd, a very solid performance given her relatively short stack throughout. Heads up play commenced with Julia holding a 3 to 1 chip lead and it didn’t take long for all the chips to end up in the middle. On a board of K♣7♥3♥ Julia would raise Carolyn all-in. Carolyn made the call with Q♥10♥ for a flush draw whilst Julia tabled K♦9♣ for top pair. The board bricked out on 4th and 5th street and Julia would take the title.

By Perry J Tilted
Sponsored by The Star

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

Kristina Jeney overcame illness, a monster field and an aggressive final table to score arguably the biggest result of her burgeoning poker career by taking out the $330 Sydney Championships Opening Event at Star City.

Buoyed by a breakthrough year in which she has cashed for well over $100,000, Jeney showed tremendous composure to build a big stack early and then dominate the latter stages of a final table that boasted the likes of 2010 NPL 500 champion Terry Tserdanis, noted tournament pro Patrick Fletcher and overnight chip leader Michael Ryan, who finished fourth at this year’s Aussie Millions.

She collected $37,408 for her win.“I played really solid,” she said. “I started Day 2 with about 30,000 in chips which was right on average but made it to the final table third which was really good. “It’s great to win but I’m exhausted now. I’ve been sick the past three days and wasn’t even supposed to play so I’m pretty happy to get this one.”

Jeney won a big pot early when she flopped a full house holding pocket Jacks but it was a massive flip against fellow big stack Michael Ryan with three players remaining that set her on the path for victory.

The pair had tussled throughout the day with Jeney at one stage calling time as Ryan tanked to consider a shove from a shorter stack with five players still in the hunt. Ryan, in disbelief, replied ‘Are you serious? You’re out of line’ before eventually folding but it was Jeney that had the final say when she later called Ryan’s shove to be racing with A-10s against his 3s.

The flop was a safe one for Ryan but running diamonds gave Jeney the nut flush and saw her take a huge 7:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Kris Nestorovic. Facing such a deficit, Nestorovic barely put up a fight as Jeney steamrolled her way to victory.

On the final hand, the chips all went into the middle on a 3-4-6 board with Jeney holding 10-5s for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw and Nestorovic with 4-7 for middle pair.

The 8 on the turn didn’t change anything but the river 2 gave Jeney the straight and the win. “I felt like I played heads- up pretty solid – I put the pressure on him,” she said. “I didn’t have amazing cards but I had the stack so I thought I could use that to put him to some decisions.
“Also, he was very aggressive so he was an easier player to play back at. “But I think I played the final table really well and I picked my spots. There were a few hands when I got a bit lucky but to win any tournament you’ve just got to play the best you can and hope that your hands hold. You can’t do any more than that.”

A total of 510 players – including Aaron Benton, Grant Levy, Brendon Rubie, Sam Khouiss, Andrew Scarf and Martin Rowe – stumped up the $330 entry fee for the Opening Event, creating a prize pool of $153,000 and setting the tone for a huge week ahead.

2011 Sydney Championships Opening Event Results

1st Kristina Jeney – $37,408
2nd Kris Nestorovic – $23,485
3rd Michael Ryan – $12,928
4th Yek Goky – $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

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker