Poker professional and former Team Pokerstars pro Eric Assadourian tied the knot with long-time girlfriend Lizzie Clark on Sunday April 15th at Sydney’s Luna Park.

After three and a half years of courtship Eric and Lizzie made it official in a beautiful ceremony at Sydney, overlooking the Harbour Bridge.

The reception was held in Luna park with 150 guests and was attended by some of the greatest poker players Australia has produced including Joe Hachem, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh, Brendon Rubie and David Borg.

There were also some famous faces among the guests such as Australian television personality Ray Martin.

The newlyweds will honeymoon in Las Vegas later this year when Eric will participate in the World Series Of Poker’s main event.

Congratulations to Eric and Lizzie Assadourian on behalf of all involved at Australian Poker Weekly. We wish them both all the happiness in the world.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Hachem

What started as 208 players has slowly been whittled down to just 27 on the penultimate day of play at the PokerStars.net 2012 ANZPT Sydney Main Event.

The clock ticked just past midnight when it was all over on Day 2 and it was Nicholas Heather who was bagging up the most chips. A massive late half of the night saw Heather accumulate just under a million in chips as he as placed himself in the best position to make a run at the $226,812 first place prize come Sunday.

At the start of the day it was Tobin Ryall who held the chip lead. Ryall continued his great run early in the day and then hit a plateau. He’ll still be with us come the final day, but will return with only 197,000 in chips.

Not faring quite as well as Ryall was the likes of Joel Dodds, Leo Boxell, Tony Hachem, Daniel Laidlaw, Mel Judah, Lee Nelson, Graeme Putt and Justin Cohen as they all hit the rail throughout the day.

It was a similar fate for Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen as he never managed to gain any momentum on Day 2. Guillen open-shoved his last 27,000 holding JJ and unfortunately ran into AA. No help came for the player from Mexico and he was sent out the door.

Just a short while after Guillen hit the rail, play went hand-for-hand as the money bubble loomed. The player who would eventually burst the bubble was a familiar face in Luis Arrilucea. Readers may remember that Arrilucea was last year’s runner-up finisher at this very event. It wasn’t the same story this year though as Arrilucea couldn’t win a race holding AK against TT for his tournament life.

After the bubble burst, play was scheduled to last just a few more levels and as expected, the players started hitting the rail one-by-one. A few of the notable players who finished in the money include Dean McIver (53rd), Andrew Mellado (52nd), Todor Kondevski (46th), Suzy Khoueis (38th) and Jim Sachinidis (29th).

While the above players were hitting the rail, guys such as Jim Collopy, Liam O’Rourke, Gordon Huntly and Mishel Annunu started dominating their tables to finish the night with enough chips to scare come Day 3.

One of the big stories to emerge from the night was the success of Oliver Speidel. A huge day saw Speidel eliminate Day 1b chip leader Tam Truong and from then on, he could not be stopped. The 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event champion will start Day 3 with the second biggest chip stack and will be looking to continue his great form of the last few months.

Final Day Seating Draw

Table 1
1-Nicholas Heather-953,500
2-Damien Walsh-343,000
3-Bill Kennedy-91,000
4-John Parker-203,500
5-Kristina Griffiths-186,500
6-Laurence Hall-358,000
7-Liam O’Rourke-495,000
8-Stuart Bellard-275,000
9-Steve Lindeblad-110,000
Table 2
1-Sam Capra-440,000
2-Anthony Aston-188,000
3-Martin Rowe-294,000
4-Gordon Huntly-380,500
5-Peco Stojanovski-195,500
6-Jason O’Brien-166,500
7-Luke Brabin-149,500
8-Erich Stadler-163,500
9-Jim Collopy-638,500
Table 3
1-Luke Downes-283,500
2-Luke Edwards-180,000
3-Craig Blight-353,500
4-Tobin Ryall-197,000
5-Oliver Speidel-797,000
6-Mishel Anunu-434,500
7-Alec Smith-572,000
8-Bradley Lancken-240,000
9-Jason Pritchard-381,000

Sponsored by: PokerStars

The second biggest field in tour history has been slashed from 461 players to 207 after the opening two flights of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event at The Star.

The total number of Main Event entrants is more than both 2010 (446) and 2011 (373) and second only to the inaugural ANZPT Sydney in 2009 (493).

The day 1B field of 246 players – one of the biggest single-day fields ever seated at Star Poker – helped build the prizepool to $922,000 with the winner set to take home $226,812. A total of 54 players will earn a slice of the prizepool.

After yesterday eight 60-minute levels, Tam Truong finished with the biggest stack of 115,700 but that was only good for sixth overall on the chip count. Other prominent stacks at the end of day 1B belonged to veteran Bill Kennedy (108,775) and Sheldon Mayer (99,300).

Others returning for day two included Raemin Alexander, Vesko Zmukic, Leo Boxell, Gary Benson, Martin Rowe, reigning ANZ Player of the Year Daniel Chevalier, Graeme Putt, Mel Judah, Dennis Huntly and Lee Nelson along with international visitors Maria Ho and Angel Guillen.

As Ben Blaschke reported in the PMA live reporting blog, Boxell should have had more than his almost 70,000 had it not been for a remarkable lay-down by Ciaran Sharp who folded a set of 9s on an A-8-9 flop after correctly putting Boxell on a set of Aces. Incredibly, having faced elimination had he called Boxell’s shove, Sharp finished the day inside the top 10 with 72,325.

Those who were KOed during day 1B included 2011 Aussie Millions champion David Gorr, Mike Ivin, Josh Barrett, Tim English, Mark Iskander, Ali Khalil, Julius Colman and Haibo Chu.

ANZPT Sydney Main Event day 1B chip count

Toby Ryall 138,500
Nabil Edgtton 125,100
Gordon Huntly 121,400
Rhys Gould 119,600
Toan Nguyen 118,200
Tam Truong 115,700
Nicholas Heather 115,300
Justin Cohen 110,625
William Kennedy 108,775
George Marando 104,950
Sheldon Mayer 99,300
Zhixin Yao 99,150
Gerhard Niess 94,900
Daniel Ibrahim 91,700
Adam Bevis 86,775
Luke Edwards 85,150
Ludovic Citerne 85,150
Tommy Yi 83,700
Jason Pritchard 82,000
Dean Yuen 81,700
Daniel Bang Ortmann 81,400
Did not report 81,225
Jonathan Dangio 81,000
Mishel Anunu 80,600
Suzy Khoueis 78,300
Andrew Li 77,600
Nam Le 75,900
Ben Pockett 75,500
Carl Knox 74,300
Craig Blight 73,000
Ciaran Sharpe 72,325
Quoc Nguyen 71,750
Paul Raseta 71,350
Oliver Speidel 70,900
Daniel Kelly 70,600
Michael Kanaan 70,200
Mario Ljubicic 69,250
Damien Walsh 69,075
Didier Guerin 69,000
James Collopy 68,500
Brent Taunton 67,300
Sam Capra 66,300
Paul Whitehouse 65,800
Mark Griffiths 65,350
Jason O’Brien 64,625
Seyed Nasab 64,050
Joshua Foster 62,600
Mathew Rolfe 61,700
Charbel Boustani 60,150
Luke Brabin 58,875
Michael O’Grady 57,200
Jason Hamilton 57,100
Matviy Bilenky 56,925
Chad Awerbuch 55,450
Raemin Alexander 55,050
Manny Stavropoulos 55,000
Theodor Lothman 54,775
Ian Parnell 54,300
Alec Smith 54,200
Luis Arrilucea 54,075
Brett Daphne 53,500
Did not report 53,425
Stewart Ballard 53,000
Peter Aristidou 52,400
Did not report 51,875
Dale Marsland 51,200
Evan Martin 50,700
Rod Meneses 50,000
Todor Kondevski 49,250
Vesko Zmukic 49,000
Tony Hachem 48,100
David August 47,775
Nick Georgoulas 47,700
Stephane Fontes 47,550
Christian Glissmann 47,300
Erich Stadler 47,025
Alan Bustany 46,900
Leo Boxell 45,700
George Cotaidis 45,400
David Campbell 45,050
Martyn Poytress 44,350
Peco Stojanovski 44,275
David S Lloyd 44,100
Scott Ricotta 43,750
Martin Rowe 43,575
Chris Ayoub 43,500
Darren Potts 43,100
Richard Talaber 42,700
Jing Jie 42,400
Matthew Yates 42,350
Kristina Griffiths 42,150
Dean McIver 42,125
Bradley Lancken 42,050
Ronnie Shabtay 41,100
John Parker 40,150
Martin Drewe 39,550
Anthony Aston 39,350
Tony Sama 39,050
Eric Sclavos 38,800
Did not report 38,425
Stephen Lindeblad 38,300
Omer Silatozija 38,150
Daniel Laidlan 37,200
Nicholas Polias 36,900
John Thomson 36,750
Gary Benson 36,375
Robert Sova 35,675
Minh Hau Nguyen 35,650
Jim Sachinidis 35,200
Sean McMahon 34,900
Manuel Hansimikali 34,550
Louie Elias Srour 34,000
Daniel Chevalier 33,775
Andrew Mellado 33,725
Did not report 33,400
Liam O’Rourke 33,300
Trent Flitcroft 33,200
John Jolly 33,100
Ryan Hong 33,100
Con Angelakis 33,000
Graeme Putt 32,625
Did not report 32,450
Sarah Beard 32,100
Wei Zhu 32,000
Robert Turvey 31,900
Jeff Brian 31,300
Gabriel Cafios 31,250
Stefan Post 31,175
Rined Namrood 30,425
Sebastian Pagana 29,675
Christopher Moutzouris 29,650
Jarrod Holmes 29,475
Guang Yan Yu 29,000
Gary Retallick 28,900
Phillip Hiruwai 27,900
Nurlan Boobekov 27,800
Roy Vandersluis 27,775
Did not report 27,250
Michael Fadersen 27,100
Gaetano Scaravilli 27100
Qi Xu 26,550
Steven Lilley 26,400
Michael Schiffer 26,300
Hung Tu Wang 26,175
Gregory Zabawa 25,125
Kevin Clark 25,000
Laurence Hall 24,925
Edgar Montenegro 24,900
Eric Grigaux 24,775
Trudie Sultana 24,600
Jackson Zheng 24,000
Angelo Hamataj 23,500
Angel Guillen 23,475
Paul Elliot 23,425
Victor Fong 22,650
Michael Mayar 22,650
Billy Argyros 22,600
Simon Jeremy 22,375
Jim Condylis 22,100
Kamel Bekhaled 21,850
Nicholas Lamport 21,700
Alexander Antonios 21,675
Peter Skouteris 21,375
Joel Dodds 21,300
Martin Kozlov 21,000
Mel Judah 19,925
Anthony Wright 19,700
Dennis Huntly 19,650
Adam Agresta 19,600
Peter Apostoleou 19,400
Trevor Saunders 19,300
Jonathan Gamerov 19,200
Michael van Vegchel 19,200
Guy Delahaye 18,850
Shane Eastley 18,750
Adam Brown 17,650
David Hulum 17,300
Mike Comer 17,275
Mark Sarkis 17,200
Xiaobo Wu 17,075
Reza Vakili 17,000
Brandon Huynh 16,875
Alan White 16,800
Hun Wei Lee 16,600
Luke Downers 16,600
Kevin Buckley 15,775
Rana Wilkinson 15,700
Vince Galluccio 15,300
Peter Louskos 15,025
Lee Nelson 14,875
Alan Bertenshaw 14,600
Shaun Elliott 14,200
Robert Bechara 14,050
Maria Ho 13,800
Daniel Iwikau 12,500
Travis Moore 11,475
Aaron Stenlake 11,475
Sefehr Naderi 11,400
Sandy Retallick 11,200
Paul Pedersen 11150
Simon Moshi 11,125
Ryan Boswell 9700
Aaron Lim 9675
Manuel Rodrigues 9400
Andrew Stolz 8800
Did not report 7250
Peter Matusik 7125
Did not report 4650

Payouts

1 $226,812
2 $144,754
3 $80,214
4 $62,696
5 $48,405
6 $39,185
7 $29,965
8 $23,511
9 $17,518
10-12 $11,525
13-15 $9220
16-18 $7837
19-21 $6454
22-24 $5532
25-27 $5071
28-36 $4610
37-45 $4149
46-54 $3688

By Poker Media Australia

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

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

Australian Poker Weekly’s annual No limit Holdem tournament which was usually held on the October long weekend is now part of the excitement of the Sydney Championships. Saturday 3rd September is the date to remember for the Australian Poker Weekly $550 NLH (Event 2). With this event being staged in the ‘prime” Saturday timeslot, a healthy roll up is expected creating what should be a very tidy prize pool in the process.

Back to back Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour Player Of The Year Tony Hachem is the host for the Australian Poker Weekly’s annual No limit Holdem tournament. Tony has told us that while he is the host, it does not mean that he will be taking it easy. “I love to compete and I will be trying my best to win the tournament” said Tony.

Date: Saturday 3 September, 12:30 PM
Buy in: $550^ ($500 + $50)
Starting Chips: $10,000 in non-value tournament chips
Blind Level Duration: 40 minutes

Register online: Go to www.biggamepoker.com.au and click on Tournament Registration button.

Also see Facebook invite by clicking here

Notes:
To enter any event in the Sydney Championships, you must be 18 years or over and a Total Star Rewards member or a Sovereign Room cardholder.

*Conditions apply. Prize pool based on 250 players. If there are less than 250 players Star City reserves the right to reduce the prize pool in accordance with the Pay-Out Breakdown in the Tournament conditions. Please refer to the Pay Out Breakdown in the Tournament Conditions above for details of available prize pools and prize values.

^Buy-in non-refundable less than five days prior to the Tournament, except at Star City’s discretion or if the Tournament is cancelled.

Membership to Total Star Rewards is FREE and available at a Total Star Rewards Centre.

Player activity statements for slot machine play are available on request. Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858 www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au.

Ted Whitten Jnr welcomes you to join him to help find a cure for Prostate Cancer.
Head to Crown and play poker to help raise money for the E.J. Whitten Foundation, and put on yourbest poker face to honour a true football legend who dedicated his life to Australian Rules Football.
Hosted by Tony Hachem, the $300 buy-in event with $100 rebuys will see the winner take home a $10,600 seat in the 2012 Aussie Millions.
Time: 3.00pm arrival for a learn to play session for a 4.15pm start
Date: Sunday 25 September 2011
Place: Crown Poker Room, Level B2, Crown Entertainment Complex
To register visit www.crownpoker.com.au

Australian Poker Weekly’s annual No limit Holdem tournament which was usually held on the October long weekend is now part of the excitement of the Sydney Championships. Saturday 3rd September is the date to remember for the Australian Poker Weekly $550 NLH (Event 2). With this event being staged in the ‘prime” Saturday timeslot, a healthy roll up is expected creating what should be a very tidy prize pool in the process.

Back to back Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour Player Of The Year Tony Hachem is the host for the Australian Poker Weekly’s annual No limit Holdem tournament. Tony has told us that while he is the host, it does not mean that he will be taking it easy. “I love to compete and I will be trying my best to win the tournament” said Tony.

Date: Saturday 3 September, 12:30 PM
Buy in: $550^ ($500 + $50)
Starting Chips: $10,000 in non-value tournament chips
Blind Level Duration: 40 minutes

Register online: Go to www.biggamepoker.com.au and click on Tournament Registration button.

Notes:
To enter any event in the Sydney Championships, you must be 18 years or over and a Total Star Rewards member or a Sovereign Room cardholder.

*Conditions apply. Prize pool based on 250 players. If there are less than 250 players Star City reserves the right to reduce the prize pool in accordance with the Pay-Out Breakdown in the Tournament conditions. Please refer to the Pay Out Breakdown in the Tournament Conditions above for details of available prize pools and prize values.

^Buy-in non-refundable less than five days prior to the Tournament, except at Star City’s discretion or if the Tournament is cancelled.

Membership to Total Star Rewards is FREE and available at a Total Star Rewards Centre.

Player activity statements for slot machine play are available on request. Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858 www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au.