The PokerStars Australia New Zealand Poker Tour recently held a series of poker tournaments at the Sydney stop of the tour. The Main Event and the High Roller event were a great success with hundreds of players coming out to compete.
The main event of the tour stop was a no limit hold’em tournament with a buy-in of $2,200AUD. 446 players registered to compete and the total prize pool up for grabs was $892,000. The top fifty four players finished in the money and the first place prize was worth almost $220,000.
On the final day of the tournament the final table would go by pretty quickly. It would take about four hours before the heads up match would begin. It would be Angelo Hanataj and Mike Ivin competing for the first place prize.
During heads up play Hanataj would have a 3 to 1 chip lead but he would lose the lead quickly and face a 5 to 1 deficit at one point. However the poker pro would climb back out of the hole and within ninety minutes the heads up match would be over. The final hand would see Ivin holding 7-6 with a board of A-9-8-10-Q. Hanataj would show pocket jacks and he would win the hand.
Final Table Results for Main Event:
1: Angelo Hanataj — $219,432
2: Mike Ivin — $140,044
3: Ka Ming Fang — $77,604
4: Michael O’Grady — $60,656
5: Omer Silajdzija — $46,830
6: John Maklouf — $37,910
7: Bernard Gabriel — $28,990
8: Cale Maclean — $22,746
9: Tri Nguyen — $16,948
The High Roller event was just as exciting but did not have as many players competing. The high roller event had a buy-in of $10,200 and twenty nine players registered to compete. The event was full of tough competitors including Billy Argyros, Jeff Lisandro, Jarred Graham, Ben Delaney, Jay Kinkade and Van Marcus.
By day two of play the event had five players left all competing for the top prize of $116,000. When heads up play finally began it was an exciting match up. The two players left in the competition were Grant Levy a Team PokerStars Australia Pro and Full Tilt Red Pro Jonathan Karamalikis. This was very exciting as it was the ultimate matchup between the top poker rooms.
Karamalikis was the chip leader and it would not be long before the final hand would play out. In the final hand Levy went all in with pocket fours. Karamalikis make the call with pocket fives and the board ran 2-Q-2-Q-j so Levy’s pocket fours were not enough to claim the pot and Karamalikis earned the first place win.
Karamalikis is only twenty one years old and he has been very successful as of late. The pro was recently signed as a red pro at Full Tilt poker and he is also the winner of the 2010 Aussie Millions $1,500 Bounty Event as well as the win at the High Roller event.
Final Results of ANZPT Sydney High Roller Event
Jonathan Karamalikis $116,000
Grant Levy $68,150
Peter Aristidou $49,300
Emanuel Seal $33,350
Matthew Kirk $23,200