Kiwi Champ Paul Hockin Takes Melbourne ANZPT

ANZPT Melbourne 2012 Champion – Paul Hockin

Paul Hockin is the ANZPT Melbourne 2012 Champion. He wins $101,275* after outlasting334. Paul is 25 years old and comes from New Zealand, this is the second year in row a New Zealander has won ANZPT Melbourne, Lee Nelson was the defending champion. After winning he said, “I am absolutely stoked, this has been a really exhausting tournament. Finishing yesterday at 6am, I am just really relieved to have made it to the finish line.” Paul has been playing poker for six years with many impressive results both live and online. He has several major online poker scores to his credit under the handle “KingPaulie” including a3rd place in the PokerStars Sunday Million. This is Hockin’s second ANZPT final table, after finishing 5th on the Gold Coast in 2011.

Ashley Warner and Paul Hockin – Heads Up ANZPT Melbourne 2012

Second place was Ashley Warner a 24 year old student from Perth he takes home $130,000*. The Heads up battle was a hard fought affair. Warner had the lead but Hockin wore him down. He finally got the chip lead four hands before eliminating Warner, when he made trip sixes against Warner’s pair of jacks. The final hand saw a very short stacked Warner shove the remainder of his chips into the middle holding jack five against Hockin’s queen nine. The board changed nothing and Paul Hockinbecame our first ANZPT Champion of Season Five.The tournament has seen some of the best and brightest come to Melbourne’s Crown Casino in the hopes of taking home the title. Some of the big names included Team PokerStars PROs Bryan Huang and Angel Guillen. There was a World Champion in Joe Hachem and some fellow Australian Poker Hall of Fame members, in the form of Leo Boxell, Billy The Croc Argyros, Gary Benson andJason Gray. A host of big online poker players and some who were new to tournament poker hoping to take home the title. The tour now heads to ‘the land of the long white cloud.’ ANZPT Auckland will be held fromNovember 21 to 25. For all the payouts in ANZPT Melbourne click here For the ANZ Player of the Year points table click here *A deal was done between the top three finishers.