The three day event attracted 218 entrants (not bad given day one started on Monday night – perhaps this will be addressed in Season 2 and can only be put down to Crown Casino “squeezing” it into their already packed Melbourne Champs schedule) who all paid the AUD$2,700 entry to create a AUD$545,000 prizepool.

After some late nights and long days of play a final table resulted and looked like this:

ANZPT - Melbourne Champion Levick

Seat 1: Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick (283,000)

Seat 2: Rodney Burles (168,000)
Seat 3: Sam Khouiss (354,000)
Seat 4: Chris Levick (969,000)
Seat 5: Jie Gao (517,000)
Seat 6: Ben Savage (682,000)
Seat 7: Gregory Shillig (190,000)
Seat 8: Peter Aristidou (432,000)
Seat 9: Kristian Lunardi (713,000)

Some 9 grueling hours later, it was PokerStars.net qualifier Chris Levick that won out over regular and pokernews’ own blogger, Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick. Levick took home AUD$158,050 for 1st place and the inugural ANZPT – Melbourne Championship Trophey.

Next on the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour is ANZPT Queenstown. It is a 5 day, NZD$2,500 buy-in event held at Skycity Queenstown from July 21-25. Qualify at PokerStars now and receive $50 free with your first deposit by clicking the banner below:

After an intense tournament at the superb Crown Casino, it was  Xiao Cui who took out event 7 of the $230 No Limit Hold Em 100k Guarantee.

PokerNZ’s own ‘downtrou’ was in the race and looking good early on when he busted out Paul Taylor with his QsQh against Taylors AsQd. The 3d5d7s flop didn’t help either of them, nor did the 8h turn, but the 4h river sealed the deal and Taylor busted out, not far from the money. downtrou moved up the table with just over 30,000 in chips and was looking good to make the bubble.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as a few hands down it was Adam Brown who moved all in with his JhJd, downtrou calling with AcAd! Both were still looking good as the spread came out 10d, 10h, 6h, 4d and then…..Jc! Brown roared with delight and downtrou was forced to leave the table, just outside of the bubble. An unlucky break, but showing that even the best hand can be beat.

Brown later busted out in 5th place taking home $8,000 for his efforts.

The Melbourne Poker Champs runs until June 17 and all details can be found on the Crown Poker website

http://www.crownpoker.com.au/

With just one month to go and 2 weeks of action packed poker, the Melbourne Champs promises to draw the crowds once again to the home of Australasian Poker, Crown Casino.

One exciting new addition to the already packed 2009 schedule is the third leg of the ANZPT (as covered in the article above).

Last year’s Main Event winner James “Jabba” Broom took home a healthy $134,602 in prize money and is sure to be returning to defend his title.

You too could go down in Australasian poker history and with satellites starting from just $2 + 20c at 888 Poker why not start today? If you don’t already have an account at 888, use this link to get 100% Bonus up to $400

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Click here to view the full schedule of tournaments, good luck and see you in Melbourne!

Stewart Scott $2m richer today

Unfortunately the final table had to shift into a TV studio, so the general public was unable to witness the final table in the flesh, but those who did get to view it certainly got their fair share of poker excitement.

Heading in to the final day it didn’t take long for the first player (Barney Boatman) to fall. He did start off short stacked and Zach Gruneberg despatched him in 8th place, giving him $100,000 for his troubles.

The Brit, Richard Ashby was next to fall only moments after Boatman and joined him on the rail following a battle with Rajkumar Ramakrishnan, putting $150,000 in his pocket.

Zach Gruneberg, the young American freeroller who won his seat from a Cake Poker satellite was next to hit the skids, ending a profitable journey Down Under adding $210,000 to his $35,000 win from Event #4.

Sam Capra was another player who won his seat in a $320 satellite, leaving in 5th place with $300,000.

Rajkumar Ramakrishnan busted out in 4th place to pick up $400,000 after an enduring battle that saw half of the final table’s hands played between the four players.

Just before midnight Elliott Smith went down, taking away $700,000 and leaving Stewart Scott and Peter Rho to go heads up. Rho’s stack of 2.9 million against Scott’s 10.7 million soon took a walloping and Rho walked away with $1m while Australian Stewart Scott took away the bracelet, the $2m and the pride of his nation as he managed to do what Joe Hachem tried to, and bring the Aussie Millions back home.

For full hand by hand run-down, visit PokerNews.com

Zach Gruneberg with his ultimate poker face

When I first came into the poker room, I don’t know what it was, but something about this kid just shone out to me.

His crew were supportive and humble, hes a solid player and it’s going to make a great story! Zach Gruneberg, the youngest in the field that’s left and he goes out tonight with a high chip stack.

Here’s how they finishd up at the end of the day:

Seat 1: Zach Gruneberg – 1,355,000
Seat 2: Barny Boatman – 349,000
Seat 3: Elliot Smith – 1,120,000
Seat 4: Richard Ashby – 658,000
Seat 5: Stewart Scott – 4,520,000
Seat 6: Peter Rho – 2,420,000
Seat 7: Rajkumar Ramakrishnan – 2,050,000
Seat 8: Sam Capra – 1,161,00

It was about 4pm and the cash games were filling up around me as the mood changed in the poker room at Crown Casino.

The cameras were flying around the room as everyone waited for the bubble to burst.

For those that don’t know, the ‘bubble bursting’ is where the last player who is NOT in the money gets knocked out of the tournament. Once this happens, the bubble has burst and the remaining players are all in the money.

In the case of the Aussie Millions, the top 64 players walk away with at least $15,000.

So with the bubble now burst and the final days ahead of us, you can bet the poker room at Crown will really start to fill up as spectators scramble to see the action.

As Day 3 closed, here’s the top 10 chip stacks

Antonio Casale – 1,513,000
Nico Behling – 1,306,000
Dane Lomas – 1,158,000
Max Pescatori – 1,082,000
Robert Akery – 940,000
Peter Mobbs – 908,000
Maximilian Bracht – 837,000
Michael Chrisanthopoulos – 803,000
Robert Holster – 770,000
Erik Seidel – 752,000