After an initial field of 310 taking to the felt on Saturday the 24^th of September, 11 players returned to Melbourne’s prestigious Crown Casino yesterday to compete for the ANZPT title. With first place sitting at an impressive $156,550 AUD, a slew of Australians and two highly decorated Kiwi Poker pros began the final table – Lee Nelson and Phillip Wilcocks. Neither need any real introduction; with Lee spreading his talents across the poker community, being an author, and playing the live tournament circuit. Lee eventually bested Australian Nick Georgoulas, claiming his second Melbourne based title after his win at the 2006 Aussie Millions.

Lee Nelson is the winner of ANZPT Melbourne.

Wilcocks has found himself at the head of many live final tables recently, and apparently had lead quite a quiet tournament to find himself starting with around 1 million chips when the clock was wound back by tournament officials to start play at 8,000/16,000 blind levels. Nelson shared a similar stack as the final table began, and for quite some time, play was very tight. It wasn’t until 2 hours after play had resumed that Danny Chevalier claimed the first scalp of the final table, sending Justin Sanchez of Australia home in 9^th place for $13,020.

Play continued in a relatively solid manner, with Willcocks pushing some action against Chevalier, and Lee chipping up substantially to around 1.7 million. Another two hours gone by, and it was time for a succession of eliminations, which included Brett Chalhoub (8^th), and Stephen Eliesen who took 7^th after shipping Q5o with 10 big blinds into the KQo of Phillip Willcocks from the button. Sporting a self-styled t-shirt with the words “Degenerate Gambler” emblazoned on it — Elisen watched as the board ran out dry, departing with $22,320 for his efforts.

As the blinds continued to increase, effectively making play extremely short-stacked and pre-flop based, more competitors joined the rail. Previous chip leader Tom Wing found the exit shortly after he called a pre-flop all-in from Willcocks who shoved the button, with Wing tabling A7s from the big blind for what he likely thought would be the best hand, but Willcocks held AJs to have him crushed. After there were just five, it was Nelson who would eventually knock out Willcocks, after he lost a succession of pots, firstly against Nick Geogoulas, and secondly against Nelson post-flop. The two eventually got it all-in afterwards when Phillip put in his last 550,000 with 106s from the cut-off position, only to be called by Nelson’s A8 off-suit. While he was able to find a pair on the 6 4 Q rainbow flop that followed, the turn and river came 5 and 7 to deliver Lee with a four to a straight, cementing Willcocks’ 5^th place finish for $31,100.

Phillip Willcocks made yet another impressive run this year at ANZPT Melbourne, unlucky to take 5th -- but $34,000 richer for his pains.

What followed after was a chain of all-in situations, the first of which coming when Nelson opened with a raise to 100,000 from the button with the blinds at 25,000/50,000, and Karan Punjabi moved all in for his last 430,000. Lee made the call and tabled a virtual monster with TT, while Punjabi trailed with just A9o. It was not to be for Australian, as no help came with the dealer, with Karan awarded a healthy $43,090 for his commitment. It was not long after that a similar spot had unfolded, when Danny Chevalier put in his last 825,000 with 33 and was called by Nelson’s ATo. Again Lee found his magic as the board ran out a boat with tens full of Aces, and Chevalier was sent home in 3^rd for $55,180 in change.

Finally as heads-up began, it seemed that Lee was ready to gamble with his massive chip advantage. A few all-in confrontations later,  with relatively equal stacks, both players got all their chips in quite thin. Nick Georgoulas opened to 150,000, and Lee moved all-in, with the effective raise being roughly 2.1 million given Georgoulas own stack size. Whatever the odds though, Nick quickly made the call and tabled 44; with Nelson turning over JhTh for “classic” flip. It was virtually over almost immediately, as the dealer fanned out a flopped flush for Lee, bringing a royal flush re-draw when the board came A K 8, all hearts. The turn brought a harmless brick, leaving Lee as the champion and winner of the $156,550 first prize. The final results are shown below:

1st Lee Nelson (New Zealand) – $156,550
2nd Nick Georgoulas (Australia) – $99,200
3rd Danny Chevalier (Australia) – $55,180
4th Karan Punjabi (Australia) – $43,090
5th Phil Willcocks (New Zealand) – $34,100
6th Tom Wing (Australia) – $27,900
7th Stephen Eliesen (Australia) – $22,320
8th Brett Chalhoub (Australia) – $17,670
9th Justin Sanchez (Australia) – $13,020

Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we continue to follow the ANZPT, with the next chapter in Darwin. We’ll also be on the lookout for Lee, as we’re hopefully able to interview him over his latest tournament conquest.

ANZPT

Admittedly this update has been slow to come. Queenstown was amazing, the mountains were insane, the weather was beautiful and….oh that’s right, there was a poker tournament there too!

First things first, the venue.

Sky City Queenstown is probably one of the smallest casinos in Australasia. Theres only a handful of tables, a few dozen machines and a couple of bars and a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place, but it is a little different to what most players would have been used to.

The staff at Sky City and from ANZPT were top notch as always. While the players all do their best to look staunch and uninterested, I know the staff were appreciated for their care and professionalism.

The poker room was a smaller function room off to the side of the casino, and TBH, probably not the most inspiring room, but hey, who needs to be inspired while playing poker huh? I reckon the Sky City team did the best with what they had.

The tournament itself was almost secondary to the other awesome activities happening around the place. For starters, all the players who had won satellites to the game were loaded up with amazing gifts. A PokerStars scarf and beanie set, a special players BBQ on Coronet Peak, various tourist activities and a PokerStars Limited Edition SNOWBOARD and BAG!!!! I saw a few guys boarding with them on Coronet Peak, I’m not sure how well they rode, but they looked really impressive.

I really think ANZPT and PokerStars have completely outdone themselves on this event, they’ve really raised the bar.

Danny Chevalier wins ANZPT Q'Town

So on to the tournament, it was ex-Queenstown resident, Australian Danny Chevalier who took out the very first Alpine Adventure Championship, outplaying 134 rivals over six days to take home the 2009 NZPT Queenstown – SKYCITY Alpine Adventure trophy and $87,435.

The Final Table began with 9 players left from an original starting field of 134 battling for a total prize pool of more than $300,000. Over 40 of the starting field were made up of locals, and six of the final nine were New Zealand-based players.

Danny took the title from Andrew Hinrichsen from Australia with a 7 and Ace of hearts giving him a ‘nut flush’. Andrew takes home $57,285 for second place.

The NZPT Queenstown – SKYCITY Alpine Adventure poker tournament attracted a world-class field of some of the sport’s finest talent, including International professionals including Eric Assadourian, Grant Levy, Celina Lin, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh and New Zealand-based Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson.

The final standings were as follows:

1. Danny Chevalier – Melbourne, Australia – $87,435NZD

2. Andrew Hinrichsen – Melbourne, Australia – $57,285NZD

3. Glen Maiden – Queenstown, New Zealand – $33,165NZD

4. Mark Walker – Cambridge, New Zealand – $27,135NZD

5. Steve Smith – Auckland, New Zealand – $21,105NZD

6. John Guthrie – Queenstown, New Zealand – $15,075NZD

7. John Pye – Auckland, New Zealand – $12,060NZD

8. Will Mauga– Brisbane, Australia – $9,045NZD

9. David Bradford – Wellington, – $6,030NZD

Next on the ANZPT calendar are the Queensland legs of the tour in the awesome Jupiters and Treasury Casino’s kicking off this week from Aug 5th.

If you don’t have an account at PokerStars yet, sign up here and get an extra $50 for your $50 deposit.