Browse by Tag - Melbourne Poker Championships
- Sorted by
- Date
- Most popular
- Most commented
-
The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Melbourne Champs
July 08, 2009When Steve Topakas pushed all in holding just ten-high on a board reading
with Tudor Kondevski making the call holding 
we saw another champion crowned.As the Melbourne Poker Championship wrap up for another year, here continued tournament summary with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Melbourne Poker Championships.
1 – Affordable: Having affordable side events is a must so as to attract the small-stakes tournament grinders such as myself. Similar to the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, side events were on the very affordable side ranging from the $120 Morning Series to $175, $230 and $340. Basically being able to get a taste of tournament poker without breaking the bank is a must in any local championships series (in my opinion).
2 – Side Events Too Long: I’m not sure if the structure was too good or if the players had improved, but all the side events ran way into the early hours of the morning. With all events playing down till just one remained, maybe returning the next for the final table would have been a better option then the 5am finishes.
3 – Big Names Not In Attendance: The one thing that let the Melbourne Poker Championships down (if any) was the lack of attendance by some of the big names of Australian poker. Jay ‘Seabeast’ Kinade, Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds, Dean ‘dinhjo’ Nyberg and Jarred ‘FlopNutsOnYou’ Graham were just a few that played the ANZPT Feature Event only not to play the Main Event. A few other notables that didn’t partake in either included Michael Pedley, Joe Hachem and Jason Gray.
Now it is understandable that some would miss out due to the World Series of Poker kicking off on May 27th, but instead of having to choose maybe scheduling the Melbourne Champs a week earlier would open the door up for a few more players to make both trips.4 – Secondary Feature Event: Over the past few years Jonno Pittock and Crown have always implemented a Feature Event into the championship that is separate to the Main Event; the 100k Challenge, State of Origin and now the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne. Having this $2,700 buy-in event attracted a great array of poker players and satellite winners from around the country.
I think this not only boosted the class of the Melbourne Poker Championships but also reinforced that poker is still going as strong as ever even through the tough economic conditions.5 – Morning Series: The Morning Series is a series of four events during the first week where you gain points to play a qualifying freeroll for a seat into the Main Event. With a buy-in of only $120 and Holdem, Omaha Hi Lo, Mixed Stud and Crazy Pineapple on offer, everyone gets a chance at playing a wide variety of games.
The prizepools may be small but the players that turn out are there for some fun knowing that a four-figure collect is unlikely, but a few hours of fun and laughs is more probable!
(it also gains a bonus mention as I made the Mixed Stud final table!)6 – Main Event Structure: The Main Event structure was different to anything I have seen before. Apart from it being a repechage; which helps boost the prizepool, the structure was different to anything I’ve seen before. Day one played nine 40-minute levels, while day two switched to 60-minute levels, and once at the final table they were extended again; this time to 75-minutes.
I thought this was interesting as I think it benefits the better player as the tournament goes on. As I previously said however, I think I would have preferred day one being extended so as to reduce the day two starting field – but when it comes to tournament structure . . . no one is ever happy!7 – Mad Ass Huge Trophies: Crown always produce really nice trophies and for the Melbourne Poker Championships it was no exception! They stepped things up for this series by increasing the size of them – no joke, these things were absolutely massive and for the ANZPT feature event they even had two for the winner!
8 – Tudor Who?: Unlike previous Main Event’s that I have covered for PokerNetwork we always knew that the money would remain in the local poker industry. However with Tudor Kondevski capturing the $150,000 first prize we have no idea if he’ll use it to ‘stimulate’ the poker landscape like others before him or tuck it away in his home safe.
* * * * * * * *
With another successful series on home turf, all the attention can be turned to the Mecca of poker tournaments with the World Series of Poker just a flight away.
So make sure to stay logged on to Tilted Behaviour as the updates are going to flow hard and fast with plenty of action from the Rio coming your way
107 views, 0 comments
Read more: Crown Poker Room, Melbourne, Tilted Behaviour, Eight Points of Enlightenment, Melbourne Poker Championships
-
TassieDevil Dusted In Second
July 08, 2009The Melbourne Poker Championships have been around since 2007 with Haibo Chu taking down the title only to be followed by James ‘Jabba’ Broom last year.
However with the Main Event still a few days away we have just wrapped up one of the feature events, and new addition to the schedule with the $2,700 PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne Main Event.
With Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick qualifying online it would be just me undertaking the blogging duties when this star-studded field sat down; which included the likes of online whiz kids CNT_CRUSHER, xMONSTERxDONGx, Adgee and Seabeast as well as live specialists Steve Topakas, Gary Benson, Emad Tahtouh, Eric Assadourian and Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros.
However all the above would fall by day one’s end with Chick leading the charge along with Tino Lechich, Peter Aristidou. Sam Youssef and Jarred Graham all trailing closely.
Day two flew pretty quickly with Heath continuing his hot run good streak while forming an image of set-plus only as the final table would up as the following:
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)My heart should have obviously been behind Heath, but it was so hard to really pick someone I wanted to win. I’ve been friends with Kristian for a few years now, and we’ve played countless of home games together. Peter Aristidou was one of the first Crown regular’s I became friends with, and due to some personal circumstances I really wanted him to take it down too. Throw Chris Levick and Ben Savage into that mix and it leaves one of Australia’s most loved / hate (depends how you see him) players in Sam Khouiss.
Khouiss is loud, arrogant, always portrays the image of a broke degenerate, but is a character worth paying too watch. All in all it was Khouiss for the win followed by an Aristidou, Chick, Lunardi chop in second . . . well in the perfect world anyway!
The final table went fairly smoothly apart from having to blog and assist the six-handed event as our other blogger had fallen ill; along with taking photos it was always going to be tough for a while!
Kirsty keeping watchThe rail filled up with everyone’s cheer squad increasing as hands continued to play out. Heath’s fiancée Kirsty flew down to lend her support and was a bucket full of nerves as she sweated him over his left shoulder, while Hux came down to pen Heath’s new nick name . . . Heath ‘no-set-no-bet’ Chick!
Players kept falling while both Heath and Chris slowly accumulated, and it was fitting to see them both make heads-up play. Heath started at a seven-to-two underdog and slipped further behind until he spiked a three-outer for a double up and then made a flush with
all in preflop against the Ace-Queen of Chris.
Heath 'TassieDevil' Chick all inWith Chris getting visibly frustrated it all came to and end when his
out flopped Heath’s 
to take down the title and $158,050 first prize as Heath was left to ponder how close he came.Still, his $103,550 payday should make him feel a little better, but I guess the lesson learnt here is that no PokerNews employee should ever play Queens when at the crossroads of a very important poker highway!
Congratulations to Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick for capturing second and taking the cake as the better tournament player . . . for now!
-
Welcome (Back) To Las Vegas Mr. Duckworth
July 08, 2009This is all . . .
Well . . . to elaborate, it seems that I'm returning to Las Vegas for the 2009 WSOP as part of the PokerNews Live Reporting team.
It will be my third consecutive year heading over to the USA for the World Series of Poker, and my second as part of the PokerNews team. However there was a massive chance that we wouldn't be there due to the increased cost for the official rights - but after many hours of contract talks Tony G signed on the dotted line and voila . . . my flights have been booked.
It will only be Heath Chick, Tommy Kinsman and myself that will be heading over from Australia with Heath and I arriving fashionably late, while Tommy jets off early.
The Melbourne Poker Championships will be taking place from the 17th of May to the 1st June in the Crown Poker Room with both Heath and myself providing exclusive live coverage at
PokerNetwork. With the WSOP kicking off on the 27th of May it seems as though we'll miss the first week - but at least we have a valid excuse!Flying out on Australia's new airline VAustralia in the afternoon of Tuesday the 2nd of June we should arrive on the same day, but just in a different timezone and with serious jetlag. Heath is going to fly out early once the WSOP is wrapped up but I'm planning on staying an extra three days so that when I arrive back in Melbourne I can catch a connecting flight to Queenstown, New Zealand for the next stop on the ANZPT.
* * * * * * * *
Like I mentioned earlier the Melbourne Poker Championships will be underway in a few days, and due to the value in tournaments in Las Vegas I'm consequently going to play a limited schedule of events to keep my bankroll in check (well hopefully it gets boosted quite significantly).
My plan is to play two of the Morning Series events; $120 Mixed Stud and $120 Crazy Pineapple along with the $230 Bounty Event and the $1,100 Main Event after winning a seat online at Full Tilt Poker.
Wish me luck, and I'll keep you all updated about my progress through the Melbourne Champs and then in Las Vegas!
