The 2014 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event at Crown Casino has finally drawn to a conclusion after a gruelling sixteen hours of play on the last day, but the last man standing with all the tournament chips was Australian Edison Nguyen, who is actually a blogger for the Poker Asia Pacific website.
Nguyen, who resides in Melbourne, took home $217,500 for his win and this victory further proves that he is one of Australia’s best rising poker talents. Nguyen, who goes by the online poker alias of GooGieMonA, took down the AUD $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Aussie Millions earlier this year.
A deal was made heads-up with Corey Kempson after it was clear his opponent just wanted the tournament to be over since he was exhausted and would have been more than happy with his $195,500 payday.
At the start of the heads-up action, Kempson made an odd play by committing close to 90% of his stack pre-flop only to fold afterwards. After this happened, APPT President Danny McDonagh met with Crown Poker Tournament Director Joel Williams and they decided to pause the action as it became clear that perhaps a deal had been made between the two players. McDonagh asked both players to rethink about any deal that may have been made with respect to the integrity of the game. Both Kempson and Nguyen didn’t have any issues with what was being asked of them by the tournament director and a new hand was dealt.
Kempson briefly managed to get back square in chips with Nguyen but after only about ten hands the two players agreed to blindly go all-in. Kempson turned over 6d4d and Nguyen had him dominated with Qh6c. A queen came on the flop which all but sealed the deal, a nine on the turn, and a four on the river to pair up Kempson wasn’t good enough to win the pot, crowning Edison Nguyen the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event champion for 2014.
Day 3 and the final day of ANZPT Melbourne AUD $2,200 buy-in Main Event saw 34 players return back to the felt to compete for a share of the AUD $1,032,000 prize pool, the largest in ANZPT history. There were four players that started the day with more than 600k chips – Vincent Chua (684k), Joe Reina (665k), Dennis Huntly (643k), and Corey Kempson (637k.)
The first of the players to hit the rail on Day 3 was Michael Chrisanthopoulos who was out in 34th place, which was good for a AUD $4,600 payday. Following this, the bustouts seemed to come quickly during the first two levels and players like Anthony Aston busted in 30th place for AU$5,150, and Phillip Willcocks also hit the rail in 27th place, which was good for AU$5,700.
Then it seemed to be a battle of the “Lukes” over the course of the next phase of the tournament, but Luke Brabin busted out in 23rd place and Luke Edwards could only manage a 21st place finish. However, Luke Spano emerged as the chip leader, after managing to pick up “Big Slick” a few times in good spots that saw him accumulate a lot of chips. Spano managed to continue this momentum and reach the final table when he hit the rail in 4th place, collecting $69,700 for his efforts.
Congratulations to everyone who has made it in the money at the 2014 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event at Crown Casino and a special big congratulations to the champion Edison Nguyen who outlasted the biggest ANZPT field in the tour’s history. The next stop on the tour will be the APPT Auckland Main Event at SkyCity Auckland Casino.