Crown Poker

The 2009 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event has been run and won for another year and proved to be a huge success with an enormous field of 725 entrants and an impressive $725,000 generated prizepool. The final table saw the final ten players battle it out for $150,000 first prize.

Poker personality Bruno Portaro was the runaway chip leader, but it was Sydney’s Todor Kondevski who endured all the action keeping everyone in suspense. In the early levels of the tournament he grew his stack picking up pocket kings and pocket aces as players started to fade away, taking the chip lead into the final table with Portaro and Aaron Tran amongst the final table players.
 
It was Guy Agostinelli who was first to leave taking $12,000 for 9th place. Excitement struck for Aaron Tran as he got hold of some well deserved chips eliminating Ricky Kroesen who finished in 8th place with $16,000. However Trans luck later ran out as he overplayed his hand losing to Bruno Portaro finishing with $22,000 in 7th place. Luke Tsapazis was next to bust in 6th place.
 
After the final five returned from a dinner break, play was intense with David Zhao on the short stack, it was clear he thought he could turn things around but he was out of luck ending his run in 5th place and taking home $38,000 for his efforts.
 
The Final table intensified as Bruno Portaro and Mark Iskander clashed in a crucial pot on the final table as Portaro led out with a bet before Iskander had raised going all in leaving Portaro to face a decision for his tournament survival. Unfortunatley for him  his cards didn’t hold up and he was sent packing in 4th place but bot withougt rewards for his play, he took with him an impressive $50K in prize money. It wasnt long before Iskander bust in 3rd .

Kondevski proved to be a prominent player throughout the tournament which became evident with his notable five-to-one chip lead over that of Topakas entering a heads-up battle. Topakas couldn’t quite get his short stack up with Kondevski eventually stealing the title to become the 2009 Melbourne Poker Champion with exclusive $150,000 in prize money and the coveted trophy. Topakas didn’t go home empty handed as he took home a cool $101,000 as runner up.

Stay tuned for the 2009 Victorian Poker Championship commencing on the 1 August 2009.

Links:

Results | Photo Gallery