APPT Sydney – Asia Pacific Poker Tournaments

Dates

Season Two – 2-7 December 2008

Buy-in

$5 930

Prize Pool

AUS$1 million guaranteed

Entrants

900 expected

Venue

Star City Casino

Contact Details

Star City Casino

86 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, NSW 2009

Tel: +61 297 779 000

Email: StarReservations@tabcorp.com.au

Getting there

Sydney is serviced by the largest airport in Australia, the Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport, which is situated at Mascot, on the shores of Botany Bay, about 13 km out of the CBD. It is a major transport hub to key destinations in North and South America, the Pacific, Asia and Europe and there are literally dozens of flights linking Sydney to nearby New Zealand.

There is a train service running between the airport and the CBD, known as the Airport Link. It is part of the City Rail commuter system and a single fare will set you back about $14 - $15 to any city station.

There is single bus route, the 400, which runs between Bondi Junction and Burwood via Rockdale Station and from there it is easy and convenient to catch the train through to the city. The buses are clearly marked “Burwood” and leave every 20-30 minutes from outside Terminals 1 and 3. A single fare will cost about $4.00.

Season 1 Grand Final Results

Top teacher and ex-rugby coach, Grant Levy, became the first Australian to win AUSD$1 million on home turf and the inaugural APPT Grand final. He had to crush some impressive rivals en route to the final table and they included four world champions – Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Scotty Nguyen and 561 players from 30 nations! He continues the trend set at earlier APPT events – a relative newcomer decimating a field of experience!

Levy is no poker novice, he is considered one of the premier tournament players in Australia and in 2007 he outplayed a field of 428 to finish third at the PokerNews Cup main event in Melbourne. He is currently ranked 6th on the Australia all time money list having pocketed over $1 million in career earnings to date. He went on to finish 10th in the AUSD$1500 No Limit Holdem Bounty Event at the 2008 Aussie Millions and 18th in the AUSD$1000 No Limit Holdem Main Event at the 2008 Melbourne Texas Holdem Championship.

It was not all plain sailing for the 28 year old from Sydney, he had to concentrate for an awesome 62 hands before he managed to claim the title from runner-up, Jeremiah Vinsant.

Final Table

  1. Grant Levy (Australia) - $850 000 (AUSD$1 million)
  2. Jeremiah Vinsant (USA) - $528 309
  3. Lei He (Australia) - $273 938
  4. Sol Bergren (Canada) - $195 670
  5. Jai Kemp (Australia) - $135 012
  6. Barry Kohlhoff (USA) - $97 835
  7. John Matwey (USA) - $78 268
  8. Vijayan Nagarajan (Malaysia) - $58 701
  9. Larry Wright (USA) - $39 134

Season 1 Tournament of Champions Results

All the winners of the maiden APPT events, apart from Dihn Le, who won the APPT Macau, took on some of the heavy weights of pro poker in the much publicised Tournament of Champions event. The winner of the inaugural tournament was none other than 2005 WSOP main event winner, Joe Hachem who donated his winnings to charity. The other players at the table were:

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