Luke Sharpe finished strongly after a testing eight hours at the final table to claim the 2011 Western Classic Main Event title at Burswood. The day started with nine players still in contention and the top five separated by less than 80,000 in chips.
Teddy Nguyen (333,000) held the chip lead ahead of Craig Cockburn (294,000), Tony Tartaglia (280,500), Luke Sharpe (266,500), Con Kamaras (258,500), David Joseph (176,000), Mile Krstanoski (166,000), Vesko Zmukic (73,500) and Seb Pagana (72,500).
Short stack Seb Pagana was the first to be eliminated but picked the wrong time to run his pockets sixes into the pocket jacks of Con Kamaras. Teddy Nguyen extended his chip lead after his nut flush helped him acquire the lion’s share of Craig Cockburn’s stack before Sharpe’s pocket deuces held up against the Kd-Qd of Joseph to send him packing.
Cockburn gained a measure of revenge against Nguyen when he sent pocket nines to war against the pocket eights of the former chip leader, who was stunned to depart in seventh. Vesko Zmukic’s hopes of becoming a dual Western Classic champion ended in dramatic fashion. He committed his chips with pocket nines with Cockburn making the call and showing A-K. The flop came 6-6-6, giving Zmukic a full house but a K on the river gave Cockburn the pot and left Zmukic on the rail in sixth.
Cockburn’s run continued when he claimed the scalps of Krstanoski (A-K v A-10) and Tartaglia, who put in one of the performances of the day to nurse his short stack all the way to fourth. Con Karamas held the chip on a couple of occasions but found his tournament life at stake holding A-9 against the pocket 10s of Luke Sharpe. Karamas found a 9 on the flop, but that wasn’t enough as he was confirmed third-place finisher.
It was Cockburn versus Sharpe for the title and a typically tenacious battle ensued until Sharpe gained the upper hand and Cockburn decided to take a stand with K-9, which was slightly dominated by the A-8 of Sharpe. There was a K on the flop, but also an A and that was enough for Luke Sharpe to be confirmed as the 2011 Western Classic Poker Championship Main Event winner.
$2500 Western Classic No Limit Hold’em Main Event final table results
1 Luke Sharpe $72,000
2 Craig Cockburn $43,500
3 Con Kamaras $30,000
4 Tony Tartaglia $22,500
5 Mile Krstanoski $16,000
6 Vesko Zmukic $12,000
7 Teddy Nguyen $8500
8 David Joseph $6300
9 Seb Pagana $5000
10 Peter Parsons $4040
• It was a massive weekend at Burswood with two other events to wrap up the 2011 Western Classic schedule. The $4000 High Stakes event drew a field of eight players – Dale Marsland, Luc Monte, Jovan Scekic, Arthur Phillips, Ray Ellis, Bobby Trask, Nina Marotta and Bernard Beh. Marsland, who placed third in last year’s Western Classic Main Event, took the title ahead of Monte and Marotta.
Event 7: $4000 Western Classic High Stakes Event (eight players, three paid; total prizepool $31,120)
1 Dale Marsland $16,120
2 Luc Monte $10,000
3 Nino Marotta $5000
• A field of 73 signed on for the $440 Terminator event. Teddy Nguyen dominated with a record 14 eliminations but he could only manage seventh as Laurie Gibson collected his debut major title.
Event 6: $440 Western Classic Terminator Event (73 players; eight players paid; total prizepool $21,170 plus $7300 for Terminator Tokens)
1 Laurie Gibson $7000
2 Daniel Loobas $4445
3 Matt Rynkiewicz $2950.
4 Martin Lyszkowicz $2330
5 Corey Fitzroy $1695
6 Wayne Robinson $1270
7 Teddy Nguyen $845
8 Sean O’Reilly $635
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