2011 APL Player of the Year Scott Brown
Launceston school teacher Scott Brown is bound for Las Vegas as the captain of TeamWSOP after winning the APL Player of the Year Final at Crown last night. “I’m so stoked for Vegas,” the champ declared as the enormity of his achievement started to sink in.
Brown conquered the eight-player field after a dominant heads-up display against New Zealander Gina Tomasi, who watched her stack gradually whittled away until she committed the last of her chips with Qh-6h. Brown was well placed with Qc-10s, and so it proved when the board ran out Kc-4h-7s-7d-3d.
Brown will captain the TeamWSOP crew (comprising up to 12 players) to the 2012 World Series of Poker later this year as part of a package valued at $17,000 including flights and accommodation. He also pocketed $15,000 in cash.
Over a 12-month period, players attended daily events to accumulate points in pursuit of the title of APL Player of the Month in each state. Those 12 players were joined by the four State Championship winners in each state for a 16-player playoff to decide the field for the first APL Player of the Year Final.
The field comprised Queensland student Peter Kriston, father-of-two Steve Kane from Victoria, Australian Poker Hero contestant Col Birt from South Australia, prolific WA pub poker champion Ron Forward, APL Poker Tour winner Ben O’Connell, emerging cricket star Shaun Bridges, Brown and Tomasi.
The relaxed structure and big start stack meant play started cautiously but it didn’t take long for the casualties to mount and it was down to Birt, Brown and Tomasi for the title, with the trio returning from the dinner break almost even in chips.
Tomasi briefly rallied after turning a straight against Brown’s set of fours to take a big chip lead, but she leaked chips for the remainder of the tournament and Brown regained the ascendancy after his pocket aces crippled Birt’s pocket nines.
Today at Crown, The MAIN EVENT kicks-off with a massive field of approximately 550 players battling for a share of a guaranteed $500,000 prizepool and $100,000 first prize package. Follow all the action here at PMA over the next three days.
Be the first to comment