ANZPT Sydney Opening event champion Naji Hassoun
Naji Hassoun has topped the podium in the Opening Event on the 2012 ANZPT Sydney schedule at The Star after overcoming a tough line-up of experienced campaigners at Sunday’s final table.
Star Poker ambassador and 2009 ANZPT Sydney winner Aaron Benton was the popular pick to go all the way after starting the final table with a significant chip lead but neither he, nor Luke Kelly who started in second chip position, were there at the end. The chip count started like this:
Aaron Benton 2,200,000
Luke Kelly 1,624,000
Alan Casas 722,000
Matt Woodards 644,000
Naji Hassoun 565,000
Suzy Khoueis 509,000
Ryan Davis 431,000
Tristan Earl 336,000
Peter Frazier 199,000
Indeed, it was Benton who was first out of the stalls when he claimed the scalp of Tristan Earl with Ryan Davis (seventh) and well known Sydney pub player Alan Casas (eighth) the next to go. Suzy Khoueis departed in sixth when Benton was priced in to call with his Qc-10c against Khoueis’ K-8. Benton flopped an open ended straight draw and then turned a 10 to take the pot and regain a chip lead.
With four players left, Hassoun had climbed to the top of the chip count along with Peter Frazier, who held the short stack when the final table commenced. The key hand came for Hassoun when he shoved K-Q only to be snap-called by the A-K of Luke Kelly. Hassoun looked certain to be dealt a crippling blow until a Q spiked on the river to propel him to a big chip lead.
Soon after he busted Benton with queens over jacks and then completed the job when his 9s held against Peter Frazier’s J-10 suited. Players agreed to a deal three-handed with Hassoun taking home $40,000 and change while both Frazier and Benton pocketed a cool $30,000 apiece.
ANZPT Sydney $330 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event results
1 Naji Hassoun $51,836
2 Peter Frazier $32,452
3 Aaron Benton $17,100
4 Luke Kelly $13,176
5 Matthew Woodards $10,781
6 Suzy Khoueis $8276
7 Ryan Davis $6098
8 Alan Casas $4356
9 Tristan Earl $3158
10 Osama Hassan $2286
11 Ross Coveny $2286
12 Gerhard Niess $2286
13 Adam Ratten $2069
14 Peter McCarthy $2069
15 Laurence Hall $2069
16 Mark Longhurst $1851
17 Steven Faulkner $1851
18 Tu Tran $1851
19 Samuel Kennedy $1633
20 Ronnie Shabtay $1633
21 Robert Chapman $1633
22 Alex Wayne $1415
23 Alexander Trevallion $1415
24 Milad Elazzi $1415
25 Christopher Wong $1200
26 Rodrigo Meneses $1200
27 Mark Grant $1200
28 Florian Taube $1200
29 Joseph Falcomata $1200
30 Troy Parkinson $1200
31 Hun Wei Lee $1200
32 Joe Logozzo $1200
33 Kenrick Leh $1089
34 Con Diakovasilis $1089
35 Fred Madon $1089
36 Darren Cottrell $1089
37 Michael Malki $1089
38 Aaron Mordey $1089
39 David Mahone $1089
40 Chris Lee $980
41 Zhanghua Chen $980
42 Hussein Mrad $980
43 David Pham $980
44 Nick Velcic $980
45 James Tysoe $980
46 Peter Patrick $980
47 Todor Kondevski $871
48 Karam Bahi $871
49 Russell Davies $871
50 Brad Fowler $871
51 Cezary Klimczak $871
52 Tomas Navascues $871
53 Geoff Mooney $871
54 Denis Jankovic $762
55 Ivan Zadravec $762
56 Charbel Boustami $762
57 Stephen Dwek $762
58 Weng Cheong Wong $762
59 John Shin $762
60 Charles Demanuele $762
61 Nabil Edgtton $653
62 Todd Allison $653
63 Rick Solomon $653
64 Darryl Lau $653
65 Rathesnan Kulenthiraras $653
66 Sean Lannon $653
67 Sam Ioannou $653
68 Ron Faul $544
69 Anthony Tarabay $544
70 Jamie Porra $544
71 Ning Zhang $544
72 Hanna Nakhoul $544
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