Gordon Huntly (pictured left) is well known on the regional poker circuit with his name often conspicuous on long lists of Chinese players in results from Macau.
Now, for the first time in his major tournament poker career, Huntly’s name is the first on the list of payouts after securing a famous victory in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event at The Star.
After an epic final table battle that lasted a little over seven hours, the Scotsman overcame a roller-coaster of fortunes and emotions, a current Aussie Millions champion and the relentless aggression of his much younger heads-up opponent to take down the title and its AUD $226,812 top prize – the second biggest offered on the ANZ Poker Tour.
It was Huntly’s biggest career cash, surpassing the USD $166,800 he collected as runner-up to Binh Nguyen in the 2010 APPT Manila Main Event.
Nobody could deny Huntly his victory. Starting the day with 380,500 in chips (ninth overall) and the daunting task of having to outlast the other 26 contenders from the huge starting field of 461, he quietly went about the business of building his stack.
Huntly was mid-pack when the final table started with young gun Liam O’Rourke holding a big lead ahead of Anthony Aston – the only two players with more than one million in chips:
Seat 1: Anthony Aston – 1,700,000
Seat 2: Oliver Speidel – 700,000
Seat 3: Liam O’Rourke – 3,000,000
Seat 4: Jason O’Brien – 850,000
Seat 5: Martin Rowe – 400,000
Seat 6: Stewart Ballard – 320,000
Seat 7: Craig Blight – 440,000
Seat 8: Brad Lancken – 350,000
Seat 9: Gordon Huntly – 650,000
Huntly made his move six-handed after acquiring a slab of Aston’s stack and with four players remaining he suddenly found himself in the chip lead. And while he entered heads-up play facing a slight chip deficit against O’Rourke, it wasn’t long before he had taken back the lead and soon enough the title.
On the final hand of the night, O’Rourke continued his aggressive line by shoving over the top of Huntly’s raise holding K-9 but ran smack bang into pocket Js. And by the time the dealer had dealt the final card on the 4-3-Q-7-4 board, Huntly was pumping his fist as he celebrated a memorable win.
From start to finish, it took 12 hours to decide the champion, including a marathon seven-hour final table. Among those to fall short were Sam Capra, Peco Stojanovski, Jason Pritchard and Alec Smith while both 2008 APPT Sydney champion Martin Rowe and 2012 Aussie Millions winner Oliver Speidel made the final table but fell short of their ultimate goal.
ANZPT Sydney Main Event results (461 players; 54 players paid; prizepool AUD $922,000)
1 Gordon Huntly $226,812
2 Liam O’Rourke $144,754
3 Anthony Aston $80,214
4 Stewart Ballard $62,696
5 Jason O’Brien $48,405
6 Oliver Speidel $39,185
7 Craig Blight $29,965
8 Bradley Lancken $23,511
9 Martin Rowe $17,518
10 Alec Smith $11,525
11 Erich Stadler $11,525
12 Nicholas Heather $11,525
13 Mishel Anunu $9220
14 Stephen Lindeblad $9220
15 Kristina Griffiths $9220
16 Sam Capra $7837
17 Toby Ryall $7837
18 Jason Pritchard $7837
19 James Collopy $6454
20 Laurence Hall $6454
21 Luke Downes $6454
22 Damien Walsh $5532
23 Peco Stojanovski $5532
24 John Parker $5532
25 Luke Brabin $5071
26 Luke Edwards $5071
27 William Kennedy $5071
28 Nick Polias $4610
29 Jim Sachinidis $4610
30 Andy Lee $4610
31 Wei Zhu $4610
32 Daniel Ibrahim $4610
33 Didier Guerin $4610
34 Shaun Elliot $4610
35 Zhixin Yao $4610
36 Jason Hamilton $4610
37 Dean Yuen $4149
38 Suzy Khoueis $4149
39 Toan Nguyen $4149
40 Paul Raseta $4149
41 Ronnie Shabtay $4149
42 Nabil Edgtton $4149
43 Adam Bevis $4149
44 Edgar Florez $4149
45 Chad Awerbuch $4149
46 Tony Kondevski $3688
47 Omer Silatozija $3688
48 Michael O’Grady $3688
49 Nicholas Lamport $3688
50 Guy Delahaye $3688
51 Rhys Gould $3688
52 Andrew Mellado $3688
53 Dean McIver $3688
54 Gerhard Niess $3688
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