Byron Bay’s Nicholas Imlay has joined an ever-growing list of home-grown Aussie talent, cruising through the finale of the QPC Tweed Coast Main Event to secure his biggest career cash to date.
The 41-year-old – who secured his first ring after winning the February edition of the QPC Pot Limit Omaha – defeated Mara Ahmetovic heads-up for the silverware and more than $11,000 in prize money after shaking hands on a four-way ICM deal.
Renowned for his laidback approach to the game, ‘The Mullumbimby Maurader’ revealed to PokerMedia Australia that negotiating the chop was the key to maintaining his composure in the closing stages.
“I wanted to cut a deal as soon as I could and take some of the pressure off,” Imlay said, “which made the four-handed battle over the last couple of hours less stressful. When you’re starting to get short and flippy, it spreads the variance out and we all get a good payout from it.”
QPC TWEED COAST MAIN EVENT ($175 buy-in, 551 entries, 63 players paid)
| Place | Name | Country | Amount |
| 1st | Nicholas Imlay | Australia | $11,660* |
| 2nd | Mara Ahmetovic | Australia | $12,230* |
| 3rd | Johannes Dijkstra | Australia | $7,790* |
| 4th | Vicky Eldridge | Australia | $8,850* |
| 5th | Vinicius Botelho | Australia | $4,250 |
| 6th | Kane Peters | Australia | $3,240 |
| 7th | Peter Brown | Australia | $2,510 |
| 8th | Russell Fogarty | Australia | $1,960 |
| 9th | Louis Wong | Australia | $1,560 |
The honour roll from last week’s WPT League QPC Tweed Coast QPC was a true-blue who’s-who of the Australian poker scene, led by two of the most dominant next-gen grinders in Zac Duce and Josh Norvock, who won the Super High Roller and PLO 6-Max Events respectively to each complete the Triple Crown trifecta.
Colombian crusher Jeison Berdugo – best friend and mentor of QPC Main Event Champion Lucho Vargas – surpassed his best result at the QPC to go all the way in the $3,000 buy-in Alpha Event, while Lara Jones broke through for her first major mid-tier title after taking down the Mini Main Event at the start of the week.
And in other major highlights, Queensland poker stalwart Wayde Rickhuss scored his fourth career QPC ring in the Mix Max, while Chris Mantell went home with two rings, first winning the Deep Stack earlier in the week before closing out the series with victory in the Ultimate Terminator.
The QPC Tweed Coast series once again set the standard in professionalism, game integrity and service delivery, with many players lauding the tireless efforts of WPT League Head of Event Management Mitch Caton and his team, who met and exceeded player expectations.
The severe rainfall throughout the course of the week, however, greatly impacted consumer confidence; many players elected to stay home to avoid the potential of being trapped in flood waters, as was the case for some after the torrential downpour during the course of the previous series back in February.
PMA also understands that several other major contributing factors – most notably, an overabundance of major tour events in the SEQ region – led to a severe downswing in the number of entries and total prize pools for this QPC, which resulted in a total of just over half of the advertised $800,000 series estimate.
The QPC Tweed Coast series will return to Seagulls in three months’ time, running from 24-28 August. For more information, including images, results and feature table broadcasts, head to the WPTL Live Facebook page or visit au.wptleague.com.
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PokerMedia Australia: Official Media Partners of the WPT League SEQ QPC
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