TLPT Opening Event final standings
Just before we at PMA clock off for the night, we got our hands on the bags for the highly anticipated TLPT Opening Event!
This $7,500 buyin event attracted 62 entries today, and late registration is still going to be open for the first two levels of Day 2 tomorrow as well.
Topping the field after 9 levels is Adam Kharman, the only player to finish with a “cool milly” – and by some margin too. The chasing pack includes Joe Sandaev closest with 984,000, while Vincent Huang, Sosia Jiang, and Hamish Crawshaw from yesterday’s “Team New Zealand” have all bagged 908,000, 749,500, and 689,000 in respective order.
TLPT Opening Event – End of Day 1 chip counts
| Player | Chips |
| Adam Kharman | 1,344,000 |
| Joe Sandaev | 984,000 |
| Vincent Huang | 908,000 |
| Daniel Mayoh | 823,000 |
| Kang Gao | 789,000 |
| Sosia Jiang | 749,500 |
| Joshua McSwiney | 745,500 |
| Chris Zenonos | 730,500 |
| Hamish Crawshaw | 689,000 |
| Angel Guillen | 618,500 |
| Perry Jeffs | 553,500 |
| Toni Kaukua | 551,500 |
| Jacque Ramsden | 517,000 |
| Alex Lynskey | 482,500 |
| Daniel Johnson | 465,000 |
| Adrian Sportelli | 431,000 |
| Malcolm Trayner | 415,000 |
| Amin Riyazati | 368,000 |
| Yoon Kang | 331,500 |
| Dong Chen | 294,500 |
| Andrew Moreno | 291,500 |
| Vicky She | 273,000 |
| Sean Ragozzini | 236,500 |
| Andres Vasquez | 233,500 |
| Josh Hutchins | 232,500 |
| Jordan Westmorland | 222,000 |
| Joe Hachem | 211,500 |
| Guangyu Wang | 195,000 |
| Luke Martenelli | 179,000 |
| Chao Li | 153,000 |
| Jianzhao Cheng | 151,000 |
| Yisha Chen | 145,500 |
| Robert Spano | 128,500 |
| Andy Lee | 31,500 |
| Mostafa Haidary | 22,000 |
Tchong finishes the job
Heads up in the Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships did not last long – picking up the action just a few hands in with blinds at 50,000/100,000 (100,000); Benjamin Leblond completed before Tchong potted to 300,000, which was met by a quick call from Leblond.
Tchong, holding J♦10♥10♣8♦, continued for 350,000 after smashing the 5♦7♦8♠ flop, top pair and straight draws working in his favour, and from his perspective a flush draw to boot.
Leblond must have felt just as good about the flop – holding A♦9♣5♣2♦ Leblond potted to 1.75million. Tchong quickly jammed and Leblond called in short order.
Tchong drilled the nuts on the 9♠ turn, eliminating half of Leblond’s outs, before sealing the deal and his first title with the 10♠ on the river.
Tchong has only recently started playing tournament poker; all of his HendonMob results are in 2024, all of them are in PLO, and this now becomes his second $30K score in a week, after finishing 4th in the WPT Australia PLO $5K High Roller on Tuesday. Definitely one to watch!
Congratulations Alex!
| Player | Chips |
| Alex Tchong | CHAMPION! |
| Benjamin Leblond | BUSTED! |
Tchong crushes Kovacs
Alex Tchong continued to apply pressure on the short stacked Kovacs, chipping away, before firing more than half of Kovac’s remaining chips on a flop of J♣9♠6♥.
Kovacs decided the open ended straight draw with Q♥8♠7♥4♥ in his holding was enough to jam it in – but he was quickly called by Tchong’s A♥K♥6♠6♣ bottom set.
Needing the straight to survive, Kovacs missed the 3♠, 7♠ run out and hit the rail early on Sunday morning.
| Player | Chips |
| Alex Tchong | 6,290,000 |
| Benjamin Leblond | 3,300,000 |
| Tibor Kovacs | BUSTED! |
How the turn tables
Tournament staff have advised the remaining three players in the Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships that play must conclude by 2am local time or return for Day 3.
It wasn’t long before we had an all-in. A button open from Benjamin Leblond was met with a 3-bet to 850,000 from Alex Tchong, holding K♥J♥J♠9♣ in the small blind. The table in general has not been 3-betting at a very high frequency, and this reporter can’t recall a 4-bet.
No 4-bet here either, as Tibor Kovacs elected to flat call from the big blind with position on Tchong and K♦K♠Q♣10♣ in his hand.
The flop spread out Q♥2♠7♥ and Tchong jammed for 1.6million, and after a short moment Kovacs made the call.
Needing a heart or a Jack to stave off elimination, Tchong found no help on the 7♦ turn, but the J♣ river a dagger to Kovacs as the two players trade places – Tchong now the chip lead whilst Kovacs short.
| Player | Chips |
| Alex Tchong | 4,750,000 |
| Benjamin Leblond | 2,900,000 |
| Tibor Kovacs | 1,940,000 |
Rounce-Sue bounced
JP Rounce-Sue has hit the rail in the Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships after a number dramatic swings; at varying times Rounce-Sue was chip lead and bottom of the pack.
In his final hand, with the blinds at 40,000/80,000 and holding K♠J♦10♥4♥, Rounce-Sue opened from the button to 200,000 and again found a willing defender in Tibor Kovacs with double suited Jacks – A♠J♠J♥3♥ to be specific.
The flop spread 2♥K♣A♥, Kovacs played in line with how he has been for most of the evening and checked the action across to the aggressor.
Rounce-Sue went big; committing 500,000 more into a pot of 520,000, leaving himself roughly 1 million behind.
Kovacs shoved and Rounce-Sue snapped it off to see he was again well behind, with the 5♣ on the turn changing nothing.
The river J♣ improved Rounce-Sue to two pair, but of course also the case Jack for Kovacs to make a set and send Rounce-Sue bouncing out the door.
| Player | Chips |
| Tibor Kovacs | 4,125,000 |
| Benjamin Leblond | 2,740,000 |
| Alex Tchong | 2,735,000 |
| JP Rounce-Sue | BUSTED! |
TLPT stack updates
The TLPT Opening Event recently returned from their second break of the day.
Jacques Ramsden appeared to be in the chiplead at the break with 722,000, whilst Adam Kharman is making moves towards the top of the charts. Kharman had around 665,000, and then Jordan Westmorland remains in the leaders with 653,000, a slight increase from the first break.
| Player | Chips |
| Jacques Ramsden | 722,500 |
| Adam Kharman | 665,000 |
| Jordan Westmorland | 653,000 |
| Sosia Jiang | 628,000 |
| Joe Sandaev | 607,000 |
| Vincent Huang | 545,000 |
Name’s Leblond. Ben, Leblond.
Cooler alert!
JP Rounce-Sue, with Benjamin Leblond covered by a long way, put Leblond to the test on a board of 10♦6♠A♦4♠.
Unfortunately for Rounce-Sue, holding A♥10♠8♥7♦, he was a four-to-one dog behind the top set of Leblond’s A♠A♣J♦3♣, who snap called and then held on the 2♣ river to obtain a full double through the chip leader.
| Player | Chips |
| Benjamin Leblond | 4,410,000 |
| Tibor Kovacs | 1,810,000 |
| JP Rounce-Sue | 1,700,000 |
| Alex Tchong | 1,680,000 |
Perkins wins APT Freeroll
As part of APT Brisbane, Australian Poker Tour and The Hachem Group generously held a $20,000 guaranteed free-to-enter tournament, which kicked off around 11am this morning.
The tournament attracted 321 entries in total, and when it all came to a head it was Brisbane local Chris Perkins who roared to the top in another victory for Brisbane today.
20K GTD APT Freeroll – Results and payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
| 1 | Chris Perkins | $4,300 |
| 2 | Thomas Sim | $2,760 |
| 3 | Tweela Lakin | $1,850 |
| 4 | Linda McCarthy | $1,400 |
| 5 | Travis Brennan | $1,100 |
| 6 | Lee Holtzapffel | $900 |
| 7 | David Croucher | $700 |
| 8 | Ruiyang Wang | $550 |
| 9 | Kota Kagasaki | $450 |
Rounce-Sue pounces
A little while ago when the blinds were 25,000/50,000, a very interesting hand took place.
Holding 9♦5♣4♠3♦, JP Rounce-Sue opened the button to 125,000. Tibor Kovacs defended his big blind with K♣10♠8♦5♠, and then hit top pair with a gut shot on a flop of 9♥6♦K♦.
Kovacs then checked, and Rounce-Sue elected to check his middle pair/flush draw behind. The 7♥ on the turn gifted Kovacs the nut straight, and he took the lead, firing 300,000 to a call from Rounce-Sue.
This is where the hand got interesting. Rounce-Sue, who was covered – barely – by Kovacs, missed completely on the A♥ river. But that river brought with it possibility; when Kovacs fired another 400,000, Rounce-Sue put him to the test, shoving for roughly 2 million.
Kovacs burned through some time chips, but couldn’t find the call, sliding his cards to the dealer as Rounce-Sue scooped in a nice pot.
| Player | Chips |
| JP Rounce-Sue | 3,435,000 |
| Tibor Kovacs | 2,295,000 |
Westmorland leads TPLT Opening Event
At the first break for The Lords Poker Tour Opening Event ($7,500 buyin), the field has grown to now include 31 entries. With late registration open into Day 2, we’re expecting plenty more as the tournament progresses.
Of those to have entered since the start of the event, Australia’s 2005 WSOP World Champion (and yesterdays State Of Origin Victorian Team Captain) Joe Hachem headlines, joined by Victorian representative team mates Sean Ragozzini and Luke Martinelli.
The field is mostly somewhat even, but three players have noticeably jumped out to an early lead.
United States pro Jordan Westmorland has made the trip over to Australia and is currently sitting pretty on 618,500. Westmorland, who boasts US$1,481,455 in career earnings on HendonMob, may well be very comfortable here in Australia. Whilst undeniably an incredibly consistent performer, his only actual major title was none other than the 2019 Melbourne Poker Championships, good for a AU$217,255 result. That was not his biggest result however – that came courtesy of a 3rd place finish in the 2014 EPT San Remo Main Event.
He’s followed by Adam Kharman with 485,000. Whilst Kharman has a whole variety of accolades to his name as well, we’ll focus on the fact that he finished 2nd in yesterday’s Player Of Origin leaderboard, one of a few players with two shoot-out wins. Rounding out the top three at the time of writing was Brisbane’s Sam Haddad with 371,000.
Slightly less full house
Alex Tchong and Renji Mao tangled in the PLO 8-Max, with Mao check-raising Tchong’s 100,000 bet to 325,000, on a flop showing 2♦J♠J♦.
Mao had connected with A♦9♠8♠2♥ along with a blocker to the nut flush draw, but was well behind the Q♠J♣8♣7♠ of Tchong.
Tchong would flat call, and the 2♣ on the turn was met with a check from Mao, a bet of 325,000 from Tchong this time, and a call from Mao now with trips.
The sickest of rivers spelled doom for Mao as the 8♥ turned both players hands into a full house. A check. A shove. A call. An elimination.
| Player | Chips |
| Renji Mao | BUSTED! |
TLPT entries
An hour into The Lords Poker Tour Opening Event, currently taking place on the outer tables to give way to the PLO Final Table to be streamed, seventeen players have been confirmed as entered and taken their seats.
With 40-minute levels, Day 1 is expected to wrap up around 1am AEST tonight, with Day 2 kicking off again tomorrow at 1pm. Late Registration is open until the end of Level 11. Late registration will be available after the start of Day 2.
| Player | Starting Stack |
| Quan Zhou | 250,000 |
| Toni Kaukau | 250,000 |
| Malcolm Trayner | 250,000 |
| Hamish Crawshaw | 250,000 |
| Perry Jeffs | 250,000 |
| Sam Haddad | 250,000 |
| Adam Kharman | 250,000 |
| Thomas Ward | 250,000 |
| Alex Lynskey | 250,000 |
| Amin Riyazati | 250,000 |
| Andrew Moreno | 250,000 |
| Jarrod Thatcher | 250,000 |
| Jordan Westmorland | 250,000 |
| Chris Zenonos | 250,000 |
| Adrian Sportelli | 250,000 |
| Joshua McIntosh | 250,000 |
| Wadih Barbara | 250,000 |
Several of the Team Captains from yesterdays State Of Origin tournament, successfully defended by Western Australia, have entered, so far including Alex Lynskey, Hamish Crawshaw, and Quan Zhou.
Adam Kharman and Adrian Sportelli are also in the field; both of whom who won two of their shootout tables in the same event.
PLO down to 5
The Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships has taken pride of place on the Australian Poker Tour Feature Table, currently streaming on Facebook and YouTube.
Luke Edwards was the most recent elimination, finishing in 6th place for a $5,600 pay day, whilst Tom Maguire was eliminated shortly before that in 7th place for $4,600. Danielle Noja and Pankaj Gogia have also hit the rail early.
Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships – remaining players
| Seat | Player | Chips |
| 1 | Alex Tchong | 3,765,000 |
| 2 | Tibor Kovacs | 815,000 |
| 5 | Benjamin Leblond | 2,190,000 |
| 6 | JP Rounce-Sue | 1,980,000 |
| 7 | Renji Mao | 850,000 |
Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships – remaining payouts
| Place | Payout |
| 1 | $30,850 |
| 2 | $20,600 |
| 3 | $14,150 |
| 4 | $10,300 |
| 5 | $7,500 |
PLO 8-Max FT set
With less than an hour before the kick-off of the $7.5K TLPT Opening Event remaining, the final table was reached in the Australian PLO 8-Max National Championships.
Leading the way is none other than JP Rounce-Sue, the Kiwi expat having gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years – with no less than 4 six-figure NLH results since September last year, the most recent of which was a 3rd place finish in August’s APL Million $5K Challenge – and now seeking to prove he has what it takes in the 4-card variant as well.
| Seat | Player | Chips |
| 1 | Alex Tchong | 1,135,000 |
| 2 | Tibor Kovacs | 445,000 |
| 3 | Tom Maguire | 1,965,000 |
| 4 | Luke Edwards | 905,000 |
| 5 | Benjamin Leblond | 770,000 |
| 6 | JP Rounce-Sue | 2,025,000 |
| 7 | Renji Mao | 965,000 |
| 8 | Danielle Noja | 425,000 |
| 9 | Pankaj Gogia | 965,000 |
PMA will provide coverage for the closing stages of this event, before switching over to the TLPT Opening Event.
Raising the bar
The first of the big buy-in events at the APT Brisbane Super Series kicks off today with the $7,500 TLPT Opening Event.
Boasting a $500,000 guarantee, the event is expected to attract an incredibly strong field off the back of Friday’s State of Origin, with the likes of two-time Poker Players Championship winner Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Kahle Burns, Joe Hachem, Alex Lynskey, Sean Ragozzino, Jonathan Karamalikis, Joe Sandaev, Travis Endersby, Hamish Crawshaw, Vincent Huang, Angel Guillen and many more in town.
Play kicks off from 6:30pm AEST in this dealer dealt event and PMA will be bringing you all the action right here at pokermedia.com.au.
Be the first to comment