On Sunday the 19th October, 2008 the Caloundra RSL Club played host to the 2008-2009 Season 1 QLD State Finals. As a field of 491 players turned up for what was shaping up to be an incredible day of poker with over $30,000 in Cash, WTPC tickets and merchandise up for grabs!
The FullTiltPoker.org State Finals commenced at 11.00am and claimed its first victim after only 5 minutes when a young Queenslander was eliminated as he pushed all in after flopping a set of 9's, only to go down to a rival's runner, runner straight.
After 4 blind levels, the field had only managed to narrow down to 434 players. This was going to be a tough day of poker!
Play continued all the way through until 8pm before the bubble was burst and players were finally in the money at the top 16. Once again it was regional QLD proving a force to be reckoned with, the Sunshine Coast regions dominating, with 5 players still in the pack.
At this stage, the freeroll side event had the final table seated and the lucky barrel draw for an additional 2 seats at the APL Wild Turkey Poker Classic was conducted. A congratulation goes out to Ryan Lemke from Albany Creek and Tara Kann from Tingalpa for their collections.
16th through to 10th in the Main Event scored a cool $500 each for their day's efforts. The first player to drop in 16th was Steve Thomas (Ormistan), 15th position went to Roger Taylor (Greenslopes), and then we lost Terry Medlycott (Alderley) in 14th.
Hayden Howse (Scarborough) dropped in 13th followed shortly by Dave Thomme (Sunny Coast) in 12th and Nathan Lloyd (Redland Bay) finished the day with the 11th.
Play was tight as the bubble drew near. The winner of the freeroll side event had been decided, Lynette Wall from Rockhampton scored the third seat for the APL Wild Turkey Poker Classic. It was William Johnstone (Lowood) who burst the bubble to miss out on the seat, but he was happy with the $500 cash for his efforts.
The red carpet for the FullTiltPoker.org Final Table was surrounded by fans to cheer on their region's players who had made the top 9.
This was it, all 9 scored themselves an entry to the Poker Classic in Melbourne, now it was a battle for the cash and the winner's trophy. The first to drop was Jo Rarai (Carseldine) followed by Scott Sullivan (Sunny Coast) in 8th. Special mention goes out to 7th place getter Brendan Cowley (Sunny Coast) who has just missed out on the final table for 4 state finals out of the 5 he has attended.
Mark Bentley (Gatton) was the next to fall and then the last remaining female Lisa Kay (Jindalee) took the honors of 5th place. Arthur Richardson (Sunny Coast) went down on a bluff in 4th place and the final 3 were set. With almost $2.6million in play, chip leader Alan Moore after taking out Richardson was sitting on just over $1 million. Harry Green (Moura) after a winning a seat to the WSOP satellite the night before backed up his performance, taking out 3rd place and a nice pay packet of $1,500 for the day.
As we moved into the one-on-one heads up stage of the tournament Alan Moore, who now guarded close to $1.8 million in chips and Andrew Figg of Townsville with 800,000 prepared to do battle.
After 16 hands in heads up Figg, sitting on $800,000, called the big blind with his Ace Jack and watched as Moore opted to push all in over the top. Figg made the call, and Moore flipped over Queen Ten.
Moore paired his 10 on the flop but was unable to hold his lead after Figg managed to turn an Ace and take down the pot.
Shortly after, Figg chose to call the BB with 6 7 and Moore checked with 5 2.
The flop fell 5 3 9 and Moore pushed with his middle pair. Figg called on a double gut shot straight draw, requiring an 8 or 4 to make the straight, and holding two over cards.
The turn fell a K, no help to either player - but the river was a 4, one of the cards required to make Figg's straight and be crowned the QLD APL FullTiltPoker.org State Champion for 2008-2009 season 1.
On Sunday the 19th October, 2008 the Caloundra RSL Club played host to the 2008-2009 Season 1 QLD State Finals. As a field of 491 players turned up for what was shaping up to be an incredible day of poker with over $30,000 in Cash, WTPC tickets and merchandise up for grabs!
