25th January turned into a history making day at the TRC hotel in Launceston. Exactly 200 players turned up to stake their claim as the Full Tilt Poker.org State final winner in the largest poker tournament ever held in Tasmania. It took 2 full renditions of the APL theme song and a cameo of 'Eye of Tiger' to get all the players seated. After presenting State, Regional and venue winners with their trophies we started the clock spot on 11.30.
It did not take long for the players to settle in and prepare themselves for a deep performance. However it wasn't to be for some, when some big hands came out on the tables early. Keith Beavis hit poker of 5's and Eric took out 2 players betting into his Royal Flush. At the first break we were down to 154 players and the top stack was held by Daniel Ellery on table 1, who had build his stack up to $23,500
Time for lunch…A full BBQ, steak, sausages, bread, sauce and three salads to choose from. What a selection and thank you to the TRC for providing a beautiful fresh lunch to keep the players going.
After the food was consumed, the clock was started again. The next half an hour would prove hectic as we lost half of the field that remained during this time. I think many players goal was to make the first break and after that the pots loosened up.
By the time we where down to 10 tables we had cleared a walkway around the poker pit for the 100 spectators to view. The big hands continued to hit with a number of other 4 of a kind striking people out.
By the time we where down to 35 players, the North west Coast players where dominating with 16 players left from the North West Coast, 14 from Hobart and only 5 players left from Launceston which was surprising as they have dominated in the past.
We soon reached 30 and it was time to start handing out some special prize packs to our top 30.
Before long we where at our top 16 and the players that where to take home some cash.
16th Nathaniel Craig
15th Brent Jones
14th John Febey
13th Evan Dyson
12th Caroline Burnie
11th Ben Berechree
10th Dennis Viney
The final table and their starting chip stacks:
Iain Cameron 55,000
Michael Poke 60,000
Luke Skvaril 80,000
Katrina Sonneveld 90,000
Phil Sawers 95,000
Beau Turner 105,000
Matty Galea 130,000
Charlie Hornby-Waring 195,000
Scott Fisher 245,000
After a huge introduction, the cards where in the air and we off with our final table players.
The first to be evicted off the final table was Philip Sawers from Blackmans Bay. His pocket 7's was not going to be good enough this time.
8th was Iain Cameron from Burnie. His relaxed style had worked for him the whole day but his luck ran out when his 9 6 suited spades didn't pay the dividends
The next to go was a veteran of State final, final tables finishing 8th in the July states. Luke Skvaril was to bow out when his K J off disappointed.
Katrina Sonneveld is one of the most consistent players anywhere in Tassie. Katrina has finished Hobart regional winner for the last four seasons running and continues to impress in the big tournaments finishing 12th and 16th in previous State Finals. Again it is a commendable 6th this time around when Katrinas Jc 9c ran into q4 and the q hit on the flop.
Our bubble for the WTPC seats was Scott Fisher. A talented young fella from Burnie who lost over half his stack on AK suited and finally lost the remainder of his stack when he pushed with k9 off.
After a huge round of applause for a final four we where off again to determine who was going to be crowned the Full Tilt Poker.org State Final winner.
Charlie Hornby-Waring who had played with only good starting hands all day, finally pushed all in with A 7 spades, only to get busted.
After surviving a couple of all ins already on the final table Michael Poke pushed in with K 4 heads up with Beau however this time he was not to come away with the pot.
Heads UP
We were down to 2.
Matty G a social worker from Hobart and Beau Turnera Tassie West Coast boy who came good on the day. After the blinds where passed around for a couple of hands we finally got to a hand that both players could play. At this stage Beau had Matty G's stack covered nearly 2:1 and when Matty G pushed with Ah 4s Beau called with J 7 off. Beau hit a 7 on the flop the cards ran out and we had our new State Champ. Congratulations to Beau on his win. The trip down from Queenstown was well worth it.
25th January turned into a history making day at the TRC hotel in Launceston. Exactly 200 players turned up to stake their claim as the Full Tilt Poker.org State final winner in the largest poker tournament ever held in Tasmania. It took 2 full renditions of the APL theme song and a cameo of 'Eye of Tiger' to get all the players seated. After presenting State, Regional and venue winners with their trophies we started the clock spot on 11.30.
