Mt Gambier players Aiden O'Connell, Graham 'Twiggy' McCallum & Nigel Roundtree dominated the January Fulltiltpoker.org APL State finals finishing 1st,2nd & 3rd.

108 of SA's best poker players gathered at the South Adelaide Football club on Saturday 17th of January to win their share of $5000 cash and four seats to the $500,000 Wild Turkey Poker Classic.

The play was very tense in the early stages with Eugene Wong being the first player eliminated after 30 minutes of play when his KQ fell to 99. Eugene finished 3rd in the last state final.

At the first break after one hour of play there were 93 players remaining with David Fairbairne the chip leader with 19k.

Shortly after the commencement of play Graham 'Twiggy' McCallum made his presence felt taking out several players and building his chip stack to 40k. Aiden O'Connell was also amassing chips with his ultra aggressive play.

Moving toward the final 16 players Bonita Merrick from the SAS region was knocked out on the bubble in 17th place. Bonita caught a straight with her 4, 3 however her opponents pocket 10's scored a full house and we were in the money.

At this stage it was Aidan O'connell knocking out players at will. Skye Jones and George Apat who feature in the APL Player of the Year awards fell victim to Aidan.
Amanda Botten from the SAW region was the final player to fall before the final table. Amanda was short stacked and tried to hang on but she was forced all in on the big blind and her 5,9 was not strong enough to advance to the final table.

With only 7 players advancing to the final table Aidan was chip leader with 152k in chips, closely followed by Graham McCallum ( 149k ) and Nigel Roundtree ( 121k) – all from Mt Gambier.
The action did not slow down. Peter Kepler was eliminated on the first hand with Marion Botten quickly following.
All players fell to the boys from Mt Gambier. The only exception was Matthew Fairhead from Mt Barker who offered plenty of resistance through skilful play. Finally matt's 10,3 fell to Aidan's 4,4. Neither player hit the board and the 4,4 held up.
Three hands later it was again Aidan who took his friend and playing companion Nigel. Nigel had J,9 – Aidan 10,5. The 10 came on the river to tear Nigel's heart out. Two players left.
The chip lead swapped back and forth over the next 20 minutes. Both players adopting an aggressive tact. Finally Aidan moved all in with A,6 and after much contemplation Graham called with 10,2. The board read Q,3,9,6,6 with Aidan picking up a set of 6's and taking the title of Fulltiltpoker.org APL State Champion.
Aidan is 19 years of age and plays his poker at Macs Hotel in Mt Gambier. Next month Aidan, Graham & Nigel will head to Crown Casino for the $500,000 Wild Turkey Poker Classic.

The final placings were –

1st- Aidan O'Connell
2nd- Graham McCallum
3rd- Nigel Rountree
4th- Matthew Fairhead
5th – Gavin Reynolds
6th- Marion Botten
7th- Peter Kepler
8th- Stuart Maywald
9th- Amanda Botten
10th- Steve Bernhardt
11th- Ryan Tantschev
12th- Gearge Apat
13th- Skye Jones
14th- David Fairbairne
15th- dean Moore
16th- Annette Bonham