The Star Poker Festival is a wrap!
NewsPosted 20-03-2017
Nearly $3 million dollars over two weeks of non-stop poker action. The 2017 Star Poker Festival will go down as an event for the ages.
There were nine different events held over the Festival and there was growth in player numbers over almost every event. The $1 million guarantee prize pool for the main event was obliterated with an astonishing field of 1,164 runners meaning that almost $1.5 million in prize money was won.
It all started with the Opening Event, in which over four days 771 hopefuls stumped up the $440 buy in to take part in what is always one of the most popular events on the schedule. After seven days of intense no limit holdem poker it was Ryan Bownds who beat Johan Audibert heads up to take home $61,725 for first place. The final table of this event was a glimpse of what to come with Johan Audibert (2nd), David Lee (4th), Andrew Khouri (5th), Jamal Ishac (7th) and Collin Tran (9th) all finishing in the top ten of the Star Poker Festival Leaderboard and enjoying the over $10,00 in added prizes that were on offer from that.
The second event of the program was the Ladies Event in which Star Poker room regular, Suzy Khoueis bested a field of 71 to take home her second consecutive ladies title in the Star Poker room. Suzy then went on to show that she is just as comfortable competing with the men as she is with the ladies when she almost outlasted a field of 286 entrants in the Bounty Event, finishing second to eventual champion Mark Ryan in that event. Khoueis took home $16,849 in that event which was one of three cashes she had during the series meaning that she took home over $25,000 in total prize money. Mark Ryan won $27,275 for winning the bounty.
Khoueis wasn't the only person to defend a title during the Star Poker Festival. Peter Dykes won the turbo event picking up $21,222 for beating the field of 203 during the high speed event. Dykes also won the turbo event at the WSOP Sydney.
The $1,100 buy in 6 max tournament is always a popular event in the Star Poker room and this one was no different. 174 players took to the felt and after a gripping heads up battle against Matti Konttinen it was John Maklouf who would lift the winners trophy and the $48,729 in prize money that came with it.
As always, a party atmosphere took over the poker room when the Teams event took place. With as many people cheering on their partners as there are playing these events are always a lot of fun. Robert Damelian and Michel Bouksila overcame 131 different teams to take this down. The victory in this event proved vital for Damelian as it sent him straight to the top of the Star Poker Festival Leaderboard where he stayed for the duration of the series earning himself free entry into both the Sydney Championships Main Event and Opening Event in July worth $3,440.
After this it was the big boys turn to shine with the $5k Challenge bringing an absolute who's who of the Australian poker community to the felt in the Star Poker room. Both bragging rights and the $172,908 first prize were on offer. It got down to Sydney pro Andy Lee and Melbourne young gun Liam O'Rourke for the final battle with O'Rourke gaining the upper hand and winning his second consecutive live tournament.
There was another epic battle for the trophy in the Omaha event where pro players, good friends and big game regulars in the Star Poker room, Michael Tran and Jarred Graham got heads up outlasting a field of 181 runners in the four card variant.
But it was the big one they all came for, the APL Million Main Event at the Star Poker Festival. The first question was whether or not the $1 million guarantee would be reached, this was completely smashed out of the park with the 1,164 runners who took their seats meaning the prize pool would be close to $1.5 million. The APL brought several hundred social players from all over the nation for this event which in turn meant the sharks would all find their way to the table as well. It was only fitting that we saw an even split on our final table between poker pros and casual players fighting it out for the $265,000 first prize.
Many thought that Adrian Attenborough would be the man to beat after being chip leader for most of the tournament but he finished agonisingly close in third place, earning $120,000 for his efforts. The heads up battle came down to Martin Rowe, one of the few Australians to win $1 million or more in a single live tournament and Branko Usljebrka who had a total of $0 in tournament earnings to his name and won his seat in the main event by qualifying for free through an APL regional final.
It was a true David and Goliath event and just like in the Bible it would be David who slayed the giant and took home the crown. Usljebrka is now $265,000 richer and all eyes will be on him at the Sydney Championships to see if he too can defend his crown.
So 9 events, 14 days, 3,111 entries and $2,914,700 in prize money. The Star Poker Festival has rightly cemented itself as one of Australia's premier poker events. It has been an amazing experience being here in the Star Poker room and we can't wait to do it all again when the Sydney Championships kick off on the 18th of July!
