Jim Psaros Poker
- Genting Cruise Lines could steer Singapore’s “cruises to nowhere” Erik Gibbs.
- Jim Psaros will enter the final table with the chip lead That hand was enough to propel Psaros into a commanding chip position when the bags were tagged and sealed. Denis Sekuloski and Murray Roach are both up over one million in chips while the rest of our players will start tomorrow around 20 big blinds or less.
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ANZPT 7 Sydney, March 11-23, 2015 - Event Coverage
On this page you will find Player Lists, Gallery Photos, Payout, Side Events and Final Table from the event.
For more information, please see the ANZPT 7 Sydney event page.
Full reports from Perthw are on the PokerStars blog.
Player List
After another 11 long hours of action here in the Star Poker Room, play has come to an end for the day with 67 of the 231 players that started remaining. Leading the way is Mick Fraser – who sits with a very respectable 285,200 – while Dejan Boskovic and Kahle Burns aren’t far behind.
Player Lists
Gallery
Gallery
Payout
Payout
| Place | Name | Status | Prize (AUD$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Psaros Dimitrios | 225,000 | |
| 2 | Seal Emanuel | 143,000 | |
| 3 | Sekuloski Denis | 80,000 | |
| 4 | Roach Murray | 62,000 | |
| 5 | Hsu Li-ta | 48,000 | |
| 6 | Ma Zhi | 38,750 | |
| 7 | Rafferty Tom | 29,500 | |
| 8 | Chand Shaneel | PokerStars Qualifier | 23,000 |
| 9 | Liew Chung | 17,000 | |
| 10 | O'Brien David | 11,500 | |
| 11 | Klinghammer Thibaut | 11,500 | |
| 12 | Namrood Rined | PokerStars Qualifier | 11,500 |
| 13 | Kambouroglou Antonis | 9,000 | |
| 14 | Li Wilson | PokerStars Qualifier | 9,000 |
| 15 | Park Min Jae | 9,000 | |
| 16 | Ghezelbash Ali | 7,700 | |
| 17 | Guerin Didier | 7,700 | |
| 18 | Purdue Aaron | 7,700 | |
| 19 | Kanaan Michael | 6,400 | |
| 20 | Sharpe Ciaran | 6,400 | |
| 21 | Cox Ben | 6,400 | |
| 22 | Flourentzou Panayotis | PokerStars Qualifier | 5,500 |
| 23 | Ruse Brendan | 5,500 | |
| 24 | Liu Xuan | 5,500 | |
| 25 | Carpenter Colin | 5,000 | |
| 26 | Kilner Jordan | 5,000 | |
| 27 | Ge Yanji | 5,000 | |
| 28 | Fox Dave | 4,550 | |
| 29 | Nissirios Peter | 4,550 | |
| 30 | Parkhill Alastair | 4,550 | |
| 31 | Nguyen Duy Quang | 4,550 | |
| 32 | Pearce Shane | 4,550 | |
| 33 | Austin Manu | 4,550 | |
| 34 | Zheng Jackson | PokerStars Qualifier | 4,550 |
| 35 | Ho Michael | PokerStars Qualifier | 4,550 |
| 36 | Thomson John | 4,550 | |
| 37 | Trott Josh | 4,100 | |
| 38 | Voegele Octavian | PokerStars Qualifier | 4,100 |
| 39 | Zhang Guangqi | 4,100 | |
| 40 | Stojanovski Peco | 4,100 | |
| 41 | Turner Nathan | 4,100 | |
| 42 | Pappas Steve | 4,100 | |
| 43 | Rann James | 4,100 | |
| 44 | Ong Chu Kheng | 4,100 | |
| 45 | Coombe Dominic | 4,100 | |
| 46 | Park Tae Woo | 3,650 | |
| 47 | O'Brien Paul | PokerStars Qualifier | 3,650 |
| 48 | Bayazitli Adil | 3,650 | |
| 49 | English Tim | PokerStars Player | 3,650 |
| 50 | Stausholm Martin | 3,650 | |
| 51 | Demlakian Vasken | PokerStars Qualifier | 3,650 |
| 52 | Ryan Evan | 3,650 | |
| 53 | Thomas Uzziah | PokerStars Qualifier | 3,650 |
| 54 | Wong Dexter | 3,650 |
Side Events
Jim Psaros Poker Tournament
Final Table
Final Table
Seat 1: Shaneel Chand (Sydney, New South Wales) - 595,000 chips
Shaneel Chand is a 24-year old local with six years of experience in the game. One day he wandered into a pub, jumped into a pub poker tournament and from there was hooked!
Chand doesn’t have any live results but he regularly plays MTTs online with his poker highlight coming when he won the weekly Hi/Low No Limit event on PokerStars.
Chand says that his defining moment of the tournament when he was all in with pocket jacks against pocket kings when another player had already folded a jack. Chand found the case jack on the board to stay alive and from there, navigated his way to his first major final table appearance.
Seat 2: Tom Rafferty (Sydney, New South Wales) - 400,000 chips
Tom Rafferty may be a player who flies under the guard of a lot of players but the 30-year old Sydneysider is arguably the best-credentialed player at this final table.
Rafferty has over US$400,000 in live tournament earnings including a ninth, third and runner-up finish in major championships here in Sydney. He’s also an accomplished cash game player, regularly found in the $10/20 No Limit Holdem games.
Rafferty has come close to tasting the gold several times before and would love nothing more than to grab his first trophy here in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event.
Seat 3: Emanuel “Curly” Seal (Adelaide, South Australia) - 810,000 chips
The man better known as “Curly”, Emanuel Seal is a Bookmaker by trade, but has an impressive poker record dating back the best part of a decade.
Seal has accumulated over US$330,000 in tournament earnings in that time, with results throughout Australia and Macau as well as a cash at the World Series of Poker. Seal’s career highlight came in 2007 when he finished 10th in the Aussie Millions Main Event for $120,000.
One of the popular guys on the circuit, Curly will have plenty of fans, both on the rail in Sydney and the virtual rail back in his home town of Adelaide.
Seat 4: Murray Roach (Sydney, New South Wales) - 1,495,000 chips
Murray Roach is a 36-year old Electrician with ten years experience in the game. He is usually found playing online where he says he’s landed a few five-figure cashes, but this final table will be his best live score regardless of the result.
In fact Roach finished in 16th place in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event last year, so he’s already improved on that mark this time around.
Roach really got the table talking late on Day 3 when he folded ace-king in the big blind to a short-stacked shove with two tables to go, but his tight play certainly paid dividends in the end as he will enter the final table as one of the bigger stacks.
Seat 5: Jim Psaros (Newcastle, New South Wales) - 2,640,000 chips
Our clear chip leader entering the final table is 56-year old Jim Psaros. This Professor of Accounting certainly had the numbers add up in his favour late on Day 3 as he amassed over one million chips more than his nearest opponent.
Psaros has been playing poker for six years after first exposed to the game at a local pub poker event. He describes himself as a small stakes cash grinder, and has a few small results in weekly tournaments at The Star, but this final table will be the biggest result of his poker career so far.
Psaros is another player who has proven that “tight is right”. Late on Day 2, Psarros made a big fold with pocket kings on a nine-high flop which he says was he defining moment of his tournament so far. We’ll have to see if that decision will carry him all the way to the title.
Seat 6: Zhi Hong Ma (Sydney, New South Wales) - 625,000 chips
Zhi Hong Ma has been on the poker scene for nine years in Australia but first started out in poker in his homeland of China where he would play Five-Card Stud with his friends.
Ma usually enjoys playing mixed cash games, but his tournament record is sound with over US$150,000 in career earnings including a runner-up finish in an Aussie Millions side event in 2007 worth $85,479.
This is Ma’s first cash on the ANZPT as he chases his first major poker championship.
Seat 7: Li-ta “Leon” Hsu (Taiwan) - 605,000 chips
Our lone international on the final table is Taiwanese player Li-ta “Leon” Hsu. 28 year-old Hsu is a regular on the Macau poker scene but this is his first big impression on the ANZPT.
Hsu made a last-minute decision to fly straight to Sydney off the back of a successful Macau Poker Cup series where he made four final tables in side events to boost his total career earnings to just under US$100,000.
Hsu enjoys exercise and going to the movies, and says that he has really enjoyed playing with the friendly people here in Australia.
Seat 8: Denis Sekuloski (Sydney, New South Wales) - 1,580,000 chips
27-year old Denis Sekuloski is another one of our big stacks on this final table after playing the role of enforcer for large periods of play late on Day 3.
Judging from the branding on his sidewards-facing cap, Sekuloski works in the Concreting business, but he does find time to play plenty of poker with his US$30,000 in previous career earnings comprised of weekly tournament results here at The Star. However this is the first major result for Sekuloski.
2014 Player of the Year
| Place | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aristomenis Stavropoulos | 180.74 |
| 2 | Yew Fatt 'Raiden' Kan | 136.81 |
| 3 | James Rann | 135.38 |
| 4 | Li-Ta Hsu | 122.89 |
| 5 | Joel Douaglin | 109.44 |
| 6 | Dimitrios Psaros | 108.90 |
| 7 | Anthony Legg | 107.81 |
| 8 | Lennart Uphoff | 107.19 |
| 9 | Stevan Chew | 105.00 |
| 10 | Bryan Huang | 100.73 |
Jim Psaros Poker Tour
Our ANZPT champion has been crowned with Jim Psaros overcoming Emanuel 'Curly' Seal to win the trophy and top prize of $183,000.
The prize was adjusted after two separate deals. The first would come during three-handed play between Denis Sekuloski, Emanuel Seal and Jim Psaros. They quickly agreed to terms to flatten the payout structure which ended up working out pretty well for Sekuloski who received an extra $10,000 from the original payouts when he was bounced out in third place.
Sekuloski had splashed around with all sorts of hands during the final table, so it was rather unfortunate for him that a monster hand like K♠K♥ would lead to his demise. He decided to see a cheap flop of 4♦2♣7♠ in the blinds with Emanuel Seal, and the action flared up on the 8♦ turn with Sekuloski betting, Seal raising and Sekuloski moving all in. Seal snapped it off with 2♥2♦ for a set of deuces to leave Sekuloski's kings crushed. The river 9♣ was no help and he was eliminated in third place for $90,000.
Jim Psaros would take a small lead into what turned out to be an entertaining heads-up battle.
The chips went back and forth on a number of occasions and when the chips evened up once again, the two decided to an even chop at $175,000 apiece, leaving $8,000 and the title in the middle to play for.
With the blinds ticking up, Seal was the one under pressure before the final hand was dealt.
Psaros limped the button and Seal checked his option to a flop of J♥Q♥Q♣. Without much warning, Seal announced himself all in for 1.7 million into a pot of 400,000. It was enough to confuse Psaros who threw his head back and asked for a count. Eventually he made the call with K♥5♥ which is not what Seal wanted to see with his 8♥4♥.
It was hearts all around as Seal found himself needing to pair up to stay alive. The turn was the 2♠ and river the 5♣ to end the brave run of 'Curly' in second place and crown Jim Psaros as our champion!
Earlier in the day, the final table started out at breakneck speeds with two eliminations in the first thirty minutes and four in the first hour of play.
Chung Liew was unable to improve on his overnight four big blind stack as he was first to go, and he was followed by Shaneel Chand who lost a race with pocket deuces against Zhi Hong Ma's ace-jack.
The title once again eluded Tom Rafferty at his fourth major final table here in Sydney as he could progress no further than seventh place when his Q♥T♦ couldn't improve against pocket fours.
Jim Psaros Poker Player
Zhi Hong Ma was next to go when his A♠K♠ received no help against the pocket queens of Denis Sekuloski as suddenly we were down to our final five players.
It was here that play steadied a little with the stacks catching up to the rising blinds. The chips were moved around the table with each player having moments towards the top of the counts.
Taiwan's Li-ta Hsu was certainly one who was looking dangerous when he accumulated a big stack, but a cooler of a flop saw he and Emanuel Seal both flop two pair. Unfortunately for Hsu, his sixes and threes were outmatched by Seal's queens and sixes. Hsu was left on the edge and Jim Psaros finished the job moments later when Hsu shoved his ace-jack right into Psaros' pocket aces.
Seal continued to surge when he found pocket jacks in the big blind and made the call against the all-in shove of Murray Roach who tabled A♠8♠. The board bricked out and Roach had to be content with fourth as Seal carried the lead into three-handed play.
However it would be Jim Psaros who picked his spots well and had the right amount of aggression to get past the unpredictable Denis Sekuloski and the stubborn resistance of Emanuel Seal to claim the trophy and top prize of $183,000.
ANZPT Sydney Final Table Results
1st Jim Psaros (Australia) - $183,000**
2nd Emanuel Seal (Australia) - $175,000**
3rd Denis Sekuloski (Australia) - $90,000*
4th Murray Roach (Australia) - $62,000
5th Li-ta Hsu (Taiwan) - $48,000
6th Zhi Hong Ma (Australia) - $38,750
7th Tom Rafferty (Australia) - $29,750
8th Shaneel Chand (Australia) - $23,000
9th Chung Liew (Australia) - $17,000
* denotes three-handed deal
** denotes additional heads-up deal
Full prize pool payouts can be found in the live reporting section of the blog.
Thanks for following our final table coverage today and throughout the week from the ANZPT in Sydney. The next event on the ANZPT comes to you from Crown Melbourne with the ANZPT Melbourne running from October 8-20, 2015. Qualify for the $2,300 Main Event now on PokerStars!
Jim Psaros Poker Players
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