PokerStars APPT Sydney, Final Table: Local Star City Player Martin Rowe Claims Victory

A thrilling poker tournament has come to a conclusion as local Star City regular Martin Rowe wins $1 million AUD and the prestiguous APPT Sydney 2008 title. In a day that started with Antonio Fazzalari as chip leader, it quickly turned into the Martin Rowe show as he took a commanding lead with four players left. He ended up being heads up with poker professional Jason Gray, and after more than two hours of going at each other he eventually provailed as the 2008 APPT Sydney winner.

The day began with Tom Rafferty heading to the rail when he was all in with a nut flush draw vs Antonio Fazzalari’s top two pair. He couldn’t improve and was sent to the rail in 9th place and recived $39,200 AUD. Next to head to the rail was local Australian poker player Hai Bo Chu who made a move on Martin Rowe at the wrong time tabling only a gutshot draw vs the overpair of Rowe. He finished in 8th place and won $53,200. 7th place belonged to Daniel Kowalski when he was out kicked with his A9 by Fazzolari who tabled AQ on the ace high board. 7th place was worth $72,800.

Former tournament leader Frank Saffioti was knocked out when his AQ suited gave him top pair and nut flush draw. The only problem was Jason Gray flopped a set, but Saffioti still had outs and had even more when a Queen can on the turn. He couldn’t catch up on the river however, and headed to the rail in sixth place to collect his $108,800 AUD pay cheque.

Playing in his first major poker tournament, Timothy English made the most of it as he won $140,000 AUD for fifth place. He bet strong with AK when he missed the flop, and Rowe called his all in chasing an open ended straight draw. He hit a pair of Jacks to knock out English and continue his dominating run towards victory.

Antonio Fazzalari, the chip leader at the beginning of the day was the next to head to the rail when he ran A2 into Martin Rowe’s AK. he couldn’t improve and took home $182,000 for fourth place. He was closely follwed by Tony Basile who unluckily ran his AK into Jason Gray’s KK. He finished in 3rd place for a cool $266,000 AUD.

With the field now down to the final two players, Martin Rowe was in a dominating postion over Jason Gray. With player contuning for over two hours they eventually got it all in pre-flop where Rowe had AQ vs 9 5. Rowe’s AQ held up and he won the 2008 APPT Sydney.

Victory is sweet for the Sydney man as he pockets $1 million dollars just in time for Christmas. Martin Rowe was ruthless as he went from strength to strength during the final table and clearly dominated the final hours. He fully deserves this title and the team here at Pokershark wpuld like to pass on their congratulations to him and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. We look forward to following his progress carefully in the following poker tournaments.