The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour recently made a stop in Melbourne and Lee “Final Table” Nelson emerged victorious after three days of intense action.
Lee faced off against some of the toughest competition from the area, along with several world famous professional poker players. A total of 310 players paid buy-ins of $2,200 each to generate a prize pool of almost $700k from players alone.
A number of notable pros were eliminated prior to the final table, including Leo Boxell, Billy Jordanou, Harry Demetriou, Ben Delaney, Jesse McKenzie, David Steicke, Jackie Glazier, Celina Lin and Brandon Rubie. Even Nelson himself was close to elimination on multiple occurrences and had to fight through a Day 2 two-orbit penalty after acting out of turn.
Nelson was strong coming into the final table, however, with more experience than any other player and more chips than all but two. Some of the more dangerous threats at the final table included Brett Chalhoub and Tom Wing, both of whom have found recent success in online poker, and Phillip Willcocks, who scored a runner-up finish at APPT Melbourne earlier in the summer.
Justin Sanchez was quickly eliminated and Chalhoub met the same fate two hours later. Stephen Eliesen exited in seventh place, while Wing hit the rail in sixth place after a crippling hand against Willcocks.
Willcocks himself was next to face elimination, this time at the hands of Nelson. Next to go were Karan Punjabi and Danny Chevalier, who earned scores of $43k and $55k, respectively, for their 4th and 3rd place finishes.
Heads-up action between Nick Georgoulas and Nelson didn’t last long. Georgoulas showed down with 4-4 against Nelson’s J-10 of hearts. The flop and turn were all hearts as well, securing the nut flush for Nelson and ultimately finishing the tournament. Georgoulas earned $99k for his runner-up finish, while Nelson scored the title and $156k.
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