PokerStars' Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Melbourne Main Event attracted a field of 516 players and the prize pool weighed in at $1,032,000 - the largest ANZPT ever! It took 16 hours of play in Day 3 until a field of 34 players had been narrowed down to a winner, Edison Nguyen!
Nguyen defeated Corey Kempson in a pretty odd heads-up match. Despite Kempson holding a 5.4 million to 4.9 million lead over Nguyen when the battle was about to start, he still agreed to give Nguyen the larger portion of the remaining prize pool with $7,500 left in the middle to play for.
Once the match resumed, Kempson made it known that he was extremely tired and therefore was ready to gamble for the title and go home. He eventually raised for 90% of his chips before folding for the rest when Ngueyen moved all in.
PokerStars Blog reported the following about the strange lay down: "The clock was paused as ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh and Crown Poker Tournament Director Joel Williams discussed the situation. McDonagh returned and questioned both players over the play which appeared to suggest a deal had been struck over the trophy. McDonagh implored both players to play it out with integrity, and with that, the game continued."
Although Kempson didn't have much left to gamble with after the strange play, he managed to get the chips back close to even before he and Nguyen decided to move all in without looking at their cards.
Kempson showed 6
4 and Nguyen turned over Q
6
. The board ran out 79Q94 and Edison Nguyen was crowned the champion.
ANZPT Melbourne Final Table Results
1st Edison Nguyen - $217,500*
2nd Corey Kempson - $195,500*
3rd Dennis Huntly - $87,800
4th Luke Spano - $69,700
5th Wayde Rickhuss - $54,200
6th Vincent Chua - $43,800
7th Dylan Honeyman - $33,500
8th Gabriel Messo - $25,800
9th Cameron Bryce - $18,550
* denotes private heads-up deal
