Home / Poker News December 2010 / Karamalikis wins APPT Sydney
Karamalikis wins APPT Sydney
Posted by: Jo Martin - Mon, 2010-12-13 10:10
The APPT’s Sydney main event went out with a bang. The final table was a truly awesome one and when it was all said and done in the end, it was Jonathan Karamalikis who smiled into the cameras, his victorious pocket fives in hand, and a huge stack of chips and a trophy in front of him. Karamalikis’ jubilant mood was fully justified by the fact that on top of a trophy and the honors which came with an achievement of this magnitude, he was also the happy owner of the A$459,510 top prize.
Final table that Karamalikis had to beat to get to the top, was indeed an extraordinary one. A whole bunch of name pros made their way to the final table, among them PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu, Roland De Wolfe and Eddy Sabat. The last one standing between Karamalikis and his prey was Benjamin McLean, a player who had earned his APPT seat online through
PokerStars.
None of the above mentioned name pros managed to get anywhere near the top. Negreanu ended up in 9th place, De Wolfe did one spot better and Sabat finished in 6th place.
The eventual winner began the heads-up stage of the action with a slight chip handicap. That didn't stop him though. They battled back and forth and for a couple of hours a sort of a stalemate was created at the final table. The chip lead went back and forth, but none of the players could secure a decisive advantage.
Eventually, experience began to make its presence felt. As Karamalikis was pulling away, he landed a nut flush in a hand in which his opponent had top pair, top kicker. Needless to say, McLean was drawn into the action and ended up dropping a huge pot to his opponent. It was all downhill for him from that point on.
The final hand of the event saw Karamalikis’ pocket fives survive McLean’s Ad,6d.
