Edison Nguyen is the victor of the PokerStars.net Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour Main Event, in Melbourne, and Poker Asia Pacific reveals the tour is to increase their rake for the 2015 season.
Am I missing something?
Please tell me if I am.
Edison ‘GooGieMonA’ Nguyen is one of the most talented players in the Southern Hemisphere. He is also having a decent year after taking down the A$2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) side event at the Aussie Millions for $72,607.
Perhaps this is the reason that Corey Kempson agreed to give Nguyen the better end of the deal, when the pair reached heads-up action, despite Kempson having a slight chip lead: 5.4m v 4.9m.
All things considered, that’s not too surprising, but what happened next was.
According to PokerNews writer, Josh Bell, in the first hand of heads-up action Nguyen limped the button, Kempson raised to four million, Nguyen moved all-in and Kempson folded to leave just 400,000 behind.
WTF?
We don’t need Vanessa Selbst to explain that a deal had obviously been struck for Nguyen to win the title.
This ‘agreement’ was deemed inappropriate by the APPT President Danny McDonagh and Crown Poker Tournament Director Joel Williams. As Bell explains, McDonagh, ‘implored the two players to rethink that deal in respect of the integrity of the game.’
The players got the gist of what McDonagh was saying, pulled back their chips and the dealer dealt the hand again.
So what did the players do next to protect the integrity of the game?
You’ve guessed it.
They went all-in blind.
Nguyen’s garbage beat Kempson’s garbage and the former was been crowned the winner of the largest ever ANZPT tour stop event that saw 516 players enter the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne.
Final Table Standings (AUD$)
1st. Edison Nguyen – $217,500*
2. 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 HU deal
The ANZPT to Raise the Rake for Season 7
Poker Asia Pacific scribe, Heath Chick, has revealed the ANZPT’s intention to raise the rake of their Main Event buy-ins for their seventh season.
The first six seasons have seen the price remain static at $2,000 with $200 in juice, but from 2015 that will change to $2,050 and $250 in juice. The rake raise comes hot on the heels after the Aussie Millions announced plans to do likewise for 10 of their events at the 2015 event
Players who like to party at the lower end of the Aussie Millions buy-in scale will see prices change from $1,000+$100 to $1,025+$125.
Chick reached out to the ANZPT Comish, Danny McDonagh, who reminded the poker world that the poker room’s costs rise almost annually whereby the rake has remained the same for six seasons.
“In my opinion, this price structure is fair and remains competitive as staffing costs are incorporated in the $250 fee and award wages for Australian workers rank highly worldwide.” Said McDonagh.
Poker Asia Pacific did an excellent job of juggling the concept of the Aussie Million price hike by seeking opinion from the professional poker player Daniel Laidlaw, and the former Crown Poker and Aussie Millions TD Christian Vaughan.
Laidlaw did a lot of work behind his piece and worked out that the price hike was a 16% increase from 9.09% of the buy-in to 10.87%, and in comparisons said a similarly run PokerStars event would carry a 4.7% rake, a WSOP $500-$1,500 buy-in would carry a 10% rake, and the proposed changes to the Aussie Millions Deep Freeze event would work out at a 13.3% price hike.
Check out the full debate right here.
