The second event of the inaugural Australian Poker Open saw Mike Watson again run deep, while Hungarian player Andras Nemeth won one of the biggest tournaments of his career.
With 43 entries, the $10,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha Event #2 saw Nemeth win the $146,200 top prize after he defeated Australian player Najeem Ajez heads-up but it wasn’t a walk in the park.
With six players making the final table after ‘Chino’ Rheem had been busted in the first money place of 7th, Erik Seidel would be first to depart the official final table. Seidel, who came into play short-stacked, made a move with jack-ten-seven-four and couldn’t improve against Ajez, who had pocket kings.
It would be another very familiar name who busted next, especially to Poker Open fans. Sean Winter, who last year racked up one of the most profitable spells of his year during the U.S. Poker Open, couldn’t last out with his pocket kings, with Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson holding queens and nines, and double-suited ones to boot. Flushed out by Watson’s hand, Winter was on his feet for the flop and would never sit down again.
With four players remaining, Finnish player and partypoker Pro Joni Jouhkimainen would be next to leave the action, and he was unlucky in doing so, his opponent in the hand, Ajez, needing to hit one of eight outs after the turn, and doing so when he made two pair and sent his quarry to the rail.
With Ajez on top, the other two players looked like they might be playing for the runner-up spot unless one of them eliminated the other. Pivotally, that would happen when Nemeth took out Watson in third place and in doing so, had built quite the chip-stack himself.
Ajez needed to close it out, but despite having the lead in the heads-up, he failed to seal it on two occasions when he only needed to fade a river card to be proclaimed the winner. In the end, Nemeth had the lead and pocket kings, holding through the board against Ajez’s ace-ten-nine-six.
With Event #3 being the $25,000-entry No Limit Hold’em event, it’s back to the most popular variant of the game for the attending players in the High Roller Series that has captured a niche of interest in both poker players and fans of all levels. The Australian Poker Open already looks like a fixture on the global poker circuit.
Australian Poker Open Event #2 results:
Place | Player | Country | Prize | Points |
1st | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | A$146,200 | 300 |
2nd | Najeem Ajez | Australia | A$93,600 | 210 |
3rd | Mike Watson | Canada | A$64,500 | 150 |
4th | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | A$43,000 | 120 |
5th | Sean Winter | United States | A$34,400 | 90 |
6th | Erik Seidel | United States | A$25,800 | 60 |
7th | David ‘Chino’ Rheem | United States | A$21,500 | 60 |
The Australian Poker Open Championship is off to a great start, with Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson and Andras Nemeth off to a flyer. There’s little between the two men after the first two events.
Current Australian Poker Open leaderboard:
Position | Name | Points | Earnings |
1st | Mike Watson | 450 | $241,500 |
2nd | Andras Nemeth | 360 | $181,600 |
3rd | Michael O’Grady | 210 | $118,000 |
4th | Najeem Ajez | 210 | $93,600 |
5th | Benjamin Shannon | 150 | $82,600 |
6th | Orpen Kisacikoglu | 120 | $59,000 |
7th | Joni Jouhkimainen | 120 | $43,000 |
8th | Jamie Lee | 90 | $47,200 |
9th | Sean Winter | 90 | $34,400 |
10th | Elio Fox | 60 | $29,500 |