*

The Crown Poker Room was buzzing with excitement for Event 7 of the 2009 Melbourne Poker Championship $230 No Limit Holdem tournament, the room packed to the rafters with 647 players, only 103 players returned to battle it out for the $25,000 first place prize.

Play was intense at high-speed as players did everything they could to cement their spot on the final table. Local players Paul Khoury, George Palavos, Jenny Son and Peter Longmore fell on the wrong side of the money bubble.

The final table was complete which featured a varied collection of talent, among them were prominent players Andrew Meldrum and Raemin Alexander. But it was local player Xiao Cui who stole the show taking home the cool $25,000 first place prize and the coveted trophy. Andrew Mellado collected a nice $18,400 for a fine runner up finish.

Final Table Results:

 

1st $25,000 Xiao Cui Melbourne Australia
2nd $18,400 Andrew Mellado Melbourne Australia
3rd $14,000 Glenn Heath Melbourne Australia
4th $11,000 Tuan Hoang Melbourne Australia
5th $8,000 Adam Brown Melbourne Australia
6th $6,000 Terry Tserdanis Sydney Australia
7th $4,550 Raemin Alexander Melbourne Australia
8th $3,250 Saman Ishaki Melbourne Australia
9th $2,000 Andrew Meldrum Sydney Australia
10th $1,500 Eric Lai Melbourne Australia


The Crown Poker Room also host the $100,000 Challenge which created a huge crowd including some of Australia’s elite poker players such as Billy ‘The Croc Argyros, Paren ‘Puzz’ Arzoomanian and Jay ‘Seabeast’ Kinkade.

It didn’t take long for the action to get underway with Paren ‘Puzz’ Arzoomanian who was the first to be eliminated, "Toothpick" Tony Kambourogolou and Daniel Neilson followed closely in sequence. Booming champion Sean Dunwoodie from Queensland proved to be far too clever reducing Sam Youssef to elimantion in a heads up play. Dunwoodie took home the envious first prize of $100,000 and the ever desirable trophy.

Links:

Results | Photo Gallery