Manny Rodriguez Outplays Big Field In Event #5

Well known Melbourne cash game regular, Manny Rodriguez has taken down his biggest live MTT win with an outstanding effort to oulast 609 other hopefuls in the Vic Poker Champs Event #5, $550 NL Holdem tournament.

Manny Rodriguez ended up heads up with Paul Taylor, who had already made the final table of Event #3, The Terminator for a 4th place finish; but Rodriguez was victorious when his 8♦6♠ held of Taylor’s J♠5♣ on a 6♦J♥5♥6♣7♥ board.

Rodriguez picked up over $65,000 for the win.

Vic Champs ‘08 - Event #5 - $550 No Limit Holdem

• 1st $65,575 Manny Rodrigues Melbourne Australia
• 2nd $44,225 Paul Taylor Melbourne Australia
• 3rd $30,500 Colin Peckover Sunshine Coast Australia
• 4th $24,400 Garth Kay Melbourne Australia
• 5th $19,825 David Lovell Sydney Australia
• 6th $15,250 Marlon Goonawardana Melbourne Australia
• 7th $12,200 Bao-Tu Hoang Melbourne Australia
• 8th $9,150 Ismail Ismail Sydney Australia
• 9th $6,100 Scott Peel Melbourne Australia

Anthony Donjerkovic Claims Event #4

Melbourne poker player, Anthony Donjerkovic has claimed Event #4 at the Vic Poker Champs, the $240 NL Holdem with Rebuys; and in the process beaten out the other 121 entrants for the 1st prize of $20,000.

The 121 starters swelled the total prize pool to an astounding $71,300 with an extraordinary 471 rebuys.

Donjerkovic had previously run well at the 2006 Vic Poketr Champs cashing in Event #2, the $550 NL Holdem evenmt for $1,430 and 20th place; and in Event #5 $230 Limit Omaha HiLo for 5th place and$1,512.

Event 4 $240 NL Holdem with Rebuys

• 1st $20,000 Anthony Donjerkovic Melbourne Australia
• 2nd $13,333 Hui Mai Melbourne Australia
• 3rd $9,483 Jonathon Karamalakis Adelaide Australia
• 4th $7,166 Con Cotsomitis Melbourne Australia
• 5th $5,633 Jimmy Siu Melbourne Australia
• 6th $4,706 Andrew Demetriou Melbourne Australia
• 7th $3,920 Roy Vandersluis Sydney Australia
• 8th $3,137 Graeme Putt Melbourne Australia
• 9th $2,353 Kevin Khouiss Sydney Australia
• 10th $1,569 David Lim Melbourne Australia

Online Poker Player Profile : Harlindo

“Harlindo”

Real Name :
Age :
Location : Australia
Lifetime Tournament Winnings : $260,710

Screen Names

PokerStars : Harlindo
Full Tilt Poker : Harlindo

Recent Successes

• Full Tilt Poker FTOPS IX Event No. 10 NLH 1st $259,440.00

Favorite Hold’em Hole Cards :
Favourite Tournaments :
Favourite Cash Games :
Favorite Poker Sites : Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars
Biggest Win Online : Full Tilt Poker FTOPS IX Event #10 NLH 1st $259,440.00
Favorite Online Players :

“Harlindo” in just one tournament has positioned themselves as one of Australia’s most successsful online MTT poker players with their huge $259,440 collect for winning the FTOPS IX $300 buy-in NL Holdem event and beating out of 4,980 others. The win noteworthy as the online identity “Harlindo” has only ever played in 35 tournaments in total on PokerStars and Full Tilt; and only ever cashed once prior for a $270 collect in $26 buy-in NL Holden tournament of only 45 players.

Unknown Aussie Player Scores Huge FTOP’s IX Win

Unknown Aussie online player, “Harlindo” has scored a huge $259,400 win in the FTOPS (Full Tilt online poker Series) IX Event #10, the $1.5M Guaranteed $300+22 NL Holdem tournament.

The tournament which saw 4,985 entrants ant up the $322 buy-in, is one of the biggest on the FTOPS schedule and saw some of online poker’s best and brightest in the starting line up.

Notable online MTT specialists, Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier and Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis each cashed in the top 60, and new Full Tilt pro Josh Arieh nearly went the distance with a 25th-place finish.

In the end though, Harlindo bested James “P0KERPR0” Campbell, also known online as “jcamby33″; heads up to win his first FTOPS title and, more importantly, take home over a quarter of a million dollars.

The win is all the more notable as the online identity “Harlindo” has only ever played in 35 tournaments in total on PokerStars and Full Tilt; and only ever cashed once prior for a $270 collect in $26 buy-in NL Holden tournament of only 45 players.

The chip counts looked like this as the final table began:

• Seat 1: P0KERPR0 (1,795,000)
• Seat 2: paigowpro (3,204,604)
• Seat 3: SKILLAN (1,559,227)
• Seat 4: Tazmaniapwnsyou (1,055,340)
• Seat 5: Mr Mack Bust (911,319)
• Seat 6: Harlindo (2,707,655)
• Seat 7: Kasy1 (587,860)
• Seat 8: IwanaClay (1,814,826)
• Seat 9: doubledave22 (1,319,169)

“Harlindo” got involved early in a big pot when they raised form the button with A♣K♦ and “IwanaClay” reraised all-in to 728,497. “Harlindo” insta-called and “IwanaClay” showed a dominated A♥Q♦.

The flop favoured “Harlindo”, coming 8♥6♦K♣. A Q♥ on the turn gave “Iwanaclay” a few outs, but the 4♣ brick on the river sent “Iwanaclay” to the rail and nicely increased “Harlindo”’s stack.

“POKERPRO” carved his way through remainder of the field, claiming all bar one scalp on the way to heads up play, and when heads-up play began “P0KERPR0″ had nearly 66% of the chips thanks to his elimination of five of the previous seven players.

“Harlindo” wasn’t fazed though and found himself with a 4-3 chip lead before the final hand of the night which came down like this:

“Harlindo” called from the small blind and “P0KERPR0″ raised to 480,000. “Harlindo” came back over the top with an all-in raise and “P0KERPR0″ called off the rest of his 5.7 million.

“Harlindo” showed A♦K♣ and “POKERPRO” tabled Q♦T♦.

The flop came 9♣2♣5♦, followed by 3♦, and a 4♥ river.

Big slick was good enough for Harlindo to win the final hand of the night and capture the FTOPS title and the $259,440 first place prize money.

FTOPS IX Event #10 $300 NL Holdem Results :

• 1. Harlindo (Australia) — $259,440
• 2. James “P0KERPR0” Campbell — $157,500
• 3. doubledave22 — $102,000
• 4. SKILLAN — $79,500
• 5. Mr Mack Bust — $60,000
• 6. paigowpro — $45,000
• 7. Tazmaniapwnsyou — $34,500
• 8. IwanaClay — $26,250
• 9. Kasy1 — $19,500

Online Poker Player Profile : puntnko

“puntnko”

Real Name : Daniel Kochan
Age :
Location : Sydney, Australia
Lifetime Tournament Winnings : $436,797

Screen Names

PokerStars : puntnko
Full Tilt Poker : Kochan
Party Poker : Kochan
Bodog : puntnko
Ultimate Bet : Koey
Absolute Poker : koandpunt
Titan Poker : Koey
Chan Poker : muntnko

Recent Successes

• PokerStars Sunday Million NLH 2nd $134,247.00
• PokerStars $109 NL Hold’em NLH 6th $4,973.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 18th $1,201.00
• PokerStars Sunday Second Chance NLH 17th $1,253.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 2nd $42,171.00
• PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand NLH 18th $1,021.00
• Full Tilt Poker $100,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) NLHR 1st $32,154.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 10th $1,454.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 14th $1,965.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 12th $2,447.00
• Full Tilt Poker FTOPS VII Event No. 9 NLH 2nd $176,719.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLHR 1st $29,865.00
• PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand NLH 6th $5,179.00
• PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand NLH 18th $1,019.00
• PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand NLH 15th $1,128.61

Favorite Hold’em Hole Cards : K♥Q♥
Favourite Tournaments : NL/PL HE MTTs, $100 and over
Favourite Cash Games : NL/PL HE, $1/$2 to $2/$4
Favorite Poker Sites : AbsolutePoker, Bodog, FullTiltPoker, PartyPoker, PokerStars, UltimateBet
Biggest Win Online : Full Tilt Poker FTOPS VII Event No. 9 NLH 2nd $176,719.00
Favorite Online Players : tykro, pokerguru999, radicalguy, volcheko, teamTCpoker

Daniel Kochan is one of Australia’s top online tournament players, with a 2nd place finish in the FTOPS Event #9 for over $176,000 and now his 2nd in the PokerStars Sunday Millions for $151,283.95. He also has victories in the Full Tilt $100k Guaranteed and the PokerStars $25k Guaranteed for another $46k combined.

“puntnko” Books A Big Win In Stars Millions

Just one week after “Andy McLeod“’s well earned 4th place in the PokerStars Sunday Millions, Sydney online poker MTT player, “puntnko” has taken 2nd in the same event for a $US151,283.00 payday.

The newly revamped Sunday Millions generated a massive field and shattered the $1.5 Million guarantee. This week 8,236 players built a prize pool of $1,647,200.00, with the top 1260 players taking home a piece of the pie.

After nine hours of play, the final nine competitors gathered ‘round the final table, all vying for the title and the $199,475.92 first prize with Australian online poker player “puntnko” sitting 4th with chips.

“puntko” knocked the first player off the final table when the short-stacked lissem, who had played the waiting game by sitting back and posting and folding while awaiting a premium hand; finally looked down at A♥K♠. After a preflop raise from “puntnko”, “lissem” called all-in to find a classic race waiting A♥K♠ v. Q♠Q♥. This time, the coin landed tails for lissem as the board ran out 4♦8♠4♥7♠2♣, pushing the pot to “puntnko”.

“puntko” avoided any bnig pots until, after a preflop raise from “puntnko” and a call by “ohhaaahhh”, the flop came down 9♦8♠K♠. “Ohhaaahhh” moved all in with K♥J♣ for top pair, only to find himself drawing thin against “puntnko”’s K♣Q♣. The 2♠ on the turn helped neither player, and “ohhaaahhh” was left looking for only a Jack on the river. The 7♦ was no help and then there were only 3 left.

“ziggy47″ showed the A♣A♦ against “j.thaddeus”’s 9♥9♠ and they held up send the game to heads-up. The chip stacks were pretty close when heads-up play commenced, with “ziggy47″ holding a slight edge over “puntnko”.

• ziggy47 – 43,409,883
• puntnko – 38,950,117

With blinds at 400,000/800,000 with an ante of 80,000, the two remaining players agreed to a chip count chop that was almost exactly even. Ziggy47 locked up $152,438 to puntnko’s $151,283, with $30,000 left for the winner. With a deal in place, the remaining competitors squared off for the title and the $30,000 left in the middle.

The final hand came down like this :
“ziggy47″ raised from the button like on many hands before, and this time puntnko re-raised with A♦9♥. “ziggy47″ moved all in over the top, and “puntnko” called, only to watch “ziggy47″ table the dominant A♣J♠. Nothing unexpected happened, and like so many of the final table hands, a strong hand ran into a stronger one, and after the board ran out 8♣A♥2♦7♣5♥, the tournament was over and “ziggy47″ was the winner, pocketing a total of $182,438 for a long night’s work, with Aussie online MTT star, “puntnko” taking home 2nd and a nice $US151,283 collect

Sunday Millions Final Results

• 1. ziggy47 (Unted States) $182,438.77
• 2. puntnko (Australia) $151,283.95
• 3. j.thaddeus (Ireland) $91,419.60
• 4. ohhaaahhh (Unted States) $74,124.00
• 5. okidokiclub (Netherlands) $57,652.00
• 6. YrrsiNN (Switzerland) $41,180.00
• 7. Foggsy (Unted Kingdom) $28,826.00
• 8. WSODice (Unted States) $18,942.80
• 9. lissem (Norway) $11,530.40

Michael O’Brien Takes Terminator

Local Sydney poker player, Michael O’Brien has won Event 3, the $340 NL Holdem Terminator at the Vic Poker Champs.

O’Brien was always handily placed at the final table, sitting 3rd with chips as play got under way; and prevailing for a $15,000 collect over Melbourne poker player, Michale Triandafillou.

The results were as follows :

Event 3 $340 NL Holdem Terminator

• 1st $15,222 Michael O’Brien Melbourne Australia
• 2nd $10,380 Paul Triandafillou Melbourne Australia
• 3rd $7,612 Marlon Goonawardena Melbourne Australia
• 4th $6,228 Paul Taylor Melbourne Australia
• 5th $4,844 Peter Aristidou Melbourne Australia
• 6th $3,979 Damien Elsing Melbourne Australia
• 7th $3,114 Simon Cleal Melbourne Australia
• 8th $2,422 Timothy Clarke Melbourne Australia
• 9th $1,557 Stiven Strmecki Melbourne Australia
• 10th $1,038 Paul Pedersen Melbourne Australia

Ken Eastwood Takes Event 2

Event 2, the $340 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament saw field of 98 take to the felt and at the end only Melbourne poker player, Ken Eastwood was still standing.

The Crown Poker regular has been uber-consistent at the regular Crown tourneys and is currenlty sitting 9th in the Crown Poker Player Of The Year standings, his best finish prior to yesterdays $8,465 payday had been a 5th place in Event 2 at the Joe Hachem Deepstack Series; the $240 NL Holdem event for a $5,200 collect.

The final results were as follows:

• 1st – Ken Eastwood $8,465
• 2nd – John Dalessandri $5,866
• 3rd – Joseph Cabret $4,380
• 4th – Con Tsapkounis $3,267
• 5th – Oliver Gill $2,367
• 6th – Sam Khouiss $1,782
• 7th – Tom Di Pasquale $1,485
• 8th – Rainer Quel $1,188
• 9th – John Homan $891

Final Table Decided For Terminator Event 3

The final table has been decided for Event 3, $340 NL Holdem Terminator; with New Zeleand poker player, Paul Taylor holding a commanding lead.

Paul, who won the 2006 Aussie Millions $560 NL Holdem Event 1 for a $62,250 collect; used his experince to run roit over the other players at the “final table bubble” and picked up nice collects knocking out Peter Raditsas and Brian Hull for 11th and 12th place finishes respectively.

The Terminator tournament is unique in that each player will receives a “Terminator” button at the start of the tournament. Once a player is eliminated they pass their original terminator button to the player who eliminates them, keeping any that they have accumulated during the tournament.

The “Terminator” buttons are redeemed for $100 each from the prizepool at the completion of the tournament.

The player to watch at the final table will be Peter Aristidou who is a Melbourne local and Crown Poker regular. He is currently sitting second in the Crown Poker Player Of The Year Standings and his best finsih so far this year was taking down the Event 4 at the Joe Hachem Deepstack Series in the $500 HORSE tournament for a $10,650 prize.

The final table play gets under way at 4:00pm Thursday 7th August.

Event 3 $340 NL Holdem Terminator Final Table

• Seat 1: Stiven Strmecki 67,000 (5 “Terminators”)
• Seat 2: Peter Aristidou 124,000 (7 “Terminators”)
• Seat 3: Tim Clarke 36,000 (3 “Terminators”)
• Seat 4: Paul Triandafillou 156,000 (5 “Terminators”)
• Seat 5: Paul Pedersen 55,000 (3 “Terminators”)
• Seat 6: Marlon Goonawardana 77,500 (9 “Terminators”)
• Seat 7: Paul Taylor 286,000 (5 “Terminators”)
• Seat 8: Damien Elsing 242,000 (8 “Terminators”)
• Seat 9: Michael Obrien 160,500 (6 “Terminators”)
• Seat 10: Simon Cleal 180,000 (6 “Terminators”)

Brendan Edmonds Wins Crazy Pineapple

Brendan Edmonds has won the $100 Crazy Pinapple tournament at the 2008 Vic Poker Champs beating out 75 other hopefuls in the process.

His win earned him $2,262 and backs up his 28th finish in Event 1, the $230 NL Holdem event; which earned him $658.

The Sydney poker player has now competed 5 tournaments at Crown and made the money on every occassion, his best result coming from an 8th placed finish at the 2008 Melbourne Poker Champs $1100 NL Main Event which netted him a 15,030 collect.

Here is the final results :

• 1st $2,262 Brendan Edmonds Sydney Australia
• 2nd $1,421 Sean Dunwoodie Kawana Australia
• 3rd $775 Rowan Barrat Melbourne Australia
• 4th $581 Marwan Nassif Melbourne Australia
• 5th $452 Nina Gojak Gold Coast Australia
• 6th $388 Chris Housser Ontario Canada
• 7th $323 Vanessa Butterworth Melbourne Australia
• 8th $258 Bradley Gauci Melbourne Australia

Online Poker Player Profile : Andy Mcleod

“Andy McLeod“

Real Name : James Obst
Age : 18
Location : Adelaide, Australia
Lifetime Tournament Winnings : $613,391

Screen Names

• PokerStars : Andy McLeod
• FullTiltPoker : TheFatFISH
• Party Poker : McDonk
• Bodog : Mike HUSSEY
• UltimateBet : Brad Johnson
• Absolute Poker : JAMESCLEMENT

Recent Successes

• PokerStars Sunday Million NLH 4th $75,879.00
• PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand NLH 14th $924.00
• PokerStars Super Tuesday NLH 18th $2,475.00
• PokerStars Daily $100 With Rebuys NLH 18th $1,339.00
• PokerStars Sunday Million NLH 20th $4,643.00

Favorite Hold’em Hole Cards : J♠8♠
Favourite Tournaments : Stud MTTs, $100 and over
Favourite Cash Games : Stud 8b, $7.50/$15 and over
Favorite Poker Site : FullTilt

” Andy McLeod” (that’s his screen name, not his real one) has managed to keep his true identity secret to most of the poker world. The Adelaide based online player who is still a teenager is one of the online poker’s most aggressive and successful players.

Known for possessing a deep understanding of the game, he offered a few insights in a Cardplayer interview.

Cardplayer : What are your thoughts on the continuation bet? Is it overused?

“Andy McLeod“: I think it’s about knowing how to proceed thereafter if you don’t take the pot down on the flop; Likely the sickest online tournament player, Imper1um (Sorel Mizzi), still continuation bets almost every time. But he gets great reads on his opponents and doesn’t just give up if his bet doesn’t take down the pot, which it won’t a lot of the time, especially since people are becoming increasingly more aggressive and more and more players are learning how to float (call with nothing as a setup to a bluff on a later street), and so on.

At lower stakes I imagine the continuation bet will still be effective, especially if it is a strong one, but at higher stakes you definitely see some people overusing the continuation bet because they seem to give up the pot whenever it doesn’t succeed on the flop.

Cardplayer: Well, I think it’s hard for some people ( i.e., me) to get away from making a continuation continuation bet on the turn a lot of the time. It is especially hard to get a read from someone online compared to live poker, so how do you know when to let it go by the turn?

AM: I find that it’s all about your opponent and his perception of you. If you know you’re playing against a tricky opponent and you have a loose table image, then they’ll be likely to be floating you on a high number of flops, so this could be a good opportunity to double barrel. It also depends a lot on the texture of the board, of course. For example, if you make a continuation bet on an ace-7-3 flop and your opponent doesn’t go away, this would be a horrible spot to double barrel; your opponent is likely to either have an ace (not many people will fold top pair) or a set, or something that will not go away to more pressure on the turn. On the other hand, if the board is something like 10-5-2 and you make the continuation bet and are called, then a double barrel may be more successful here because many players will call with a small pocket pair or such hoping or assuming that you have overcards and will slow down when faced with resistance. Some people will also be able to get off of a 10.

Also, if you have a very aggressive table image, then double barrels will be very unlikely to have a good success rate, since people will realize that you are trying to run them over and will start calling you down light.

Cardplayer: Have you ever folded kings preflop?

AM: I don’t think I ever have, but I see countless posts on the forums [recounting hands] where I feel like I definitely would - and, conversely, plenty where kings shouldn’t even be considered to be folded - so, I’m sure I will some time soon.

Cardplayer: I’m still waiting for my magic moment, too. What about pocket jacks? What would it take to get you to fold those preflop? Pocket jacks are a dangerous holding for many players both preflop and postflop. They can’t seem to lay jacks down and the hand loses them money when it’s supposed to be an overall winner.

AM: It’s definitely a tricky hand to play. There are some situations where it’s easy to get off the hand preflop. For example, suppose you raise from under the gun with jacks, get reraised, and then another guy comes back over the top. If they all have healthy stacks you can pretty confidently throw it in the muck, but there are some really tough spots that people encounter frequently. Probably the best example is when a player raises from under the gun or early position and you wake up with jacks. For argument’s sake we can take the stacks to be 25 big blinds. An under-the-gun player makes it three big blinds, if you reraise to nine or so, virtually committing yourself to the pot, and when the under-the-gun player comes back over the top, you have to assume his range (likely something like queens or better) is killing your hand. So, flat-calling seems to be the most appropriate choice, but then it gets really tough when the board comes all low. Sometimes you can’t avoid going broke; it’s infuriating, but what can you do? Just try to keep the pot as small as possible.

Cardplayer: What’s your strategy early on in big-field tournaments like the Sunday Million, for instance?

AM: For me, being able to chip up at the beginning of tournaments is almost the most crucial aspect. I can’t play my style if I don’t have a healthy stack to work with. So, I do all that I can to get a good stack early, I’ll play my draws fast and be willing to get it in with a flush draw and one overcard for the chance to double up. That being said, I’m selective with the hands I play, and I value position above all else. I’ll still be folding ace-jack offsuit under the gun, and be fundamentally solid, but once I hit a flop in some way I’m going to get aggro.

The Sunday Million, specifically, is obviously a huge tournament that everyone aspires to do well in, so I’ll be slightly more reluctant to go broke at the beginning on a draw as I will in a $100 freezeout or something like that, but I’ll still play similarly aggressive.

Cardplayer: Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski says that under the gun is the new button [laughing]. Do you agree?

AM: [Laughs] It is for many players. In fact, it’s pretty true for me [laughing]. There’s definitely more and more under the gun stealing going on at high stakes, but to be honest, I think it just sounds appealing. People still and always will raise the button light, much lighter than they will open under the gun.

Cardplayer: One more thing: What was the one thing that you’ve learned over the years that you believe truly took your game to the next level, whether it be a move, a core principle, or whatever.

AM: Probably the biggest thing for me was gaining an appreciation for table image. I’ve always been naturally aggressive, and in the beginning, I would just think I could run over every table that I played on, and pretty much spew chips all over the place. People would call me down so light that I would be so angry, just thinking to myself “How can you call me down with that?,” when, in reality, the only player making a mistake was me. It’s all about adapting to your table image, and once I realized that, I starting playing 10 times better.

Andy McLeod’s skill has led to a fortune in winnings, including a win in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series IV event No. 9, a $100 (with rebuys) no-limit hold’em tournament, for $75,482. He also took down the Full Tilt $1K Monday for a $52,260 score. He is one of the top-ranked players across the Internet, and is very highly ranked in Cardplayer and Pocket 5’s Online Player of the Year standings.

Whoever Andy McLeod really is, one thing is for certain, he is one of Australia’s best young poker talents and worth following.

Callum Ford Wins Vic Poker Champ Event 1

Sydney poker player, Callum Ford has won event 1 of the 2008 Vic Poker Champs taking down a $17,000 first prize and beating out 410 other hopefules in the $230 NL Holdem event.

The first placegetters looked like this :

• 1st $17,260 Callum Ford Sydney Australia
• 2nd $11,919 Ryan Mckay Sydney Australia
• 3rd $8,220 Milan Gurung Melbourne Australia
• 4th $6,576 Matthew Hawker Melbourne Australia
• 5th $5,138 Tola Chim Melbourne Australia
• 6th $4,110 Scott Reddie Melbourne Australia
• 7th $3,288 Danny Mountt Melbourne Australia
• 8th $2,466 Michael Christodoulou Melbourne Australia
• 9th $1,850 David Lovell Sydney Australia
• 10th $1,233 Alan Xerri Melbourne Australia

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