When it comes to poker there is only one place to be at the moment if you are in Australia and this is the Crown Melbourne Poker Championship and this could be easily seen by the levels of interest witnessed by the organizers of the poker festival. One of the latest events which witnessed its Final Table was the eagerly anticipated Event 7 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max Shot Clock which granted Joel M. Williams with the first-place prize of A$34,835.
This was definitely one of the memorable tournaments in the rich schedule of the poker festival which is currently in progress at the iconic venue in the Land Down Under. Even though it was a single day one, it managed to attract a considerable number of players ready to give their luck a try on the felt and showcase their skills on the poker tables available on offer.
Buy-in for this spectacular event amounted to A$1,100 which guaranteed a considerable prize pool for the best among the entries. A total of A$129,000 was up for grabs and in stacks awaiting their new owners. Those were the top 14 players who managed to survive through all levels of poker action and make it all the way to the final stages of the poker day.
Some 129 enthusiasts made their way into the event at the beginning of Wednesday and this reserved them the chance to claim a considerable payout perhaps for the first time in this festival. The first player to make it to the cash prizes claiming the 14th spot was Vikrant Gupta from Melbourne who registered his second cash prize for this edition of the MPC amounting to A$2,580.
Generous Payouts Await Top 14 Players
Brett Whitney was another one of the prominent players on the felt who reached far and claimed the 12th position for A$3,225. He solidified his position as a considerable rival from this Monday when he finished 7th at the Event 5 Pot Limit Omaha Terminator (A$100 Per Ko) event. Luke Macdonald was also here for this seventh tournament willing to prove that he could go further than his previous runner-up position at the same fifth event.
However, he was eliminated before even reaching the Final Table and had to settle for the 10th spot on the rank list, bringing him A$3,870. Jonathan Karamalikis from Adelaide was another player who had already warmed up from The Star Sydney Championships where he participated at the A$5k Challenge event. He has total live earnings amounting to $4,133,285 which were increased with the 7th position he claimed this Wednesday coming with some A$4,835.
Poker action was fast-paced with the help of the special Shot Clock format which provides players with only 20 seconds to make a move on the felt and make the best of the hands they have. Each level lasted for 30 minutes, but what was even more facilitating was the use of two buttons providing players with additional time amounting to 60 seconds at the Final Table.
The player who could not make it all the way to the heads-up duel and settled for the third position was Corentin Bouguennec who bagged a total of A$15,480 for his deep run in the tournament. The final battle took place between Joel M. Williams and Bobby Zhang, both marking a first win for this poker festival. Zhang could not defeat his opponent and claimed the consolation prize of A$23,865.
