In the world of poker, some of the most exciting tournaments are no other than the ones featuring teams of two players willing to put their skills to the test as a squad. The Star Sydney Championships which is currently in progress saw the final heads-up duel of its Teams No-Limit Hold’em Event, granting Michal Jalc and Erden Ibrahim with the first-place prize amounting to some A$17,366.
This type of poker events brings a lot when it comes to the players’ experience as they provide them with the chance to measure their teamwork skills and how well they can perform as part of a bigger group. Decision making is essential during this tournament and the ultimate winners at the tenth event demonstrated it. It was a single-day event featuring a buy-in of some A$500. This made it one of the easily accessible ones with a relatively low entry fee. Each of the players then received a total of 8,000 in chips, giving them the freedom of operation.
Blind levels reach 20 minutes and this is what sets the pace to be a snappy one. A total of 136 teams registered for participation at the very beginning of this event which in turn resulted in a prize pool amounting to A$68,000. Only the top 15 teams or 30 players were destined to make it to the money bubble and bag a cash prize at the end of the event. The minimum amount of cash which could be bagged at the end of this event reached A$1,053.
At the very beginning Jalc made it clear that his intention is to win this tournament at all costs, as he was quick to add more chips to his stack. Michael Kanaan who reached far in the Opening Event could not make it to the money during this tournament and his team was eliminated soon after the beginning of action.
David Borg is a pro with total live earnings amounting to some $623,105 which he showcased halfway through the action. Once there were only 20 teams remaining his squad reached 90,000 in chips.
Team Event Brings Fun Times to the Star Poker Room
Shortly after that his team even went so far as to eliminate Brooke Loka’s team and move forward in the tournament. One of the last teams to go to the rails close to the money bubble was Team Capra, featuring a father and son squad, eliminated by Matthew “The Dribbler” Muir. However, Grant Taylor’s team managed to bust it and amass some 180,000 in chips.
The team who made it to the money first was Eric Assadourian’s, bagging the minimum cash prize from this event. Another prominent player, Ahmed Abdellatif succeeded in reaching the 11th position with his team, receiving some A$1,254 for the deep run. The Final Table was set for nine teams, the first one to go home including Marianne Crane and Lida Chen. They could not make it further after the duel against David Sargeant and Grant Naylor.
The latter team then made it to the fifth position on the official ranking which granted them a fair prize of A$4,254. Myles Lattacher in collaboration with Trent Adams could not defeat the winning Jalc/Ibrahim team and had to settle for the fourth position and some A$5,690. Daniel Copko might be fairly new to the live poker scene, but he managed to make it all the way to the third position together with his teammate Matthew Muir, bagging some A$7,745.
The team was then eliminated by a couple of recreational players to the liking of Roy Vandersluis and Seyed Nasab who then proceeded to the heads-up duel against the eventual winners. The runner-up position brought them a cash prize of A$10,729, as they could not outplay the other two participants.
The overall spirit of the event was very warm and players were having fun and connecting throughout the entire run of the tournament. Following this breath of fresh air in the poker festival’s structure, the High Roller event is set to commence bringing entries the chance to cash big.
