The inaugural season of the PokerStars.net Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour has concluded and enters the record books as a success, attracting a total of 1 309 competitors and prize pools worth US$ 2.4 million.
The first four tour stop winners were Karl Krautschneider in Adelaide, Paren Arzoomanian in Sydney, Chris Levick in Melbourne and Danny Chevalier in Queenstown.
The last stop, in Brisbane, saw Australian Scott Kerr fighting it out in the heads up with a New Zealander, Phillip Willcocks, with the honours going to the 21-year-old Aussie on this occasion. The two players had outlasted a 249-strong entry field before facing off across the felt.
In the end, Kerr made a spectacular comeback from being over three fold down in chip counts to ultimately win the heads up holding AQ against Willcocks’ QJ, giving Kerr the title and the main prize of A$168 075.
Kerr, who is a poker dealer from Newcastle in New South Wales, qualified for the tournament online at PokerStars.com.
The first season's Player of the Year award went to Tony Hachem, brother of former WSOP Main Event champion Joe, who achieved top twenty finishes in four of the five events.
He will be a PokerStars sponsored player in the upcoming PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour events this season.
"I am very happy to be the PokerStars.net ANZPT Champion," Hachem said of the award. "This tour has been a fantastic experience. I am looking forward to keeping up my good form when the APPT starts in Macau later this month."
Pokerheads Downunder can expect more of the same in the next season, which PokerStars has already confirmed will take place at the Sky City Casino in South Australia from 9th to 14th February 2010.
