Sapphire Series Main Event gets its winner
The uber popular Sapphire Series poker tournament hosted at the Crown Hotel and Casino, Perth, recently came to a conclusion with Eddie Setyanto taking home the title.
Who said the romantic poker story is dead? Local qualifier Eddie Setyanto managed to navigate through a field of notable players which included Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang, American stud Jordan Westmorland along with Ashley Warner, Seb Pagana, Laurie Gibson and Anthony Marenko to come away with the Sapphire Series title and the AUD$77,000 first-placed prize.
With a field of 301 players paying the AUD$1,100 buy-in for the main event they battled for three Day 1 flights creating a prize pool of AUD$299,495. A poultry 79 players managed to make it to Day 2 but with only the top 24 finishing in the money the competition was fierce and very competitive as everyone was fighting for every inch and card.
Eddie Setyanto would manage to duck and dive the rest of the competition and defeat Bernard Beh in the heads-up battle to claim the title and prize money, the later of which is the largest of his career.
For the full details of the Sapphire Series results visit Crown Perth.
Crown given the OK for new Sydney Casino
James Packer, owner of Crown Hotel and Casino resorts, revealed that the company has been given the green light to open a third Crown gaming property in Australia.
As one of the biggest and most historic homes for poker in the southern hemisphere, hosting the biggest poker tournament south of the equator ‘The Aussie Millions’, Crown are now set to expand into Sydney which is set to become a reality in 2019. The planned AUD$1.9 billion property, yet to be confirmed, will house a luxury hotel combined with a VIP-only casino which will contain no poker machines. The concept’s aim is to attract high-rollers from all over the world, especially the Asian market, focusing on poker along with the traditional casino games.
The six star hotel and casino will be built on the iconic Sydney harbor at Barangaroo south which will add some competition to the regions already established gaming resort The Star. It will be the third Hotel and Casino Crown have opened in Australia combining with Melbourne and Perth while also owning a property in Macau.
The announcement by Packer comes after many long months lobbying the NSW government but will soon be a reality for all Sydneysiders. The deal is subject to final approval by the NSW government but at this very late stage in the process and who the announcement came from there looks to no issues between now and the final decision.
For more information on Crown Ltd visit Crown Hotel & Casinos.
World Series of Poker Asia and Pacific notable results
As the main event kicks off so does the final attempts by the region to claim another Gold bracelet to add to the one already collected by Aussie Jarred Graham.
The build-up events and tournaments yielded no winners but there was still a solid showing from some of Asia and the Pacific’s most notable players.
The were six events remaining before the main event kicked off beginning with Event 56 USD$2,500 NLH. A field of 1,736 players entered all looking to claim some gold before they returned home. The total prize pool was a staggering USD$3,949,400, plenty of which went to local pros, with New Zealand’s own AJ Bertenshaw collecting USD$26,342 for his 16th place finish. Australia’s Elias Jaajaa bagged USD$17,456 for a 33rd finish, David Borg, 96th, took home USD$6,003 while Fabian Craib, Daniel Hameiri and Aaron Benton all took home USD$5,371 for their respective efforts.
Event 57 USD$5,000 NLH attracted 784 players creating a total prize pool of USD$3,684,800. Australia’s Grant Levy looked set to make a deep run at a title but was cut short and ended up finishing in 21st place. The Aussie took home USD$24, 872 for his efforts while fellow countrymen Jason Pritchard ended in 37th place, USD$17,097, and John Parker in 52nd, USD$14,333 also put in a solid performance.
Currently there are two events still running with their results to be posted as soon as they finish, noting any prominent finishes from local players.
For more information and results on the World Series of Poker visit WSOP.