After five days of tough poker action, Asia Pacific Poker Tournament (APPT) Melbourne Main Event concluded at the Crown Casino yesterday with Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros snapping victory and $134,500 in prize money. The Aussie veteran poker player is one of the most known faces on the Australian poker circuit and a regular at the ANZPT and APPT events. This win at APPT Melbourne is just another jewel in his crown.
UK’s Ashley Mason was in chip lead as the nine handed final table resumed yesterday but soon ‘The croc’s’ experience came into being as he started consolidating his chip strength. The event had been very hard fought for the past four days but the final table was unexpectedly a shorter one. Four players, Jazz Mathers, Ravi Marawar, Phi Luu and Joe Cabret were eliminated within the first hour of play itself.
After Ashley Mason exit in fourth place when when the remaining top three including Argyros, Yan and Tolhopf decided to strike a deal based on the independent chip model. Bowdy Tolhopf was a huge chip leader at that time and $156,000 was kept aside for him while Yan, in second place in chip stack was reserved $$133,000 and $115,000 was decided for Argyros.
But soon after the deal and a few hands later, a turn of events happened for Argyros and he entered heads up battle with Tolhopf. He eventually managed to win the tournament and increase his winnings from $115,000 to $134,500; taking the 29,500 kept aside for the winner in the deal. With this victory Argyros becomes only the second Australian Hall of Famer to win the APPT Melbourne Main Event.