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Alex Lynskey wins Star Gold Coast  Summer Series Monster Main Event; Mina Gerges and  Anthony Cierco with multiple cashes; other festival results included

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Photo Credit – Star Poker Gold Coast

The much awaited Star Gold Coast Summer Series in Queensland, Australia came and went with nine events attracting a substantial 1,637 entries and A$ 869,156 (~US$ 620,250) in combined prize pools. Emerging as the most envied was one of Australia’s top pro players, Alexander Lynskey, who championed the Monster Main Event. Other strong performers were Opening Event champion Sam Haddad, and multi cashers Mina Gerges and Anthony Cierco. Festival results can be found down below. 

Alex Lynskey wins the Monster Main Event for A$ 94,046

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Alex Lynskey, Photo Credit – Star Poker Gold Coast

With a slew of victories and deep runs collected through the years, Australian pro Alexander Lynskey once again displayed prowess by taking down the Monster Main Event. The win secured him the largest festival payout of A$ 94,046 (~US$ 67,041) which was his second big score of the year. In May, Lynskey finished 3rd at the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast Main Event for A$ 114,960. Taking a look at his past achievements, he won the 2018 WSOPC Sydney Main Event for his first circuit ring and the 2016 Australasian Poker Challenge Main Event for A$ 221,112 (~US$ 165,307). He also has three other victories, however his largest career payout was a massive US$ 1,500,000 for placing 7th at the 2018 WSOP Main Event. To date, he has over US$ 3.9M in live tournament earnings. 

Briefly reviewing his latest win, the A$ 1,100 (~US$ 785) buy in Main Event attracted 475 across two starting days (Day 1A – 212, Day 1B – 263) for a prize pool of A$ 475,000 (~US$ 338,067). The final table saw Lynskey enter as the third largest stack with Gavin Best as chip leader and Josh Norvock second ranked. The top three held on to their big stacks and were the last three vying for the title. After taking turns at the top spot, Lynskey finished off Norvock to enter heads up against Best carrying in a 2:1 advantage. Best put up a strong fight, battling to even up the count, but ultimately could not stop the charging Lynskey to fall in 2nd place. For his impressive finish, Best earned a career high payout of A$ 65,859 (~US$ 46,948) while Lynskey added another trophy to his treasure box. 

Date: December 3 to 6 
Buy in: A$ 1,100 (~US$ 785)
Entries: 475
Prize pool: A$ 475,000 (~US$ 338,067)
ITM: 60 places

Final table payouts

1st Alex Lynskey – Australia – A$ 94,046
2nd Gavin Best – Australia – A$ 65,859
3rd Josh Norvock – Australia – A$ 42,323
4th Qi Xu – Australia – A$ 29,046
5th Luis Dominguez – Australia – A$ 22,301
6th Martin Ward – Australia – A$ 18,587
7th Jong Jung – Korea – A$ 15,518
8th Jeremy Winlaw – Australia – A$ 12,459
9th Qais Shanasa – Australia – A$ 9,405

Event #1: Opening Event – Sam Haddad – A$ 41,867 (~US$ 29,550)

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Sam Haddad, Photo Credit – Star Poker Gold Coast

Setting the tone of the series was the Opening Event with 323 ponying up the A$ 660 (~US$ 466) buy in for a prize pool of A$ 103,800 (~US$ 73,270). Although this figure pales in comparison to the Main Event pot, it was still the second largest prize pool and turnout of the series. The four day event concluded with Sam Haddad locking up his first ever festival win and a career high score of A$ 41,867 (~US$ 29,893). This bumped up his total live tournament career earnings to over US$ 81K.

Date: November 26 to 29
Buy in: A$ 660 (~US$ 466)
Entries: 323
Prize pool: A$ 103,800 (~US$ 73,270) 
ITM: 41 places

Top 10 payouts

1st Sam Haddad – Australia – A$ 41,867
2nd Chin Wang – Australia – A$ 29,347
3rd Anthony Cierco – France – A$ 18,872
4th Nuno Da Silva – Australia – A$ 12,035
5th John Moe – Australia – A$ 9,283
6th Jonathon Clark Jones – Australia – A$ 7,684
7th Wai Kin Cheung – Australia – A$ 6,454
8th Mina Gerges – Canada – A$ 5,300
9th Tam Nguyen – Australia – A$ 4,188

Most cashes: Mina Gerges wins the finale and cashes at four others

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Mina Gerges, Photo Credit – Star Poker Gold Coast

Pulling in the most number of cashes was Canada’s Mina Gerges with a whopping five in total. His impressive run included three final tables of which one was a victory at the Final Event for a combined payout of A$ 20,191 (~US$ 14,408). This year has been quite fruitful for Gerges who has cashed in at 23 events prior to the Summer Series. In October, he placed 2nd at the Australian Poker League The Ville 600 NLH event for A$32,600 (~US$ 24,350) for his largest score to date. Here’s a look at his recent festival results: 

8th – Event #1 Opening Event for A$ 5,300
10th – Event #4 Pot Limit Omaha for A$ 608
4th – Event #5 Teams Event Freezeout for A$ 1,425
12th – Event #8 Pot Limit Omaha for A$1,122 
1st – Event #9 NLH Final Event for A$ 11,736 

Event #9: No Limit Hold’em – Final Event 
Date: December 6
Buy in: A$ 330 
Entries: 140
Prize pool: A$ 42,000
ITM: 18 places

Final table payouts

1st Mina Gerges – Canada – A$ 11,736
2nd Yuchan Sun – Australia – A$ 7,392
3rd Ross Burdon – Australia – A$ 4,389
4th Tiegan Aitken – Australia – A$ 2,646
5th Jennifer Cassell – Australia – A$ 2,058
6th Rod Batoz – Australia – A$ 1,722
7th – 8th Elvira Rock – Australia – A$ 1,408
7th – 8th Mogens Hansen – Denmark – A$ 1,408
9h Vincenzo Quaranta – Australia – A$ 1,174

Four cashes: Anthony Cierco

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Charles Tsai (L) and Anthony Cierco (R), Photo Credit – Star Poker Gold Coast

France’s Anthony Cierco had the second most number of cashes at the Summer Series with four in the pocket. He finished 3rd at the Opening Event for A$ 18,872 then locked up a win with Charles Tsai at the Teams Event. The tandem outlasted a field of 49 teams to earn the A$ 5,550 (~US$ 3,880) first prize. Gerges’ other two cashes were 10th at the Big Bounty and 16th at the Final Event. He collected a total of A$ 25,908 (~US$ 18,488) in festival earnings.  

Other winners

Event #2: Deepstack
Date: November 28 to 29
Buy in: A$ 550 (~US$ 388)
Entries: 152
Prize pool: A$ 76,000 (~US$ 54,264)
ITM: 19 places
Winner: Joshua Duce – Australia – A$ 20,981(~US$ 14,810)

Event #3: No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Freezeout
Date: November 29
Buy in: A$ 250 (~US$ 176)
Entries: 126
Prize pool: A$ 32,256 (~US$ 22,770)
ITM: 16 places
Winner: Ricky Kroesen – Australia – A$ 8,219 (~US$ 5,865)

Event #4: Pot Limit Omaha
Date: November 30
Buy in: A$ 220 (~US$ 155)
Entries: 117
Prize pool: A$ 23,400 (~US$ 16,681)
ITM: 15 places
Winner: Antonio Seremet – Australia – A$ 6,902 (~US$ 4,920)

Event #6: No Limit Hold’em Big Bounty 
Date: December 2 to 3
Buy in: A$ 440
Entries: 153
Prize pool: A$ 61,200 (~US$ 43,200)
ITM: 20 places
Winner: Bin Liang – Australia – A$ 8,225 (~US$ 5,805) + Bounties

Event #8: Pot Limit Omaha
Date: December 5 to 6
Buy in: A$ 440
Entries: 102
Prize pool: A$ 40,800
ITM: 13 places
Winner: Najeem Ajez – Australia – A$ 12,444 (~US$ 8,880)

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Tricia David

Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.

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