Samuel Dessaix-Porter wins the APL Million
The Australian Poker League Million was all the hype at the Star Poker Room in Sydney with players from all over the country seeking the dream of winning a WSOP package and a large piece of the 1M guarantee. At the end of the four starting days,1,041 runners jumped on that opportunity, each one ponying up the A$1,500 buyin. This naturally drove the prize pool up to an even richer pot of A$1,300,000 with 108 players earning a cut.
After seven days of action, the event came to a close on March 12 with Samuel Dessaix-Porter defeating Ben Veale at the heads up round. On the final hand, Dessaix-Porter spiked a lucky trips on the river to capture the title and the A$247,500 first prize.
Interestingly, last year, the APL Million saw Branko Usljebkra, a player from APL Illawarra, win the tournament. This year, APL Illawarra was once again well represented with the champion, Samuel Dessaix-Porter, hailing from the region to give them a back-to-back victory.
Other notable finishers
Entering Day 3 of the competition with the field whittled down to the final 27 players, Dessaix-Porter was sitting comfy in second position just behind the leader Luke Martinelli. Though Martinelli was running hot, in Day 3 he only scaled as high as 13th place.
Another player on the upper cut of the count was Philippine player Jensen Chow. Chow maintained a steady pace throughout and joined the dominant Aussie force at the final 9. He eventually finished in a respectable 3rd place.
Out of all the players that ran deep, the most recognized and respected was Trevor Allen, an APL legend in his own right. Allen finished in 10th place. For the top 14 finishers, inclusive in their cut of the prize pool was a Team APL WSOP 2018 Monster Stack package worth US$8,000. Impressively, Allen earned his 8th APL WSOP package.
Final Table payouts
1st Samuel Dessaix-Porter – A$247,500
2nd Ben Veale – A$127,000
3rd Jensen Chow – A$100,000
4th Patrick Barba – A$67,000
5th James Broom – A$52,000
6th Barry Bertossa – A$42,000
7th Dean Blatt – A$32,000
8th Jake Parsons – A$22,000
9th Daryl Roper – A$17,000
Article by Triccia David
