Strike another one up for Team PokerStars. After Chris Moneymaker’s victory in the $1000 No Limit Hold’em event two days ago, Vanessa Rousso has taken out the PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions.

‘Lady Maverick’ was confirmed champion when APPT Grand Final winner Martin Rowe was forced make a move with 9-7 offsuit when he found himself short-stacked. Vanessa made an excellent read and called him down with K-5 pre-flop. The board blanked out and we had our new champion.

Vanessa was playing for the ‘No Limit, No Profit Initiative’, which is a charity that was created by her and her fiancé Chad Brown. The charity is going to target the pockets of poker players to raise money for Africa and cancer research.

“This is just so great to win this event as all the money we have put into the charity so far has been our own. To get a boost like this is fantastic. We are in the process of organising a three-day event that will feature a concert, golf day and poker tournament in Las Vegas next year,” Rousso said.

Vanessa has wowed local fans with her regular appearances in the poker room, and has posed for score of photos and signed mountains of autographs over the past week.

For Martin Rowe, it’s been one of the biggest weeks of his life and he is a worthy runner-up in this event. As well as becoming a millionaire over night he has donated a cheque of $5000 to the Save the Children Fund, which helps disadvantaged children.

We’re heads-up in the PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions, with Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso a big chip leader (4:1) over new APPT Grand Final champion Martin Rowe.

Players eliminated in the past hour have included Sydney young gun and 2007 APPT Macau High Roller champion in fifth. His close friend and Melbourne rival Van Marcus called down Eric’s all-in move on the turn. In Eric’s own words he was “looking for a miracle”. Eric put his arm around Van and covered his eyes as he missed the draw.

Reigning APPT Macau champion Eddy Sabat was next to go. Vanessa Rousso called down Eddy’s all in with pocket 4s and Eddy was looking for an ace to hit the board but the youngest player in the field failed to connect.

Then Van Marcus was eliminated in third spot. His chosen charity was Child Fund and he was disappointed he couldn’t send them a cheque.

“I have been paying some money into Child Fund every month now for some time. I really hate to see children suffering and I try to do what I can. I would have liked to have won this event but I might make a bigger donation this month,” he said.

Martin Rowe is quickly adjusting to life as a poker personality. He leads the PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions with four players remaining, and is within reach of an amazing double after winning the APPT Grand Final last night. After KOing most of the players at the final table of the APPT Grand Final, he’s picked up where he left off.

Ironically, it was this year’s champion that knocked out last year’s APPT Grand Final champion Grant Levy
The two APPT Grand Final winners shook hands and compared notes and Grant wished Martin all the best for the year to come. Grant is the only person who really understands the expectation and pressures that Martin will face in this poker-addicted city of Sydney. Grant is looking forward to a quiet holiday period with family and friends and a big year in 2009 on the tournament circuit.

Moments later it was the other great Australian champion Joe Hachem who crashed out of the tournament in eighth. Lowe again was the man who was stacking up the chips. The dream of back to back APPT TOC titles didn’t turn out for Joe who graciously exited to a standing ovation from the supportive crowd.

Next to go in seventh position was New Zealand’s favourite poker personality, Lee Nelson. Lee had been sharing interesting stories with fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso. Its event’s like this that the pros love because they get to spend time with their peers in a friendly environment.

The next victim of Rowe was Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown. Chad had been keeping a fairly low profile on the table but was getting a little short on chips and when he pushed all in against Rowe, he couldn’t hit his draw. Rowe has 40,000 in chips and leads from Vanessa Rousso.

We’re into level two (50/100) of the PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions, and already one of the champions has fallen. APPT Auckland champion Daniel Craker was unfortunately struggling with illness but ploughed on for his charity of choice to be here today.

With 9000 in chips already in the pot, action was checked down to the river on a board of 6s-5h-10d-4h-3d, Rousso moved all-in and Craker called but mucked when he saw her pocket sevens, good for a rivered straight. “Why didn’t you do that in the couples’ tournament,” Chad Brown quipped across the table to his partner, who now leads the field.

• Shortly after the APPT Grand Final was decided, rising South Australian online star Jarred flopnutsonyou Graham was crowned APPT Sydney High Roller winner.

Despite the big chip lead of ‘Colonel’ Sam Korman, Graham gradually wore down the Melbourne veteran to take home the AUD $222,000 first prize.

With the board showing J-4-3, Korman called Graham’s all-in bet with K-Q, and Graham was stunned to find his A-5 ahead. Neither player improved their hand, and the celebrations were underway for Graham and his rail comprising most of Australia’s best online players.

Graham is arguably the hottest player on the local online scene, with almost USD $200,000 in tournament winnings for the past two months alone. His record includes a third in the PokerStars Sunday 500, and he went within a whisker of taking down the Triple Crown.

• While players were partying the night away at Star City Casino last night, APPT Macau winner and PokerStars Sponsored player Eddy Sabat was sipping on a Coke as he waited, and waited, and waited for the final of the heads-up event to start.

After a marathon day for the 32 heads-up competitors, Sabat finally took down Terrence Chan in the final to claim his second major title for 2008. The delay in the final was the result of a staggeringly long five-hour quarter-final between Roy Vandersluis and Nafiz Safi. Vandersluis won, but the long session told on him in the semi against Chan.

Watch APPT Sydney S2: High Roller Champion on PokerStars.tv

After a long night of celebrations for new PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final champion Martin Rowe (not sure if he made it to bed), Martin Rowe is back at Star City along with the biggest names in the game for the 2008 PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions.

Introduced last year, the TOC is the perfect way to end a long year on the road for the touring pros – there’s AUD $45,000 up for grabs for the charity of the winner’s choice and AUD $5000 for the runner-up’s favourite charity. But more importantly, the bragging rights up for grabs are significant!

Last year’s champion was Team PokerStars Pro and 2005 WSOP main event winner Joe Hachem. It was Joe’s first major tournament in Australia. He will grimly defend this title and try and make it back-to-back success, all for the Shane Warne Foundation.

The field for today’s event is:

Seat 1: Eric Assadourian, 2007 APPT Macau High Roller champion (charity: Samuel Morris Foundation)
Seat 2: Grant Levy, 2007 APPT Grand Final winner (charity: Samuel Morris Foundation)
Seat 3: Van Marcus, 2008 APPT Manila champion (charity: Child Fund)
Seat 4: Joe Hachem, Team PokerStars Pro, 2007 APPT TOC winner (charity: Shane Warne Foundation)
Seat 5: Chad Brown, Team PokerStars Pro (charity: No Limit, No Profit Initiative)
Seat 6: Eddy Sabat, 2008 APPT Macau champion (charity: Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California)
Seat 7: Martin Rowe, 2008 APPT Grand Final (charity: Save the Children)
Seat 8: Lee Nelson, Team PokerStars Pro (charity: Canteen NZ)
Seat 9: Vanessa Rousso, Team PokerStars Pro (charity: No Limit, No Profit Initiative)
Seat 10: Daniel Craker, 2008 APPT Auckland champion (charity: Te Omonga Hospice)

Watch APPT Sydney S2: Tournament Of Champions on PokerStars.tv

We have a new PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final champion: Martin Rowe, from Sydney Australia. Rowe becomes poker’s newest millionaire. It was all one-way traffic for the new champion who systematically knocked out his challengers one by one at the final table.

In the last hand of the tournament Jason Gray limped in on the button and Rowe immediately raised it to 250,000. Jason quickly announced all-in and Martin just as quickly called and tabled A-Q. Jason sighed and turned over 9-5. The crowd was taken by surprise as the battle had been tight for many hours.

The flop came down A-Q-5 and the turn bought a 9. This gave both players two-pair but Jason would have to hit one of four outs if he was to stay alive. The river didn’t bring a miracle for Jason and Martin Rowe raised his arms in triumph.

Gray fought bravely and came back from a huge chip deficit to claim around 40 per cent of the chips at one stage. The runner-up cheque of AUD $476,000 may ease a little of the pain of coming so close to a major title in his home city.

Martin Rowe is not a professional poker player, but may have to consider his position in the insurance industry after equalling PokerStars sponsored player Grant Levy's feat from last year. Even though he has had some encouraging results in smaller tournaments both here at Star City and at Crown Casino in Melbourne, this is without doubt, the highlight of his poker career.

An emotional Martin came over to thank Jason for the great heads-up battle.

“Thanks, mate. That was really tough. When you came back at me I wasn’t feeling well at all. I was feeling dizzy and knew I wasn’t right. After I had that last drink I started getting a few cards and I just knew I had to hang in there. I was lucky my hands held up there at the end,” he said.

A little later he talked to the Pokerstars video team...

Watch APPT Sydney S2: The Winner - Martin Rowe on PokerStars.tv

PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final results

1 Martin Rowe (Australia) AUD $1,000,000
2 Jason Gray (Australia) AUD $476,000
3 Tony Basile (Canada) AUD $266,000
4 Antonio Fazzolari (Australia) AUD $182,000
5 Timothy English (Australia) AUD $140,000
6 Frank Saffioti (Australia) AUD $100,800
7 Daniel Kowalski (Poland) AUD $72,800
8 Hai Bo Chu (Australia) AUD $53,200
9 Tom Rafferty (Australia) AUD $39,200

Just when we thought the PokerStars.net APPT High Roller event might overtake the PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final, runaway chip leader Martin Rowe has just eliminated another two players to set-up a heads-up battle with fellow Sydneysider Jason Gray.

After the dinner break it didn’t take long for Antonio Fazzolari and chip leader Rowe to tangle in a monster pot. The betting was furious on the turn when Fazzolari made two-pair and Rowe semi-bluffed hard into the pot with an up and down flush draw.

Rowe thought long and hard about calling Fazzolari’s last 350,000 even though there was around two million in the pot. The river didn’t bring one of the eight outs Rowe needed and Fazzolari won a massive pot taking him to 2.5 million in chips and a clear second chip leader behind Rowe.

Rowe got a big chunk of his chips back against Fazzolari. Rowe played aces softly and kept calling Fazzolari’s advances. A dangerous river card slowed down Fazzolari who only made a small bet on the river. It was quickly called by Rowe, whose aces beat Fazzolari’s top pair.

Then Antonio’s run came to an end at the hands of Rowe. Fazzolari was short on chips and pushed in with A-2. Rowe called him immediately with A-K. There was no reprieve for Fazzolari and when the board blanked out 7c-5h-Jh-8s-10s.

Less than five minutes later, Martin Rowe found pocket kings against Tony Basile’s A-K. All the money went in pre-flop and when no ace found its way onto the felt (Jd-4c-9h-6c-Qc), we lost the likable Canadian in third spot.

Rowe takes an almost 5:1 chip lead into the heads-up battle but Gray, the most experienced player at the final table, is far from a spent force. Cheered on by friends and family including celebrated Aussie poker pro Billy 'The Croc' Argyros, Gray is settling in for a long battle.

There’s an awesome buzz around Star City Casino tonight – big money up for grabs, top pros battling it out at final tables, high-stakes cash games heaving and the players’ party about to kick-off.

Having just celebrated out final visit to the Garden Buffet and gorged down the last of the bread and butter pudding in record time, here’s a quick wrap-up of what’s going on around the room tonight.

• The PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final is into level 25, with blinds at 30,000/60,000 with a 5000 ante. Martin Rowe is a huge chip leader (5.5 million ahead of Sydney pro Jason Gray (1.6 million), Canada’s Tony Basile (1.1 million) and Antonio Fazzolari (1.1 million). Rowe is ideally positioned to keep the APPT Grand Final title in Sydney after Grant Levy’s win last year.

• The $3000 heads-up event has reached round three with players progressing from round two including David Steicke (who defeated last night’s $1000 NLHE event winner Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker), Joon Hee Yeh, Bill Jordanou (after a surprise win over Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson), Roy Vandersluis and Terrence Chan.

The prize pool for the heads-up event is AUD $41,520 for first, AUD $23,700 for second, $15,360 for third and $15,360 for fourth.

• We’re down to four in the PokerStars.net APPT Sydney High Roller event after the first hour of play. The five players to be assured a cash were Andrew Pantling (270,000), Jarred Graham (190,000), Sam Korman (190,000), Adriano Cendron (75,000) and Jeff Lisandro (58,000).

Graham crippled Lisandro with aces against jacks to send the 2007 WSOP bracelet winner to the rail in fifth.
Then ‘Colonel’ Sam Korman used kings to remove his closest rival Andrew Pantling (jacks) in third, to give the Melbourne veteran a massive chip lead over Graham and Cendron. They’re playing for a first prize of AUD $222,000.

Martin Rowe, the local insurance man, has been the big mover in the past hour to take a big chip lead into the dinner break with just four players remaining in the PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final.

More and more fans are crowding around the final table as Rowe climbs to more than four million in chips. He has played very solid poker and has started to increase his tempo and pick up some chips. He won a very nice pot against Antonio Fazzolari when he flopped a set of fives and Fazzolari was lucky not to lose more chips when he made two-pair on the river.

He then sent Frank Saffioti to the rail; a player who has brought plenty of colour and excitement to the tournament today with his large supporter group. Saffioti pushed in all of his chips against Rowe when he hit an ace on the flop (Ac-6s-7s). His A-Q, however, was far behind Rowe who had hit yet another small set (sevens).

The turn card was the best in the deck for Frank (Qc), giving him two-pair and a flush draw but the river was a blank (9d) and Saffioti departed.

Then on the final hand before the dinner break, Tim English bowed out in fifth position. Holding A-K, the final PokerStars qualifier in the field shoved all his chips in on a rainbow flop of 2-9-10. Rowe thought long and hard before calling with Q-J. English was in front, but Rowe had plenty of outs.

A jack on the turn was enough to knock out the youngest remaining player. Rowe now has more than 5.5 million, well over half the chips in play. Blinds will be at 30,000/60,000 with a 500 ante when players return.

For a guy without any real major tournament experience, Antonio Fazzolari is looking surprisingly composed and continues to control the final table at the PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final. He continues to lead the field but behind him, the chips continue to be shuffled around the table.

The remaining six have some very contrasting styles. Gray and Rowe at one end of the table seem content to sit and wait for their opportunities. At the other end of the table the Italian duo of Fazzolari and Saffioti are both showing plenty of aggression and are continuing to serve up the pressure on their more experienced opposition.

If anything, the crowd is bigger now than when play started, with solid cheering sections for five of the remaining six players (we’re doing what we can for the Canadian Tony Basile).

Gray’s fans just had reason to cheer when he took down a huge pot against the aggressive Saffioti. Jason found pocket aces against Saffioti’s A-K. Gray let Saffioti do all the betting in the hand. Saffioti pushed all-in on the turn and Jason snap called and, to his delight, found that Saffioti was drawing dead on a board that filled out 3c-7c-10s-7d-Jd. The pot takes Gray to nearly 1.5 million in chips while Saffioti is back to just 500,000.

With the three early eliminations there are plenty of chips in play and it will take some time for the blinds to catch up. Last year’s APPT Grand Final winner, PokerStars Sponsored player Grant Levy has just popped over to check on the action.

“In a few hours I won’t be the champ anymore. Jason Gray is a good friend and a very solid player but Antonio Fazzolari has plenty of chips and is an exciting player and would make an excellent champion,” Levy said.

With about five minutes remaining at level 23, blinds will soon pop up to 20,000/40,000 with an ante of 5000. The small blind now represents the starting stack of each entrant!