Local wins APPT Grand Final
December 16, 2007
Grant Levy, a school teacher from Sydney has won the inaugural PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour grand final.
He took the $1 million prize in his home town from a 561 player field featuring 4 former world champions.
As the first Aussie to become a poker millionaire on home soil, Grant said of his win, “To be honest I am still taking it all in, but it’s unbelievable to think that I have taken on some of the world’s greats and come out on top. I’m ecstatic to take the title and the million – I think it’s going to take a week or so to even sink in.”
After a starting field of 561 players from around the world took to the tables last Wednesday to play for a share of over $3 million and the glory of being crowned the first PokerStars APPT Sydney Champion, only nine remained to start the final table Sunday.
Grant started play fourth with 1,052,000 chips and played a tight game over 13 hours to win the million dollars.
The impressive starting field including four past world champions: Joe Hachem (2005 World Champion), Scotty Nguyen (1998 World Champion), Chris Moneymaker (2003 World Champion) and Greg Raymer (2004 World Champion). The field also drew in Australian celebrities hoping to topple a champion including: Daniel Macpherson, David Campbell and Manly Sea Eagles player Glenn Stewart, none of whom made the final table.
Grant now also has the unique opportunity to join three other APPT Champions and the four former world champions to battle it out for charity in the PokerStars Tournament of Champions today. It is rare for these four champions to face each other at the same table so crowds are expected to watch the cards fly as they fight it out for $50,000 to go to the charity of their choice.
The final standings and monies earned in AUD were as follows:
1. $1,000,000 Grant Levy (Australia)
2. $621,540 Jeremiah Vinsant (USA)
3. $322,280 Lei He (Australia)
4. $230,200 Sol Bergren (Canada)
5. $158,838 Jai Kemp (Australia)
6. $115,100 Barry Kohlhoff (USA)
7. $92,080 John Matwey (USA)
8. $69,060 Vijayam Nagarajan (Malaysia)
9. $46,040 Larry Wright (USA)
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY AU$3,366,000
The APPT has finished for 2007, but you can still qualify for the remaining European Poker Tour events at PokerStars, the world's largest online poker site.
