34-year old Sidney native Martin Rowe came out on top of a 476-player field to win AUD$1,000,000 and the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Grand Final championship.
Rowe was naturally ecstatic about winning the championship: “I cannot believe I have won tonight. I felt on edge but not out of control the entire tournament and now to have the title I am just ecstatic – this will be life changing for my family.” The Australian newspaper reports that Rowe recently started his own business creating financial models for insurance companies, but that after his win he is reconsidering; he was reports as saying: “I think I might take a break from work. I haven’t made any decisions about where I go from here. I won’t be making any decisions until after tomorrow.” The new APPT champion has an 18-month-old daughter and is expecting a second child in March with his wife Elizabeth.
The Championship Event had a tough field of 477 players, including several World Champions: youngest champion ever Peter Eastgate, epoch-making Chris Moneymaker and fellow Aussie Joe Hachem. It was the first major tournament for eventual winner Rowe, who has only been playing poker for a short time: “Three years ago a pub near me started up a normal league, and I started playing in that because I was interested in the game, and how the odds came together. I started out hoping not to make a fool of myself, and rapidly improved.”
The final table lasted nine and a half hours, and upon entering heads-up play Rowe faced fellow Australian Jason Gray with a sizable 5-to-1 chip lead of 7,805,000 to Gray’s 1,595,000. It still took Rowe over 2 hours to defeat his opponent with a heart-stopping final hand: Gray went all in with 9h5h and Rowe called him with AcQh. The flop was AQ5 and the turn showed a 9, leaving both players with two pairs and Gray with 4 outs for a full house. A meek 3 on the river sealed Rowe’s victory, and sent Grey home AUS$476,000 the richer.
This is the second time in a row that an Australian takes this important prize: last year’s champion was also Sidney resident Grant Levy, a 29 year old teacher who became the first Australian player to win AUD$1,000,000 at home after defeating American Jeremiah Vinsant. APPT President Jeffrey Haas commented on this fact: “It is fantastic to see an Australian champion in the APPT Grand Final for the second year in a row. Amongst a great international lineup it represents the calibre of poker in this country.”
The standings for the APPT Main Event final table are:
Name Country Prize (AUD)
1 Martin Rowe Australia 1,000,000
2 Jason Gray Australia 476,000
3 Tony Basile Canada 266,000
4 Antonio Fazzolari Australia 182,000
5 Timothy English Australia 140,000
6 Frank Saffioti Australia 100,800
7 Daniel Kowalski Poland/UK 72,800
8 Hai Bo Chu Australia 53,200
9 Tom Rafferty Australia 39,200
The third season of Poker Stars APPT will be announced soon.
