APPT HIGH ROLLER'S TOURNAMENT DECIDED

30 November 2007

Aussie Eric Assadourian's $368 640 payday


Hard on the heels of the weekend's PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau (see previous InfoPowa report) many of the top players in China for the occasion lingered to contest the additional $15 000 buy-in High Roller event.

Creating a formidable 64 player field were, among other aces Joe Hachem and Liz Lieu, Scotty Nguyen, Emad Tahtouh, John Juanda, Isabelle Mercier, Kirk Morrison, Bo Sehlstedt and Barry Greenstein. But it was budding Australian superstar Eric Assadourian who came from behind at the final table to capture the inaugural High Rollers title and the big pay check that went with it.

By the end of Day 1 the field had been thinned out to eight final table players led in the chip stakes by Team PokerStars pro Emad Tahtouh (343 500) who was well ahead of nearest rival David Paul Steicke (142 000).

Liz Lieu was the first to head for the rail, knocked out by Tony Ng, followed by Scott Numoto eliminated by Tahtouh. Australian pro Eric Assadourian came to notice when he knocked out John Juandas in sixth place, and the fifth exit was the favoured Tahtouh who was eliminated by Bo Sehlstedt.

Assadourian was active again on the fourth elimination, when he took down Tony Ng, assuming a dominant chip lead as the game moved into three-handed play between Assadourian, Sehlstedt and David Steike. It was the latter who headed for the exit next to collect the first six figure paypacket for his third placing of $110 592, taken out by Sehlstedt.

In the heads up, Assodourian had over four times the chips held by his opponent Sehlstedt but the latter made a game of it, doubling through Assadourian several times after losing an initial big pot. But after just over 30 hands of heads-up play, Assadourian triumphed, collecting the inaugural title and $368 640, and leaving his rival with the second place and $184 320.

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