Congratulations to Sam Razavi, Winner of the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Melbourne Main Event ($326,125)
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After five days of tough poker, the 2012 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event has come to a close. In the end it was Britain's Sam Razavi who took down the trophy, all the glory and the $326,125 first-place prize.
Heading into the final day it was Tom Grigg who held the chip lead, but he had eight formidable foes ready to play poker. One of the players who was surely going to give Grigg a headache was Brendon Rubie, but in a surprising turn of events, Rubie would be eliminated in ninth place.
Rubie started the day with the fourth largest chip stack, but proved to be his own worst enemy. The beginning of the end saw Rubie move all in on the river of a 
board after calling bets from Wayne Bentley on the flop and turn. Bentley called Rubie’s shove and showed 
, enough to send Rubie’s cards into the muck, leaving Rubie as one of the short stacks. Shortly after the above hand, Rubie was all in holding 
against Kristian Lunardi’s 
and couldn’t catch up, leaving himself with less than two big blinds. From there, it was a quick death for Rubie as Razavi dealt the final blow to his tournament life.
With Rubie out of the way, the short-stacked Nigel Andrews had managed a pay jump, but this is when his day would end. Andrews’ last hand saw him all in holding 
and running into Lunardi’s 
. No help came for Andrews and it was all over in eighth place.
Following Andrews’ elimination, the bust-outs flew fast and fierce as Lunardi would find the door in seventh place, followed by James Bills in sixth. Lunardi’s elimination saw him three-bet to 165,000 holding 
from the small blind, after Bentley opened the pot to 60,000 from the button. Back on Bentley and he moved all in holding 
. Lunardi made the call and then made his way to the rail when no help came on the board. Bills’ last hand saw him open shove holding 
and he received the call from Bentley in the big blind, who held 
. A devastating 
flop all but sealed Bills’ fate and with bricks on the turn and river, Bills was sent out the door.
Within an hour, three players had already been eliminated and one more would join Lunardi, Bills and Andrews on the rail. This time it was Australian Poker Hall of Fame member Gary Benson who would make his way to the exit. Benson’s bust-out hand saw him get all his chips in holding 
against Keith Walker’s 
on the river of a 
board. Walker held , with the turned trips good enough to send Benson home in fifth place.
Eventually the action had to slow down and that happened during four-handed play. Grigg was still the table captain at this stage, managing to hold almost half the chips in play for a short period. Play continued to slow to crawl, but eventually, after more than two hours, another player hit the rail. The fourth-place elimination began when the action was folded to Bentley in the small blind and he raised it up to 120,000. Grigg called out of the big blind and both players checked the 
flop. On the 
turn, Bentley check-raised all in after Grigg bet 130,000. Grigg made the call and turned over 
, which was ahead of Bentley’s . The 
on the river wasn’t what Bentley was looking for and he was sent to the rail in fourth place.
The chips were relatively even during three-handed play, with all three players holding a slight chip lead at least once. Then, Grigg surged away, building his stack to well over half the chips in play. However, it just wasn’t Grigg’s day as two hands would see Razavi deal the fatal blow to Grigg in third place. The first hand saw Grigg make a big river call when he ran into Razavi’s full house and the last hand of Grigg’s night would see him run into yet another full house, details of which can be seen below.
Razavi held a more than 3-1 chip lead heading into the heads-up battle and it would take under ten minutes for him to eliminate Keith Walker in second place. A gallant effort from Walker sent him home with $205,345 for his effort. With that, Razavi was crowned the 2012 APPT Melbourne Champion!
2012 APPT Melbourne Results
| 1 | Sam Razavi | $326,125 |
| 2 | Keith Walker | $205,345 |
| 3 | Tom Grigg | $114,750 |
| 4 | Wayne Bentley | $87,575 |
| 5 | Gary Benson | $72,475 |
| 6 | James Bills | $57,375 |
| 7 | Kristian Lunardi | $45,300 |
| 8 | Nigel Andrews | $36,240 |
| 9 | Brendon Rubie | $27,175 |
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of the APPT Melbourne Main Event. A big congratulations to Razavi and to all the other winners. It was another world-class event run by PokerStars and the staff here in the Crown Poker Room. Until next time, poker fans!
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, and Grigg decided to check.
to the turn, Lunardi had a big sweat, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, with the 
on the river sending Lunardi home in 7th place.
