2009 PokerNews Cup Australia

$1,100 PokerNetwork Live vs Online Challenge
Day: 1
12
Event Info

2009 PokerNews Cup Australia

Final Results
Winner
Event Info
Buy-in
1,000 AUD
Prize Pool
32,000 AUD
Entries
32
Level Info
Level
13
Blinds
1,200 / 2,400
Ante
300
Sort

$1,100 PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge

[user67765]
[user67765]
Welcome to the luxurious Crown Casino on a beautiful Spring day in Melbourne, for our live coverage of the 2009 PokerNews Cup series. The early preliminary events have attracted very impressive fields, and as you'll see from the lineup today, the best players around Australia, and even a few International visitors, have found their way to the Crown Poker Room for their shot at glory.

We pick up our live coverage with one of the most highly anticipated and hyped events seen on the local calendar in quite some time. The $1,100 PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge will pit 32 of the best online and live players up against each other in a series of heads-up and single table shootouts, to finally put an end to the debate once and for all as to who are the superior players.

The online team, led by Australian #4 ranked online player Steve Leonard, are full of the confidence of youth, while the live team, captained by 2009 Aussie Millions champ Stewart Scott, will bring years of experience and live tournament success to the table, to provide a thoroughly intriguing and unique concept.

All the action kicks off at 12:10pm (GMT+10) which is a little over an hour from now, so stay locked into PokerNews for every flop, turn and river, live as it happens from the tournament floor!

The Teams

[user67765]
[user67765]
The teams were selected based on rankings of tournament performances over the past twelve months. The online team features sixteen players all ranked in the top 40 online players in Australia according to PocketFives, while the live team was primarily based on the 2009 PokerNetwork.com Australasian Rankings, with a few wildcards thrown in to complete the team.

Online Team:
Steve 'stevoL' Leonard (captain)
Damien zedveron' Elsing
Jarred 'FlopNutsOnYou' Graham
Ben 'CNT_CRUSHER' Delaney
Jonathan 'xMONSTERxDONGx' Karamalikis
Chris 'Minesony' Evans
Tony 'Bond18' Dunst
Aleks 'Banana Thief' Brkovic
Joel 'Strong Play' Dodds
Michael 'TheBigSiCkO' Guzzardi
Matthew 'onmyVplates' Pearson
Andrew 'Adgee' Jeffreys
Mat 'mathawker' Hawker
Trung 'dynastyzz' Tran
Rayan 'rkruok' Nathan
Dean 'Dinhjo' Nyberg

Live Team:
Stewart Scott (captain)
Steve Topakas
Jai Kemp
Billy 'The Croc' Argyros
Van Marcus
Bruno Portaro
Tony Hachem
Peter Aristidou
Kerry Stead
Sam Youssef
Dave Lee
Bill Jordanou
Ben Savage
Lisa Walsh
Clonie Gowen
Sean Keeton

The Draw

[user67765]
[user67765]
Another unique facet of this event will be the eagerly anticipated draw for the heads-up phase of this event. With many feuds looking to be settled on the felt today, the players were strong advocates of a system to allow the "dream" matchups to occur.

One captain will nominate a player from his own team, and that player will then select an opponent from the other team. The captains will alternate this selection process until all first round match-ups have been chosen.

From there the tournament will progress like a standard heads-up event, with the only condition that players from the same team will avoid playing against each other where possible.

The draw is currently underway over at the Las Vegas bar, where the drinks are already flowing! We'll have the lineup for you shortly.

The Matches Are Set

[user92162]
[user92162]
Steve "The Big Show" Topakas got the nod for the opening challenge from Live Team captain Stewart Scott. Topakas picked online captain Steve "StevoL" Leonard as a favourable match-up, and the first round draw then proceeded as follows:

Steve Topakas vs Steve Leonard
Chris Evans vs Stewart Scott
Bruno Portaro vs Tony Dunst
Joel Dodds vs Clonie Gowen
Jai Kemp vs Ben Delaney
Jonathan Karamalikis vs Tony Hachem
Dave Lee vs Trung Tran
Aleks Brkovic vs Lisa Walsh
Bill Jordanou vs Jarred Graham
Dean Nyberg vs Ben Savage
Peter Aristidou vs Damien Elsing
Andrew Jeffreys vs Billy Argyros
Van Marcus vs Michael Guzzardi
Mathew Pearson vs Kerry Stead
Sam Youssef vs Rayan Nathan
Mat Hawker vs Sean Keeton

Cards Are In The Air

[user92162]
[user92162]
The PokerNetwork Live vs Online Challenge
The PokerNetwork Live vs Online Challenge
Players have finished last minute photos, and we're underway in the first ever PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge.

All matches are best of three, and both teams are keen to draw first blood.

The Format

[user67765]
[user67765]
This concept is a unique one in the poker world and as such the format of the event warrants some explanation.

The event is a two-day event, with today featuring a heads-up event, while tomorrow will be a shootout format. All games will be played as No Limit Hold'em.

Points will be awarded for each player based on finish positions in both the heads up and shootout events as follows:

Heads Up
1st - 150
2nd - 120
3rd - 100
4th - 80
5th - 8th - 55
9th - 16th - 25

Shootout
1st - 150
2nd - 120
3rd - 100
4th - 80
5th - 70
6th - 60
7th - 50
8th - 40
9th - 12th (3rd place in first round) - 30
13th - 16th (4th place in first round - 20

Payouts
Payouts will be made to the winners of both the heads up and shootout events, while the winning team will also collect cash and a year's worth of bragging rights.

Overall Team Winner - $8,000 ($500 per player)

Heads Up & Shootout - 1st $5000, 2nd $3250, 3rd $2250, 4th $1500

A Little About PokerNetwork.com

[user67765]
[user67765]
PokerNetwork.com - Australia's Home of Poker
PokerNetwork.com - Australia's Home of Poker
The original idea for this event stemmed from the ongoing debates between members on the forums of PokerNetwork.com.

As Australia's largest poker website, PokerNetwork.com provides a home for all of Australia's best online players, who frequently participate in the forums to provide assistance to new players, advice to other members and join in plenty of fun discussions.

The rivalry between the online young guns and the live brigade is often a fierce one, and over time the war of words on the PokerNetwork.com forums has exploded and this event was born.

Check out this thread if you'd like a little more insight into some of these players and the rivalries that have formed.

The time for words is over. It's time to settle this on the felt!

Players Choice?

[user92162]
[user92162]
Rayan Nathan and Sam Youssef are facing off in the one of the first round match-ups.

Youssef is up early, and Nathan suggested that they should play a rotation of Omaha and Hold'em. Tournament director Jonno Pittock quashed the idea confirming that its Hold'em only.

Nathan will have to look for edges elsewhere.

Tags: Rayan NathanSam Youssef

Live Team Starts Well

[user67765]
[user67765]
The early advantage around the tables is with the live team as they have started strongly, although it is still very early.

Players are starting with 5,000 chips with the blinds at 25/50.

Van Marcus is down to 1,200 in chips, without even getting to showdown against Michael Guzzardi, while Stewart Scott is keeping the pressure on Chris Evans who has slipped to 2,000 in chips very quickly.

Things started a little better for Dean Nyberg who picked up pocket kings first hand, and made a straight on the second hand, to gain the early lead over Ben Savage.

Bruno Keen For Vengeance

[user92162]
[user92162]
Bruno Portaro had a target in mind when he arrived for this tournament, and when it was his turn to pick there was only one name he wanted to call out.

Tony Dunst.

The Bolord-Bond 18 rivalry dates back to the ANZPT season opening event in Adelaide where both final tabled the Main Event.

Portaro finished eighth on that occasion and told us that he has a score to settle with Dunst who finished second.

Tags: Bond 18Bruno PortatoTony Dunst

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