8/12/2008 4:10:29 AM
Season 8 Grand Finals Wrap!
The end of the Season 8 Pro League Grand Final signified a momentous event in WA Poker League history, with us passing the 1 million dollar mark in payouts! In another huge event enjoyed by all, we again saw a great field of 168 Pro League Qualifiers sit down to battle it out for over $50,000 in our Pro Final!
Cheers erupted when finally, after many hours of play, we hit the final 17 players. They were all in the money! The tension grew as we went to our final table break, and upon our return, you could see how nervous our Final 8 were as they returned to the table... After all, they were playing for their part of the prize pool, now between $1445 for 8th, or the massive $20,000 (plus $5000 WAPL medallion) for first!
The beginning of Final Table saw Gary Hall Jr take control over the tournament. Taking out the first 3 players, and with them gaining a massive chip lead, Gary was always going to be hard to beat.
When we hit Final 3, we had supporters from the Boat cheering loudly for George Lawther, our Mandurah players who had come up for the day right behind Jamie Andree, and those Market City regulars showing Gary Hall the support his huge stack deserved!
After some great action, George was eliminated in 3rd place, winning $3941 in the process! Congratulations George.
The Heads up battle between Gary and Jamie was great! We saw the chip lead move back and forth several times during the time, and our eventual winner was Jamie, beating Gary's Ace 7 with his Ace Queen!
Gary left the tournament $6888 richer, congratulations Gary.
The last player remaining, Jamie Andree, became our Grand Champion for Season 8, and with that wins the $20,000 1st place prize, along with the $5000 WAPL Medallion, and the esteem of being a WAPL Champion! Congratulations Jamie on such a great tournament!
In Free League, we had a strong 59 player turnout, which saw 2 of our well known Free League members meeting head to head at the end. Bas Snijder was eventually overwhelmed by Giuseppe Messina for top spot and Champion of Free League. In an amazing feat, Giuseppe has also proven that he truly is the Champion of Free League, being our first player ever to win BOTH the Season AND the Grand Final for his League! Congratulations Giuseppe on your awesome wins!
We'd also like to congratulate our Top 10 Pro League players for the Season, as they all had their Pro buy-in paid for as the prize for their ranking. Also, huge congratulations to the top 3 Pro players this season. Our Season winner was Colin Wilford (winning $1000), followed closely by Robert Ray ($600) and Paul Ivankovich ($400).
All in all it was a very fun Season, and we are yet again glad to be able to bring such a high quality of poker to our members. We hope you had an enjoyable season with us, and look forward to welcoming you back for Season 9 in the new year!
Please remember, we DO have some tournaments running in between seasons! Make sure you check our Upcoming Events page for those tournaments which are on as special events, and remember also that Pro Special events that are pre-season attract a bigger payout on the night (Bonus 50%!)