Event #10 - $5,300 Australian Heads Up Championship featured 32 of the world's top players on Day 1a, including Sorel Mizzi, Craig Bergeron, Lee Nelson, Jarred Solomon, Graeme Putt, David Saab, Neil Channing, and 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Alexander Kostritsyn. The field was thinned down to just two semifinalists by the end of a long Day 1a, with Alec Torelli and Jarred Solomon the lone survivors after four rounds of play.
With some matches in Round Two forced to wait on Round One pairings to conclude, Jarred Solomon and Alexander Kostritsyn had enough time to dispatch their second opponents before the rest of the matches had even started.
Round Three began with eight players including the likes of Stefan Jedlicka, David Saab and Craig Bergeron. Alec Torelli faced Michael Wywrot in the quarterfinals. Torelli, who finished as runner-up to Kenny Tran in the 2008 WSOP $10,000 World Championship Heads-Up event, made a strong showing on Day 1a to make the money and again demonstrate his heads-up tournament chops. When Stefan Jedlicka, David Saab and Craig Bergeron finished off their opponents, Round Three began and the money bubble was upon the remaining eight players. Jarred Solomon again kicked off Round Three strong, eliminating Craig Bergeron in two straight matches and moving into the quarterfinals.
David Saab won this event in 2007, but saw his hopes for a repeat go down in flames at the hands of Graeme Putt who then advanced to the money round. Stefan Jedlicka and Alec Torelli rounded out the Round Three winners, to set up the following matches for Round Four:
- Stefan Jedlicka vs. Alec Torelli
- Graeme Putt vs. Jarred Solomon
Alec Torelli was the first player to advance to the semifinals when he eliminated Stefan Jedlicka in eighth place. Jarred Solomon had a tougher time dispatching Graeme Putt to claim his spot in the final four, but got there on the third match with trips.
Day 1b saw a second field of 32 competitors including Chris Ferguson, Nam Le, Grant Levy, Masa Kagawa and other notables. After a grueling day of heads-up poker, with several Round 3 matches kicking off before the end of the final Round 1 match, John Tabatabai and David Gent advanced to Day 2 and the semifinal round to face Day 1a survivors Alec Torelli and Jarred Solomon.
Returning for a second shot at the heads-up title after busting on Day 1a, David "Chino" Rheem and Alexander Kostritsyn were on hand for a second try at making Day 2. Rheem and Kostritsyn both made Round 2 in their second attempts, but failed to reach the semifinals. Other early eliminations included Niki Jedlicka, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Ferguson. Ferguson, with a stellar track record in heads-up tournaments, fell in the first round to John Tabatabai. Tabatabai then had to wait for several hours before beginning his second match, as Andrew Scott and Dmitriy Ivanteev held a marathon duel in their Round 1 match.
While Tabatabai waited, Round 2 began for the other players. Rheem fell to Eddy Sabat, David Gent eliminated Kostritsyn and Jason Gray busted Martin Klaser. After four hours and several Round 3 matches, Andrew Scott finally put away Dmitriy Ivanteev to move into Round 2 against Tabatabai.
As Tabatabai and Scott kicked off their Round 2 match, Jason Gray moved into Round 4 when he busted Koray Turker in two straight matches. Turker became the day's first bubble boy as Gray headed off for a dinner break while he awaited the finish of other Round 2 and 3 matches to determine his quarterfinal opponent.
Michael Pesek sent Emad Tahtouh off to the cash games when he came back from an initial deficit to bust Tahtouh in consecutive matches.
Eddy Sabat busted in Round 3 to David Gent, heading into the quarterfinals to face Michael Pesek as John Tabatabai and Andrew Scott battled in their Round 2 match.
Andrew Scott's first two matches were marathons, with Round 4 beginning before his second match was finished. He finally fell to Tabatabai, who also dispatched Jan Suchanek in short order to meet the waiting Jason Gray as Suchanek bubbled the money. As Gray and Tabatabai were getting started, David Gent sent Pesek to the rail in sixth place taking AUD $20,000 with him. The final match of the evening saw Tabatabai and Gray going back and forth for more than two hours before Tabatabai triumphed.
The final four combatants squared off the following day with John Tabatabai making quick work of Alec Torelli in straight sets to claim the championship ring and the AUD $100,000 top prize. On the way to the final match, Tabatabai vanquished David Gent, while Torelli knocked out Jarred Solomon, who put on an impressive showing on Day 1, losing only a single game as he carved a path through his opponents on the way to the finals.
Once Solomon was eliminated from the Main Event, he arrived at his waiting seat in the Heads-Up semifinals for his shot at the ring. His amazing run of success in heads up play came screeching to a halt as Torelli defeated him in straight sets to advance, sending Solomon off with AUD $40,000.
John Tabatabai had a somewhat tougher time getting to the finals, as his match with David Gent went all three games before a winner was decided, but still ended with Gent on the rail with AUD $40,000.
The final match was quick, with Tabatabai dispatching Torelli in straight games. Torelli added AUD $60,000 to the money he wone as a runner-up of the WSOP Heads-Up Championship, while Tabatabai picked up AUD $100,000 and the championship ring valued at AUD $4,000.
Links:
Crown Poker Gallery | PokerNews Video - John Tabatabai Wins $5,300 Heads-Up Event
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