Scot poker pro Michael Kane travelled halfway across the world to Perth in Australia to play in the first leg of the Pokerstars Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour this week but the effort and expense was worth it as he dominated the competition to take home A$98,900.
192 players entered for the five day event, held at the Crown Perth casino in Western Australia.
The field was ultimately distilled down to Kane, around the middle of the chip stacks and facing Stephen McHugh, Michael Doyle, Navin Bechar, Michael Guzzardi, Raiden Kan, Robert McLean, Gregory Wheeler and chip leader Bryan Huang.
Surprisingly Huang was the first to go after a gruelling two-and-a-half hours of play with no eliminations, but after that Kane started to dominate the game and rode his success through to the heads up with Stephen McHugh.
Before the action started the two finalists agreed a chop which gave Kane A$78,900 and McHugh A$72,100, with A$20,000 on the table for the winner.
The heads up that followed was a true endurance test, lasting three hours and with the lead changing a number of times before Kane was able to eliminate a very talented and tenacious opponent.
McHugh’s runner up prize was A$72,100.