US poker pro Patrick Mahoney is $120,000 wealthier this morning after taking down the first stop of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour in Perth, Australia in his first major tournament win.
Surviving an entry field of 255 other players, Mahoney ended up on a final table that featured one other American and seven Aussies, including Dean Blatt, Scott Davies, Brian Mcallister, Sal Fazzino, Matthew Rolfe, Paul Murray, Vesko Zmukic and Justin Walch.
Starting just after 2pm local time the final tablers battled it out for two hours before the first casualty, Justin Walch, bowed out with $12,300 after being busted by Mahoney.
The action picked up rapidly after that and by the time Brian Mcallister headed for the exit in fourth place for $37,100 the three finalists – Mahoney, Blatt and Davies – had started talking about a chop.
In the end Mahoney vetoed a deal and the action continued three-handed until the players reached a stage where they were more evenly matched, at which point negotiations on a deal resumed.
This time Mahoney agreed to a flattening of the pay-out structure for the trio in a deal that would leave the next player out with an extra $10,000.
That player turned out to be Scott Davies, who was eliminated shortly after at third by Blatt and collected $57,400 for his time and trouble.
Heads up, Dean Blatt and Mahoney faced off with Blatt holding double the number of his opponent’s chips, and a pause was again called for the two survivors to make a deal. That turned out to be a rather drawn out conversation, prompting the Crown Casino management to step in and order a resumption of the action without a deal.
In the end that worked in Mahoney’s favour, because he managed to take the lead and eliminate his last opponent soon after the ruling. Blatt took home a second placing prize of $86,100, leaving the main money and the honours to the American.