Lynskey Continues Fantastic 2016 with Australasian Poker Challenge Win
Alex Lynskey continued his torrid start to 2016 by taking down the Australasian Poker Challenge AU$2,200 Main Event for AU$221,112 (approx. $168,000). Coming into the tournament, Lynskey had already racked up $449,459 in cashes this year, more than half of his lifetime total of $812,342, and he added to what's already a career year with this win.
Not only did Lynskey capture the Main Event, he won the AU$330 opening event of the series at The Star Poker Room in Sydney for AU$52,680 (approx. $40,000) and got seventh in the AU$5,000 Challenge for AU$16,149 (approx. $12,300).
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize (AU) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Lynskey | $221,112 |
| 2 | Ray Lapitan | $139,416 |
| 3 | Andy Lee | $78,144 |
| 4 | James Rann | $60,384 |
| 5 | Peco Stojanovski | $49,284 |
| 6 | Zhi Ma | $39,960 |
| 7 | Nick Polias | $31,080 |
| 8 | Suraj Dutt | $23,976 |
| 9 | Rined Namrood | $17,760 |
The tournament drew 444 runners, and 36 made Day 3 of the event, with Lynskey having bagged a massive stack of over 1 million that led the tournament by, with second-place Rined Namrood at 762,000, according to the live updates. Some of the notable players cashing on the way to the final table included Andrew Hinrichsen, Jarred Graham, Angelina Rich, Sam Khouiss, and Billy "The Croc" Argyros.
Lynskey was down to about half of what he brought into when 10 players remained, and he got lucky with Kx10x against the Ax3x of Mayra Ramos to send her out 10th when the flop came KxJx2x and neither player improved from there. That gave him a more comfortable stack of 1.233 million heading to the final table with blinds at 12,000/24,000/4,000.
After Namrood went out ninth, Lynskey found a key double for his tournament life in a five-bet pot with Nick Polias. A raising war between the two ended with Polias calling off most of his chips with kings, only for Lynskey to turn up AxJx and find an ace on the flop. Polias found himself out the door in seventh shortly after Suraj Dutt busted eighth.
Lynskey got the next two knockouts as well, running good in a pair of races. First, his fours bested the ace-king of Zhi Ma, then it was his own ace-king pairing up to beat the eights of James Rann.
Still, it was Andy Lee leading, having amassed a stack of 5.9 million at blinds of 30,000/60,000/10,000, while Lynskey had 4.9 million and Ray Lapitan 2.7 million. The balance of power shifted when Lapitan opened for 120,000, Lee three-bet to 375,000, and Lynskey put in the cold four-bet to 925,000. Lee tried shipping the 9♦8♦ after Lapitan folded, but Lynskey snapped it off holding queens and faded an open-ender that Lee flopped to grab a commanding lead.
Lapitan ended up busting Lee and taking a small chip lead but both remaining players had very deep stacks. A heads-up battle of over two hours ensued, and Lynskey finally prevailed on an 8♠2♦J♠ flop when the two got all in. Lynskey had bottom set, while Lapitan held A♠7♠ for the nut flush draw. The sweat was a short one, with Lynskey picking up quads on the turn to seal the win.
*Image courtesy of Poker Media Australia.
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