Billy Argyros Wins the 2013 APPT Melbourne Main Event ($134,500)!
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The latest Asia Pacific Poker Tour champion has been crowned at the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia. After five tough days of action, Aussie poker veteran Billy “The Croc” Argyros claimed victory of the 2013 APPT Melbourne Main Event.
Argyros is one of the original inductees in the Australian Poker Hall of Fame and has a poker resume which includes tracked results in each of the last four decades. Now, in 2013, Argyros has taken down one of the most prestigious titles in the country and his second largest career score.
“I haven't won a tournament since Cleopatra was skiing down the Nile!” quipped Argyros after he took down the title and $134,500 to go along with it following a three-handed deal.
When the APPT Melbourne Main Event final table began at midday local time, everyone was expecting it to be a very long day in the Crown Poker Room. Then within the first we had lost four players.
The first player to find the rail was short stack Jazz Mathers. Starting the day with around five big blinds, Mathers was happy to look down at 
early in the action and get all his chips in. Mathers had to come up against Ravi Maravar’s 
and would unfortunately hit the rail when the dealer rolled out a 
board.
Despite picking up extra chips when he eliminated Mathers, Maravar would be the next player to find the rail. Maraver first lost all his chips when he ran his 
into [Removed:17]’s 
, then lost the rest of them all in preflop holding 
against Ashley Mason’s 
.
Just moments after Maravar hit the rail and Phi Luu would join him. With blinds at 15,000-30,000, Luu’s final hand saw him move all in for 295,000 from under the gun holding 
. Billy Argyros looked down at 
in the big blind and made the call. No help came for Luu and it was all over in 7th place.
Six-handed play would become five-handed very quickly as 2013 Aussie Millions runner-up Joe Cabret couldn’t turn his Day 3 “chip and a chair” story into a victory. Cabret’s final hand was a flip that he couldn’t win as his 
was out drawn by [Removed:17]’s .
At this point Robert Demalian was still in contention and looking good to find another big result after making a deep run in this year’s WSOP Main Event. However, it was in 5th place that Demalian would find the rail when he was all in preflop holding 
and couldn’t stay ahead of Bowdy Tolhopf’s 
.
Ashley Mason started the day as the chip leader, but seemed to be card dead and could never really get anything going. Eventually Mason found himself all in preflop holding against Billy Argyros’ . The board ran out 
and Mason was sent out in 4th place, adding $58,400 to the $49,350 he received for winning a $1,650 Six-Max side event last week.
Just a short while after three-handed play began and Billy Argyros, [Removed:17] and Bowdy Tolhopf decided to do an ICM deal. The players left $29,500 aside for the eventual champion, and because Tolhopf was a big chip leader, he locked up $156,000, while [Removed:17] received $133,000 and Argyros claimed $115,000.
The players were fairly deep stacked at the time of the deal and so it wasn’t too surprising that it would take around four hours to reach heads-up play. In the end the 3rd place finish went to [Removed:17]. It was an unfortunate beat for Yan as his was all in preflop against Tolhopf’s and couldn’t stay ahead as a 
board was spread on the felt.
Billy Argyros started the heads-up battle with a slight chip lead over Bowdy Tolhopf and with $29,500 on the line, the two players decided to do another chop, with Argyros taking home $14,500, Tolhopf claiming $10,000 and $5,000 left aside for the champion.
When Argyros defeated Tolhopf heads-up, he became the second Australian Poker Hall of Fame member to win APPT Melbourne after Leo Boxell claimed victory in the 2011 APPT Melbourne Main Event.
2013 APPT Melbourne – Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Argyros | $134,500* |
| 2 | Bowdy Tolhopf | $166,000* |
| 3 | [Removed:17] | $133,000* |
| 4 | Ashley Mason | $58,400 |
| 5 | Robert Damelian | $45,900 |
| 6 | Joe Cabret | $37,550 |
| 7 | Phi Luu | $29,200 |
| 8 | Ravi Maravar | $22,920 |
| 9 | Jazz Mathers | $16,650 |
*denotes three-handed deal
Our thanks once again to the world-class team here in the Crown Poker Room and to the team at PokerStars for running another very successful Asia Pacific Poker Tour event. Congratulations to "The Croc"!