Here is yet another fine example on how one can turn a poker freeroll into a whopping sum of money. Chris Levick won a freeroll and went on to win his first major title as Pokerstars.com ANZPT Melbourne Main Event champion. A total of 218 players joined the $2,700 AUD tournament to get a shot at winning the $158,050 prize for first place.

Levick was chip lead coming into the final table with 969,000 in chips while Rodney Burles was holding up the rear with 168,000. Not surprisingly, it was Burles who finished in 9th place when his Pocket Tens ran into Levick’s Pocket Queens. Ben Savage was eliminated next when his Ad-10d failed him versus Pocket Jacks. Kristian Lunardi finished in seventh place when he lost a coin flip with Pocket Sevens versus Gregory Shilling’s Ad-Kc.

Thanks to a big pot versus Jie Gao, Levick amassed an even bigger cheap lead when Levick pushed with Aces and was called by Gao with Pocket Fives. After that, Levick continued his winning ways by eliminating Sam Khoiuss and Peter Aristidou one after the other.

When the dust cleared, Levick faced Heath Chick heads-up with nearly a 4 to 1 chip lead. Still, Chick did not give up easily. He doubled up when he got lucky in a hand where he had As-4h versus Levick’s Ad-Js. Chick caught a four on the flop and he increased his chip stack. Chick doubled up again a few hands later when he moved all in with 9c-7c and was called by Ad-Qs. Chick hit a seven on the flop and a backdoor flush draw. Two clubs hit the turn and river and Chick doubled up once more. Chick ate his way through Levick’s chips until both stacks were almost even.

On the last hand, Levick raised to 150,000 and was re-raised to 450,000 by Chick. Levick shoved all-in and was called by Chick who was holding Pocket Queens. Levick looked to be in trouble with his Ah-Jh but the flop fell 3c-As-8c to give Levick the lead. The 3h and 6c were of no help to Chick and Levick ended up winning the tournament and the title.

Thanks to his masterful control of the final table that resulted in a win, Levick is right on top of the ANZPT leader board. This gives him a shot for a sponsorship from PokerStars.Com for next year. Right now, Tony Hachem is a mere five points behind Levick and with only one event to go, plus the fact that Hachem has cashed in each and every event so far for the year, makes the race an exciting thing to watch.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Freerolls, Poker Events, Poker Players, Poker Tournaments, Poker Winners, PokerStars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.