Mike Watson Wins Inaugural Australian Poker Open Opening Event
Mike Watson has done it! Four years after his last live tournament victory the Canadian pro has won the opening event of the inaugural Australian Poker Open at Star Gold Coast.
“I’m thrilled to have won it,” Watson exclaimed after taking down the event, “Especially in these series it’s great to get off to a good start and set the tone, get your confidence high, and try to make a run for that player of the series title. It’s also the first live event I’ve won a little while, so that monkey’s off my back.”
Watson last won an event in January 2016 when he took down the prestigious PCA Main Event for $750,000.
“It feels good to have all the chips stacked in front of you to have that photo taken for a change,” Watson smiled after acknowledging it had been a while since his last outright win.
| 2020 Australian Poker Open Event #1 Results | ||||
| Name | Country | Prize (AUD) | Points | |
| 1 | Mike Watson | Canada | $177,000 | 200 |
| 2 | Michael O’Grady | Australia | $118,000 | 140 |
| 3 | Benjamin Shannon | Australia | $82,600 | 100 |
| 4 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | $59,000 | 80 |
| 5 | Jamie Lee | United States | $47,200 | 60 |
| 6 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | $35,400 | 40 |
| 7 | Elio Fox | United States | $29,500 | 40 |
| 8 | Ben Lamb | United States | $23,600 | 40 |
| 9 | Luc Greenwood | Canada | $17,700 | 40 |
The Australian Poker Open continues with Event #2 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha which is underway right now with Day 1 action available on our Live Reporting platform.
The action started with the quick elimination of one of Hungary’s finest players, Andras Nemeth. Nemeth, sitting on a short stack, moved all in over the top of Michael O’Grady’s raise with deuces only to get called right away by the Aussie’s pocket aces. O’Grady’s aces held up and Nemeth was knocked out.
Next up to hit the rail was Jamie Lee, who pushed his small stack towards the middle with jack-nine suited. Mike Watson moved all in over the top with ace-queen and the board brought two aces to seal Lee’s fate.
Lee’s elimination tied Watson with O’Grady and Orpen Kisacikoglu for a three-way tie and the chips moved back and forth for a bit before Kisacikoglu got caught with his hand in the cookie jar by Watson. Kisacikoglu bluffed his stack off against the rivered flush of Watson and that brought play down to the final three.
Local hero Benjamin Shannon was then knocked out in fourth place. Shannon entered the tournament after parlaying a $250 satellite into a larger satellite which sent him into this $10,000 event. Shannon turned his $250 into $82,600 after getting eliminated with ace-two against O’Grady eight-four suited when he moved all-in with a short stack.
The heads-up between Mike Watson and Michael O’Grady was tremendously entertaining and filled with drama. In a massive pot, O’Grady picked up pocket aces only to see the Canadian pro turn over two pair after they ended up all in on king-deuce-three. Watson’s two pair were counterfeited with a three on the turn but a deuce on the river gave him a full house to double up.
An hour or so later, O’Grady was looking to get back into the race when he got king-ten all in versus queen-ten. Watson turned a straight but this time the river was kind to O’Grady who made a bigger straight on the river.
The back and forth continued for another hour before O’Grady ended up all in with ace-eight and he was knocked out against the ace-queen of Watson.
Watch the final table of Event #2 of the Australian Poker Open live on PokerGO on Sunday at 1pm AEST, 4am CET, 10pm ET, and 7pm PT. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now. Check out the full winner story right here.
