ANZPT Melbourne Main Event 2010 Won By Martin Kozlov

Martin Kozlov has won the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Main Event 2010, after defeating a field of 310 players over three days to take down the title, and collect the AU$195,700 (US$192,739) first place prize.
By the end of Day 1 of the AU$2,700 buy-in competition, the 310 player starting field had been reduced to 105, which was further whittled down to 11 by the end of Day 2.
As Day 3 got underway, Martin Kozlov was low on chips but managed a much needed double up just as Ryan McKay (11th) and Joe Allis (10th) exited the tournament thus setting up an all Aussie final table.
Martin Kozlov was almost out before he even got started after running his pocket Q’s into James Obst’s pocket aces. Instead of finding himself on the rails Kozlov hit a third queen on the turn to keep his tournament hopes alive and the game continued another three hours before the table had its first elimination.
Daniel Laidlaw collected AU$16,275 in 9th place after finding himself all-in preflop with Ac-2c against David Chilcott’s Ad-Kh.
Raj Ramakrishnan then had his short stacked Kd-Qd push called by James Obst with pocket K’s and so exited in 8th Place for AU$22,090.
Ted Nguyen was then eliminated in 7th ($27,900) while the original final table chip leader Kristina Jeney left in 6th ($34,875) after finding herself all-in preflop with pocket 3’s against Obst’s pocket 8’s.
James Obst then continued his steamroll of the final table and eliminated Ben Savage in 5th ($42,625), Amanda De Cesare in 4th ($53,855), and David Chilcott in 3rd ($68,900), to set up the heads-up battle against Martin Kozlov.
Despite being out-chipped by about 5 to 1 at the start of their heads-up match, Martin Kozlov managed a double with pocket A’s and before long found himself with a slight lead over Obst.
Eventually the duo got it all-in preflop with Kozlov holding 9d-9c to Obst’s Ac-Kc and with the board running out Jd-5d-3h-6c-4c James Obst was relegated to the runner-up spot and collected AU$124,000 for his impressive run in the tournament.
Full accolades went instead to Martin Kozlov, who completed a spirited comeback to seal the win, take down the title and walk away richer to the tune of AU$195,700.