APPT Sydney 2010 Won By Jonathan Karamalikis

Jonathan Karamalikis has won the APPT Sydney, after defeating a field of 289 players over 6 days to take down the title, and collect the A$459,510 (US$452,755) first place prize.
With his latest win the young Full Tilt pro from Adelaide has now earned $1,061,105 from live tournaments, to go with the $2.37 million he has won playing online.
Although the numbers were down on last year, the A$6k buy-in APPT Sydney Main Event still managed to attract some of the best players from around the world. Notable names at the competition included Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Tony Hachem, Tyron Krost, Tony G, Roland de Wolfe, and Jonathan Karamalikis.
 
By the time the final table of nine had been reached Karamalikis, Negreanu, and Roland de Wolfe took their places at the accompished table which also included Ben McLean, Tom Rafferty, Peco Stojanovski, Antoine Amourette, Eddy Sabat, and Manuel Hansimikali.
First out was a short-stacked Daniel Negreanu in 9th ($36,415) after pushing his final chips in with Q-T on a T-6-3 flop only to be called by Roland de Wolfe with pocket 3’s.
Amazingly, the day’s chip leader Roland de Wolfe was next out in 8th ($50,285) after losing a huge pot holding pocket aces to his opponent’s pocket 7’s, before then going all-in for his remaining chips with A-9 but up against Karamalikis’ A-Q.
Ben McLean holding pocket 8’s on a 5h-4h-2c flop then managed a double-up through Karamalikis whose ace high flush and straight draw failed to materialise.
Ben McLean was now the new chip lead and after eliminating Antoine Amourette in 5th ($97,970) and Peco Stojanovski in 4th ($121,380),  Karamalikis took care of Tom Rafferty in 3rd ($164,730) to get the heads-up phase underway.
Into the second hour of their battle, Karamalikis had erased his initial deficit to take the lead before the defining hand was played when McLean went all-in with Ad-6d and was called by Karamalikis’ pocket 5’s.
With no improvement from the board, Ben McLean walked away with $294,780 for his runner-up finish, while Jonathan Karamalikis was crowned the APPT Sydney Main event Champion and won his biggest live score to date of A$459,510 (US$452,755) for his hard fought efforts.