Disabled Card Player Wins APPT Queenstown For $93,600

Jonathan “Jono” Bredin has won the APPT Queenstown Main Event, after besting a field of 126 players on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the $93,600 first place prize. Despite the Melbourne man suffering from cerebral palsy, limited speech  and having to use a wheelchair, Bredin was able to stay the course over the five day tournament to eventually be crowned the New Zealand Poker Tour Queenstown Champion.
Following his remarkable victory at the SKYCITY Casino in Queenstown, the 23 year-old commented: “It was fantastic to get this win. It is the first time I have won a live tournament against professionals like these.”
Jonathan Bredin says he now intends to use his winnings to buy a specially adapted vehicles and to take a trip out to Las Vegas.
By the time the NZ$2,700 buy-in event reached its final table of nine, Bredin was in pole position and eventually would progress to the heads-up phase of the competition against Daniel Laidlaw. At this stage, the players were fairly even in chips and it would then take a further two hours before the defining hand was played. Bredin was dealt K-K to his opponent’s Q-x and after all the chips went in pre-flop, the board rolled out 3-K-J-Q-8 to hand Bredin the title, and the $93,600 top prize.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1st Jonathan Bredin (Australia) – NZ$93,600
2nd Daniel Laidlaw (Australia) – NZ$59,550
3rd Chiu Yeung Lee (New Zealand) – NZ$34,900
4th Raj Ramakrishnan (Australia) – NZ$28,900
5th Jon Pierre Narbey (New Zealand) – NZ$23,800
6th Ricky Kroesen (Australia) – NZ$19,550
7th Colin Carpenter (Australia) – NZ$16,150
8th Daniel Neilson (Australia) – NZ$12,750
9th Michael Chon (Australia) – NZ$10,200
After the main event was concluded, SkyCity Queenstown’s general manager Michelle Baillie commented: “We are thrilled to have hosted such a great poker tournament and we are proud of the positive impact the tournament has had on Queenstown tourism..We congratulate Jono for an amazing result and thank the players and the team from PokerStars.net for their support.”