Australia's Luke Brabin Wins 2014 WSOP APAC Event#1

Luke Brabin has opened Australia’s account at the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific, after defeating a 661 player field over four days at the A$1,100 NL accumulator event to capture a gold winner’s bracelet, as well as the A$131,365 (US$114,45) first place prize. Following his impressive performance, Luke Brabin commented:
“It’s surreal obviously. I’ve never experienced anything like this. Only played 35 live tournaments in my life. I plan on playing six events, no Omaha. I was already planning on playing the High Roller. I got some stake money.”
WSOP APAC Event#1 attracted enough players to create a prize pool worth A$611,000, and amongst the 54 players then seeing a return on their buy-in was Brandon Shack-Harris in 53rd (A$2,346), Antonio Esfandiari in 45th (A$2,560), Dan Heimiller in 31st (A$3,159), George Danzer in 22nd (A$4,754), and Jeff Madsen in 19th (A$5,591).
By the time the final table of nine had been reached, Luke Brabin was the chip leader with all the other remaining competitors also Australian. Luke Brabin (J-J) then proceeded to eliminate Piyush Gupta (7-7) in 8th for A$15,318, before later being dealt A-K and doing likewise to Stephen Lindeblad (2-2) in 4th for A$43,986.
With just three player left in contention, a massive hand was then played with Brabin (10h-9h) and Daniel Murphy (10d-2d) all-in on a 10c-7d-6d-10s board. The Ah on the river all but sealed Murphy’s fate, who then lost his remaining chips holding 3-3 to Brabin’s K-Q to exit in 3rd for A$59,334 and set up the heads-up phase of the competition between Luke Brabin and Didier Guerin for the bracelet.
At this point, Brabin held an enormous 1.617m to 216k chip advantage over his final opponent, and soon after Brabin (K-Q) won a preflop shove against Guerin (9-8) to claim the victory.
Final Table Results:
1 Luke Brabin – A$131,365
2 Didier Guerin – A$81,220
3 Daniel Murphy – A$59,334
4 Stephen Lindeblad – A$43,986
5 Ryan Hong – A$33,080
6 Zane Ly – A$25,234
7 Brian McAllister – A$19,521
8 Piyush Gupta – $15,318
9 David Profaca – $12,189