The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour saw a total of more than 300 players compete with each other and the event lasted for three days. In the end, it was veteran poker player Lee Nelson who managed to emerge as the champion and take the trophy together with a pretty good $156,550.

About Lee Nelson

Lee Nelson is a retired doctor who followed his love for the game of poker. He is currently the most successful poker player from New Zealand in terms of earnings, having won a total of approximately $2.7 million in the years of his career. Aside from his impressive earnings throughout the years, the 68 year old retired doctor also won a total of 11 tournaments including the 2011 PartyPoker World Open which let him take a pretty good $400,000 and also the 2006 Crown Australian Poker Championship for an impressive $1,362,709. This year’s Australia New Zealand Poker Tour that was held in Melbourne is but one of Lee Nelson’s achievements.

The Event’s Final Table

The 2011 Australia New Zealand Poker Tour’s main event had a $2,200 buy in and the event lasted for three whole days. Lee Nelson dominated the field of players and came into the final table. It’s no surprise that Nelson had a pretty big chance of winning as he is the most experienced player in the lot. Nelson was responsible for eliminating four out of nine players during the final table before the heads up play. Lee Nelson started the final table’s elimination starting with Brett Chalhoub with Nelson’s A-K where Chalhoub’s A-K proved to be inferior as the board provided another Q for Nelson. Second on his list was Phil Willcocks who was eliminated into fifth position followed shortly by Karan Punjabi on fourth with Nelson’s superior pocket tens against Punjabi’s A-9.

Later on, Lee Nelson, with A-10 eliminated yet another player, Danny Chevalier into third who had pocket threes. Then it was time for the heads up play between Nelson and Nick Georgoulas. Nelson had a huge advantage over his opponent as his chips count to 4.675 million compared to Georgoulas’ stack of 1.345 million chips. Things did not last too long as it only took Nelson a good 15 minutes before he lured Georgoulas in for the kill. Nelson then sent Georgoulas into runner up place and was crowned as the 2011 ANZPT with a winning of $156,550.