Press Releases / Dave Allan / 22 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Over on the other side of the world at the Aussie Millions the Betfair Poker Team are performing well.

Today John Tabatabai was crowned the Australian Head Up Champion taking home a cool AU $100,000 (£47,500) and a gold ring after beating American Alec Torelli heads up.

Sorel Mizzi will have been upset to miss the victory as he currently has a swearing bet ($500 a swear word) with Alec Torelli who no doubt let out a few expletives after losing 2-0 in the final

Following an initial mix up over chips where they were forced to re-start the first game despite John Tabatabai having an advantage he used his legendary powers of perception to bluff, grind and pressure his opponent into submission.

Torelli, who came second in the $10,000 head up championships last year at the WSOP was a formidable foe for the Welsh wizard, but after just over two hours he finally succumbed.

The final hand saw all the chips go into the middle with John holding Ah7h and Alec holding 10dkd. The flop landed perfectly for the Betfair pro as he saw not one but two sevens and a meaningless 9 pop out to make him trips and a firm favourite for the hand. A queen and an eight followed to make John the champion and record his first victory of 2009.

Fellow Betfair pro Sorel Mizzi (who was still competing in the Main Event) will have been upset to miss the victory as he currently has a swearing bet ($500 a swear word) with Alec Torelli who no doubt let out a few expletives after losing 2-0 in the final.

John Tabatabai went straight from his heads up game to rail his fellow Betfair Pros who are also performing admirably in the Main Event. At the close of Day Three Annette Obrestad is sitting on 807,000 chips (6th) whislt fellow Scandanavian and Betfair qualifier Annica Ivert continues to impress hovering around the 400,000 mark (15th). Sorel Mizzi is also in the final 28 having battled away all day to finish on 225,000 (22nd).

For more information please contact richard.bloch (at) betfair.com