Poker Web Watch / Dave Allan / 22 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Betfair Pro John Tabatabai landed the Australian Heads Up Championships at the Aussie Millions on Thursday evening beating Alec Torelli 2-0 in the final winning AU$100,000.

An early casualty in the Main Event, his departure certainly didn't dent his confidence as the Welshman came through Wednesday's knockout stages to meet Chris Moorman's former mentor David Gent in the semi-final of the AU$5,300 buy-in event.

After Gent had levelled the tie at one apiece the decisive hand came when Tabatabai made a flush on the river to get the better of Betfair qualifier Gent's top pair.

The popular Tabatabai completed his victory when his pair of fours held up against Gent's pre-fold shove holding K9o.

His opponent in the final was Alec Torelli who had finished runner-up in the $ 10,000 WSOP Heads Up No Limit Hold'em in 2008 and came into this contest on the back of two heads-up victories in his native US in December.

However, Tabatabai soon took control of the tie going one-up when the turn of a King meant he held sway over Torelli's pocket Eights.

The key hand came just ten minutes later when Tabatabai caught a Nine on the flop making his A9o hole cards far stronger than Torelli's A10o who received no help on the turn and river.

Tabatabai was AU$100,000 richer a little over half an hour later when flopping trip 7's to land the title and an Aussie Millions Gold Ring.

His win may just fire up his Betfair colleagues Annette Obrestad and Sorel Mizzi who are both nicely placed in the Main Event while Betfair qualifier Annica Ivert continues to astound and at the time of writing is sitting in fourth place with 590,000 chips.

Check back later for more updates from the Aussie Millions on the Betfair Poker Blogs