On May 3rd, Paren Arzoomanian from the Sydney suburb of Belrose beat out 492 poker hopefuls to become the inaugural PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Sydney Champion.

Pocketing $246,500 AUD Paren rockets up the points table in the ANZPT but is unable to catch Team PokerStars Australia player, Tony Hachem who has finished well up in the standings of the first two events of the season and sits atop the leader board.

The ANZPT Sydney event has also seen the biggest payout for an Australian woman in a poker tournament on home soil when mother of six, Lisa Walsh came second, winning $162,690.

Gold Coast resident Lisa is keenly awaiting her first grandchild was disappointed not be crowned champion but after a heads up battle lasting close to an hour she was unable to unsettle Paren who eventually took the title when his ace five was unable to be caught by Lisa’s king nine when the board came down jack, eight, eight, five, ace making two pair for Paren.

Searching for the next local Poker Star, the ANZPT is going to Australia and New Zealand’s leading casinos. The tour is league based which means there is a point system awarding players for every event they enter as well as for the position they finish in each tournament. The first season will run up until August this year.

Paren beat out a quality field with most notable being 6th place getter Billy ‘The Croc’ Arygros, one of Australia’s Hall of Fame. Billy came into the final table as the chip leader but was unable to keep up the momentum. He is a keen supporter of ANZPT and is looking forward to the next event which is due to held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino from May 25-27.

“This is a fantastic tournament to have won with such a strong field I am really proud to have negotiated my way through,’ said Paren. The software engineer and finance student from Belrose will be celebrating the victory with his retinue of supporters who were in strong voice throughout tonight’s final table.

The tournament started with 493 players generating a total prize pool in excess of $986,000. Some of Australia and New Zealand’s brightest poker players travelled to Sydney, including PokerStars Team Australia players; Emad Tahtouh, Eric Assadourian, Grant Levy, Tony Hachem and Celina Lin, all battling to become the winner of the biggest ANZPT event to date.

The final standings and monies earned in Australian dollars are as follows:
Points after two events:

1. $246,500 Paren Arzoomanian (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 67.4
2. $162,690 Lisa Walsh (Queensland, Australia) ANZPT points – 67.4
3. $93,670 John Caridad (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 67.4
4. $69,020 Chris Kittos (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 63.2
5. $55,709 Majed Haddad (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 60.4
6. $44,370 Billy the Croc Argyros (Victoria, Australia) ANZPT points - 69
7. $34,510 Joel Dodds (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 67.6
8. $24,650 James Newhan (NSW, Australia) ANZPT points – 56.2
9. $16,762 David Zhao (Victoria, Australia) ANZPT points – 54.8

TOTAL PRIZE MONEY $986,000 AUD