Bryan Piccioli Wins First WSOP APAC Bracelet

The World Series of Poker Asia Pacific Event #1 has finished and poker history has been made. The first ever WSOP bracelet was handed out in Australia and it went to the American player Bryan Piccioli. The all new event type, the $1,100 'Accumulator' bet a seriously tough looking table to take first place and a cash out of $211,575. It was a great atmosphere at the final table with one Aussie in Jonathan Karamalikis being cheered along by plenty of his fellow countrymen, only to see him finish runner up in what was a fine display. Here's how it finished and a quick run down of how it all panned out at the final table....

Bryan Piccioli $211,575
Jonathan Karamalikis $130,743
Jay Loo $96,305
Jonathan Duhamel $71,870
Jeremy Ausmus $54,337
Graeme Putt $41,610
Iori Yogo $32,268
Peter Kleugden $25,335
Ryan Otto $20,138

Play began with two of the 9 players struggling from the off, and short stacked Ryan Otto and Peter Kleugden couldn't hold on for long and soon we were down to 7 players. Yogo went next and the in form player coming to the event on the back of the ANZPT Perth win finished in a commendable 7th place taking away over $32,000. Next to go was Graeme Putt in a rather bizarre hand that included an amazing pre flop which ended up with Karamalikis going in with way too much that he should have done. He was a lucky man that completed his straight on the river, and a not so amused Putt headed to the rails and it was down to just the 5. With some big players still left at the table, it was one of the biggest that went next. Jeremy Ausmus is no stranger to a big event final table as he made the grade at the WSOP 2012, but he was next to leave after getting in all sorts of trouble against Loo and Ausmus left in 5th place. Duhamel was still in the mix and looking for his second WSOP bracelet but this time he went out in fourth place as he was eliminated with Loo again doing the damage. Th Team PokerStars pro could do nothing against Loo's set of Queens and we headed to a 3 player field. Three handed play lasted over 2 hours as players traded chips with no-one running out into a lead, and it wasn't until Loo made a brave move that things picked up again. The brave move however back fired and there was absolutely nothing he could do against the full house of Piccioli. Loo left the table $96,305 better off and it was heads up time. Heads up play with Piccioli and the Aussie Karamalikis lasted around 2 hours with Piccioli holding the chip advantage and never letting the lead slip. On the final hand it looked as if Karamalikis could double his lead when Piccioli had him all in, however with a bucket full of outs going to the river, Piccioli hit the straight and made history. Playing online as 'theczar19' Piccioli has won over $5 million in his career, however this is by far his most important as a pro player. It's a WSOP bracelet and that's worth it's weight in gold. Karamalikis, in front of his home crowd won AUD$130,743, which isn't bad for 3 days work, however the day belonged to Piccioli.