2008 Victorian Poker Championships Day 16: Jay "Seabeast" Kinkade Wins Main Event Title!

Day 16 and the final day of the 2008 Victorian Poker Championships would see all eyes focussed on the final table of nine players who would return to the felt at 4pm to battle it out for the trophy and first place prize in excess of $200,000.
 
Sheldon Mayer (who prefers to simply be known as “Sheldon”) was the overnight chip leader and looked determined to be there at the death, as his anticipated loose style was curbed by the aggression of some of the other players at the table.
 
The short stack at the table was John Maron and he found and early double up through Tim Horan when he was fortunate when his made a flush against Horan’s . This left Horan on the short stack and he was eliminated soon after when he lost another race with against Tino Lechich’s to become out 9th place finisher.
 
An interesting pot developed in a multi-way pot on a board of . Minh Nguyen fired out a bet and was raised by Sheldon, sending Ben Delaney into the tank. He eventually folded with Nguyen calling. The was checked out and the of Nguyen was good as he cracked the one million chip mark. After the hand Delaney said that he folded which sparked much discussion from the table. Delaney was still considering what might have been when he found himself in a preflop race with against the of Jay Kinkade. A king on the river gave Kinkade the pot and left Delaney exiting in 8th place.
 
John Maron and Harris Pavlou started to get busy with their short stacks, but it was Maron who was unlucky not to double up when he flopped the nuts with on a flop of against Julian Powell’s . Needing an ace to split, an fell on the turn to the relief of Powell as they chopped the pot. Maron couldn’t recover from this disappointment, and soon after called the all in bet of Lechich on a flop of . Maron held but Lechich’s held on to take the pot and send Maron to the rail in 7th place.
 
Tino Lechich held the lead but it was Jay Kinkade to started to emerge as a genuine threat when his were too good for the of Harris Pavlou. The board bricked to leave Pavlou exiting in 6th place.
 
Kinkade was up to 1.6 million in chips and although Lechich was trying to stay in control, it was Kinkade’s aggression which collected him multiple blinds and antes with little contest.
 
Kinkade took a small hit when Powell doubled through, winning a race with against Kinkade’s but it was a rare moment of joy for Powell at this final table. As Kinkade continued to dominate, both pre and post-flop, Powell found a spot to make a stand by moving all in with but Kinkade made the call with . Powell couldn’t find any help and became our 5th place finisher.
 
Kinkade continued to pound of his opposition and when Minh Nguyen started to get short-stacked he made an all-in move with but the instincts of Kinkade knew he was in front as he instantly called with . Nguyen missed his three-outer and headed home in 4th place.
 
A tournament defining pot appeared to take place soon after when, in a battle of the blinds, Kinkade moved all in over the top of the opening raise from Sheldon. Sheldon made the call with and it held on to take the 2.6 million chip pot against Kinkade’s .
 
This gave Sheldon the lead and the momentum as it appeared that perhaps finally the beast had been tamed. However it didn’t take long for Kinkade to turn things around again. In another preflop race Sheldon’s were ahead of Kinkade’s until a king on the turn ended the run of Sheldon in 3rd place.
 
Kinkade held a healthy leads going into the heads-up battle with Lechich and it didn’t take long for the two aggressive players to get their chips into the middle. After Kinkade raised preflop, the two players got their chips in the middle on a flop of . Lechich held for top pair but Kinkade flipped for the overpair. The turn was the , reducing Lechich’s outs to just the last two nines in the deck. It wasn’t to be as the river fell the giving Lechich his third runner-up finish in the past three events, as Kinkade captured the title.
 
Jay “Seabeast” Kinkade cements his place in Australian poker history as he proves why he is rated the #1 online player in the country with a dominant win collecting $200,812 for his efforts. Congratulations Jay!
 
Final Table Results:
 
1st Jay 'Seabeast' Kinkade - $200,813
2nd Tino Lechich - $134,768
3rd Sheldon Mayer - $98,175
4th Minh Nguyen - $71,400
5th Julian Powell - $53,550
6th Harris Pavlou - $44,625
7th John Maron - $35,700
8th Ben Delaney - $26,775
9th Tim 'LuckyShades' Horan - $17,850
 
On behald of the PokerNetwork Live Reporting team we thank you for joining us throughout these championships. The next major event in Australia is the PokerNews Cup in Melbourne in October, but in the meantime we'll have updates from the APT and APPT events from Macau, Korea and New Zealand coming your way. Stat tuned to PokerNetwork.com for further tournament and satellite information to these events!