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The 2010 Melbourne Poker Championships Main Event is heading towards a thrilling conclusion with a final table now formed that is full of Australia’s finest talents. The day belonged to Sydney young gun Brendon Rubie who dominated who enter tomorrow’s final table with the chip advantage.
Day 2 of the Main Event kicked off with 206 of the 590 starters still in contention for the title. The action was fast and furious with the likes of Tamara Volkoff, Billy “The Croc” Argyros, Jim Mastorakos, Tony Hachem, Grant Levy and defending champ Todor Kondevski all falling in the early stages.
Things went a little better for Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis who brought his Full Tilt “run-good” to the tables of the Crown Poker Room after cracking his opponent’s pocket aces, not once, but twice in preflop clashes. First the Dong worked some magic with his 
to river a straight and a little later in the day spiked a two-outer with his pocket tens, to leave his opponents wondering what they have to do to defeat the online sensation.
As play headed towards the money bubble for the final 54 places, there were quite a few interesting moments for players, with none bigger than Brendon Rubie’s bluff on Minh Nguyen. Here’s how PokerNetwork’s own LandoCalrisian described the action in the Live Reporting blog:
“Only moments after the clock had been paused for hand-for-hand play, a very interesting hand played out between Brendon Rubie and Minh Nguyen.
The action folded around to Rubie who raised to 16,000 from the cut-off pre-flop, only to see Nguyen three-bet it to 45,000 from the button.
Rubie four-bet and made it 101,000 to go, but Nguyen five-bet it to 170,000. That didn't stop Rubie, who fired out a six-bet worth 241,000!
The crowd that gathered around the table "oohed" and "aahed" with every bet they fired out, before Nguyen called, only to insta-fold after Rubie open-shoved for 300,000 on the flop of 
.
Rubie smiled and rolled up 
for nothing but air, much to the delight of the crowd, who should now watch out for him, as he's now up to a massive 940,000 in chips!”
When Dean Urquhart became the bubble boy, the remaining 54 players headed to a dinner break happy to be $2,360 wealthier. When play resumed, some of the notable cashes included Karl Krautschneider (52nd), Billy Seri (43rd), Michael Matthews (42nd), Karib Karib (35th) and Kristian Lunardi (31st).
The run of Karamalikis ended in 19th place when his 
failed to improve against the pocket sevens of Minh Nguyen, while Sam Khouiss (18th), Nali Kaselias (17th), Omer Silajdzija (15th), Martin Cardno (14th) and Ali Ghezelbash (12th) all fell short of the final table.
By 3am local time, the final table of ten had been set and features a star-studded lineup that includes Jarred Graham, Mark Iskander, Andrew Scarf and “The Poker Star” herself Amanda De Cesare. Brendon Rubie is out in front, but it won’t be easy as the quest to crown Australia’s newest champion will be on! Join the PokerNetwork Live Reporting Team from 2pm on Monday afternoon for all of live updates as the 2010 Melbourne Poker Championships reaches an exciting conclusion!
Final Table Lineup:
Seat 1: Brendon Rubie - 2,039,000
Seat 2: Brian Boyle - 1,563,000
Seat 3: Michael Spilkin - 1,678,000
Seat 4: Jarred Graham - 1,750,000
Seat 5: Sam Vakili - 633,000
Seat 6: Mark Iskander - 1,423,000
Seat 7: Amanda De Cesare - 261,000
Seat 8: Andrew Scarf - 1,235,000
Seat 9: Rob Salter - 684,000
Seat 10: Minh Nguyen - 570,000
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