Aussie poker player wins $111,600

Australian poker player Minh Nguyen has won the Main Event of the 2014 New Zealand Poker Tour at Sky City Casino in Auckland tonight, earning $111,600. Photo / Pokernews.

Australian poker player Minh Nguyen has won the Main Event of the 2014 New Zealand Poker Tour at Sky City Casino in Auckland tonight, earning $111,600.

After 28 hours of play over three days, Nguyen outlasted 224 players that all paid $2,500 to enter the tournament, though the last few hands were played in rather unorthodox fashion.

When the tournament was whittled down to two players, Nguyen held a commanding 3-1 chip lead over 24-year old Kiwi poker professional Thomas Ward, but when the chip counts became even, both pros decided to make a private deal.

Instead of risking the giant $50,000 pay jump between first and second place, both players agreed that Ward would take home $104,000 while Nguyen would take $101,600, and they would play for an extra $10,000.

But instead of playing skillfully, both players decided to blindly go all-in for the title, and after four hands Nguyen was announced the winner.

Nguyen is a 26-year old from Brisbane and is well known as one of the best players in Australasia. He set up his biggest win to date by buiding a big stack around the bubble, then went on to amass chips by eliminating six players on the final table.

It was the second time that a non-Kiwi has won at an ANZPT Auckland or an APPT Auckland event.

The Main Event was the flagship event of the nine-day Festival of Poker series, which featured seven events and attracted players from all over the world.

Final table payouts:

1 Minh Nguyen $111,600
2 Thomas Ward $104,000
3 William Rogers $47,100
4 Jesse McKenzie $38,000
5 Sam Williams $31,500
6 Michael Guzzardi $26,500
7 Dean Blatt $21,500
8 Ben Rendall $16,500
9 Stephen Thompson $12,500