Congratulations Kiavash Arbabi and James Broom, our 2020 APL Million Champion and Runner Up!
After a marathon four days of play and an intense final table we would like to congratulate Kiavash “Kia” Arbabi for taking out the fourth APL Million. Kia edged out fellow Sydneysider James Broom to take home $315,000 cash!
Kia was thrilled with the win. “I’m feeling very happy,” he told APL Ambassador Jackie Glazier after the win. “For the first time in a big tournament I just finished the job. I’m proud of myself.” Kia had some great support on the rail. “I just want to thank my wife; it was a great pleasure having Dad watching on. It means a lot.”
Our runner up James Broom is no stranger to the APL Million Final Table. James placed fifth in the 2018 APL Million and walked away with $52,000. This year he was well prepared to go deeper, telling Jackie pre event, “I’m feeling quite relaxed, I’ve had a good breakfast and a walk.” By the end of the day James’ focused preparation saw him take the Runner Up trophy and $185,000 cash!
The fourth APL Million saw 1,404 players smash last year’s record of 1,294. The huge number of players meant we gave away $1,755,000 for the tournament. This was the biggest league based prize pool in the world with the top 144 players taking home at least $2,500 in cash!
The APL Million Series, which included the Main Event and ten side events, saw an incredible prize pool of over $3,000,000 given away!
Although only one could walk away with the coveted APL Million trophy, every player in attendance enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with friends from around the country and make new friends while enjoying all the hospitality on offer at The Star.
With the final table confirmed by Sunday evening there was a great consolation prize waiting for those knocked out, as players made their way to 24/7 Sports Bar for a night of fun and a great DJ Bingo tournament hosted by AFL icon Warwick Capper.
Sunday saw the anticipation build with nine players returning to chase a share of over $1,000,000 being distributed on the Final Table. The Final Table was streamed via Twitch and had players all around Australia tuning into the action.
It got down to two, with the New South Welshmen Kiavash and James, going head to head. After seven hours of final table play we got down to this incredible hand:
James opened to 800K with As Qh and was called by Kia with Qd Jh. Kia managed to flop a straight as the Kc 10h As appeared on the board and he checked. James, as the originally aggressor in the hand bet 500K and was called by Kia. The turn produced the 9s and Kia checked. James bet 2M and Kia made it 5M. James called the additional 3M unaware he had 3 outs. The 3h came down which didn’t help James.
Kia postured before going All In which sent James into the tank for about 10 minutes. Kia had James covered so he took his time as he verbally ran through many different scenarios to try and work out what Kia held.
The twitch stream lit up with comments from all around the country as several thousand people nervously awaited James’ call. Kia was stone cold at the other end of the table, giving nothing away.
James eventually convinced himself to call and both players flipped their cards. The shrieks of delight were heard from Kia’s camp as they realised he had flopped the nuts and just won himself $315,000!
Well done to Kia and James for putting on such a show!
Congratulations also to APL Gold Coast regular Josh Norvack who celebrated his 20th birthday with a fourth place. Josh went home $105,000 richer, a happy birthday indeed!
On behalf of Full House Group and the APL community we would like to thank everyone at The Star for hosting an unforgettable week and a half of poker. It was one that will go down in Australian poker history.
Good luck to everyone out there trying to qualify for the 2021 APL Million. Let’s see if we can break even more records next year!
2020 APL Million Final Table
1 Kiavash Arbabi $315,000
2 James Broom $185,000
3 Luke Collins $138,000
4 Josh Norvock $105,000
5 Ben Zhang $80,000
6 Bradley Tojic $62,000
7 John Camilleri $48,000
8 Gary Mills $37,500
9 Scott Wilson $30,000
