Andrew White Ssatta king qteals the Show in APO Heads

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Table Of Contents

• APO Heads Up Championship Results
• Winner's Reaction
• Final Day Recap

To win a heads-up match in poker, things generally have to go your way as edges are relatively small and variance can be high. To win fiveof them in a row is something special — and that's exactly what Andrew White did to become the Australian Poker Open Heads Up Champion.

Over the course of two days inside the extravagant Club Marconi at Doltone House Western Sydney, White defeated Georgina Vuksanovik, Craig Blight, Geetinder Singh, Ricardo Bono, and finally Tom McGuire to capture the title, trophy, and A$17,600 first-place prize.

"I never really felt at risk in any of my five matches," White said about his tournament experience. "I got the run of the cards in the first four matches for sure. The match against [Tom] was a bit more of a battle, but I was happy to get there."

White set the tone early, becoming the first person to win his opening-round match after just a few hands. With momentum on his side, White continued to control his matches with a deliberate and calculated approach. Impressively, White was never all in for his tournament life throughout his five matches as he always managed to retain at least one bullet in reserve.

As expected, his toughest match was in the finale, where White and Mcguire fought valiantly in a back-and-forth battle lasting longer than any match they had had to that point. In the end, however, White came out on top after an impressive display of heads-up prowess that will surely be a highlight moment in White's poker journey.

APO Heads Up Championship Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize ($A)
1	Andrew White	Australia	$17,800
2	Tom Mcguire	Australia	$12,900
3	Aaron Li	Australia	$6,350
4	Ricardo Bono	Australia	$6,350

Winner's Reaction

"I feel really good, actually," White said of his victory. "Obviously in heads up, you're gonna be against a lot of tougher players and the field from the outset looked pretty solid. It went really smoothly... I never really felt at risk literally in any of the five matches."

Cool and collected on the felt, it came as no surprise that White used to be a heads-up Sit n Go specialist back in his university days, "I'm a bit washed up now compared to a lot of these younger kids, though I used to play a lot of heads-up Sit n Gos in the early 2010s. I just felt this tournament was going to be really well suited to me and I'm just glad I could get the win," White explained.

During the final match, a turning point occurred after White pulled off a sick bluff with just nine-high — a hand that left Mcguire short stacked and ultimately led to White's victory.

"That was probably the most wild hand of heads up. I hadn't been too aggressive postflop against Tom. I just decided after he c-bet min on the flop that it was a spot where I was just gonna go for it... On the river, [Tom] went back and forth multiple times and I was like 'This is the really big hand of heads up.' From there on after he folded, it was a bit more smooth sailing."

Final Day Recap

None of the four semifinalists were shy about getting their chips into the middle, and it only took a couple of levels before both Mcguire and White had Li and Bono down to their last bullets.

Bono, who fell behind early and never able to recover, was the first to be eliminated after committing his stack with a king and running into White's dominating ace. Across the table, Li fared a little better after managing to double up through Mcguire with seven-deuce, but still found his way to the rail after both he and Mcguire flopped top pair. Li held an inferior kicker and was unable to improve to end his run in third place.

The pace of the final match was notably different from the others, as Mcguire and White felt each other out for the first couple of levels without much chip movement. Mcguire was able to grind out a decent lead until he paid off an overbet by White to get back to even.

At his high point, Mcguire took a 2:1 lead over White by flopping top pair against White's pair and flush draw. White committed his first bullet into the middle and Mcguire called and held up — forcing White to reload. However, White fired right back by doubling back to nearly even after making a flush against Mcguire two pair.

Mcguire fought back with a lot of preflop aggression and retook the lead after forcing several folds from White. Eventually, White caught Mcguire shoving with jack-ten against White's king-ten and Mcguire was forced to reload himself.

With all of Mcguire's chips in play, White successfully bluffed Mcguire in a huge pot and couldn't help but show in what was arguably the hand of the tournament.

A few hands later, White got tricky in a hand by slow-playing with ace-king. By the river, White held a pair of kings and shoved against Mcguire, who called after rivering a pair of queens to be eliminated in second place and put an end to the tournament.