Jonathan Karamalikis , the man with the confidence to call himself ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ is a bulldozer of late, pushing bodies to the wrong side of the rail with the efficiency of the world’s busiest graveyard.
In October, Karamalikis started dropping guillotines in the Victorian Poker Championships in Melbourne, finishing 6/112 in an AUD 1,100 No-Limit Hold ’em event, before winning the 422-entrant AUD 2,300 Main Event for $136,604.
From the Crown Casino’s parking lot to the Star Sydney, and Karamalikis has done it again, finishing 20/203 in the AUD 5,000 Challenge at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Sydney, before taking down the 53-entrant AUD 20,000, AUD 1m GTD No-Limit Hold ’em High Roller for $258,350.
It’s Karamalikis’s most significant score since finishing runner-up to Patrick Leonard in the 2017 $10,400 Bellagio Cup – an event where the Australian pocketed most of the money after a deal ($523,343), and he didn’t have it easy.
The final table included some of the brightest bulbs lighting up the street lamps in the land of Australian poker. Michael Egan followed up his win in a $2,750 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the recently held World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia with a sixth-place finish. Qiang Fu followed up his third-place finish in 2018 with a fourth in this, and Roger Teska finished third. Teska won the 2018 MILLIONS World $25k for $2m, and recently won a WPT title, winning the WPT Gardens Festival in July for close to $400k.
The heads-up play fell between Karamalikis and Ryan Otto.
Otto has only two Hendon Mob scores on his resume. The first came in November 2019, when he won an NZD 3,500 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the Skycity Festival of Poker in Auckland, and now this. In contrast, Karamalikis was featuring in his 24th heads-up encounter, winning a smidgen over half.
Here are the ITM Results.
ITM Results
- Jonathan Karamalikis – $258,350
- Ryan Otto – $159,833
- Roger Teska – $104,718
- Qiang Fu – $72,338
- Mladen Vukovic – $53,048
- Michael Egan – $40,647
After posting his Sydney win, Karamalikis flew to Melbourne and made a deep run in Event #1: AUD 1,300 No-Limit Hold ’em Opening Event at the Aussie Millions, finishing 3/1665 in the AUD 1m GTD event, earning a further $87,282. Michael Egan followed him and finished fourth for $63,055.
It will be interesting to see if Karamalikis will return to Sydney to compete in the Australian Poker Open (APO). The Star Casino rolls out the red carpet for Poker Central for the first time, and once the APO is over, the AUD 250,000 Super High Roller Bowl Australia provides a fitting climax to a hectic month of poker in the land down under.