By Sean Callander

The sunny skies of the past few days have given way to grey skies outside, but the spotlights are beaming inside the Star Theatre at Star City Casino in Sydney, Australia, where the PokerStars.net APPT has taken over the stage of this massive room.

It’s the business end of the first PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final, which started four days ago with 561 players but just nine players remain in the race for the $1 million first prize.

No Australian player has even won a $1 million prize on home soil before, but a trio of hometown heroes – Grant Levy, Jai Kemp and Lei He – will be hoping to become the first to do so. Lei He is best placed, holding the chip lead on 2,623,000.

Next chip position, just 22,000 behind Lei He, is Sol Bergren from Saskatchewan in Canada on 2,601,000. The final table also includes four Americans – John Vinsant, Larry Wright, John Matwey and Barry Kohlhoff, who promises to be a real livewire at the final table. Vijayan ‘VJ’ Nagarajan from Malaysia makes up the final nine players.

Star City Casino in Sydney is the final venue on the first APPT, which has been a resounding success. More than 1300 players have participated in the four tour events – Manila, Seoul and Macau – putting poker on the map in these countries and introducing millions of Asians to the thrill of tournament poker. Today’s final table and the crowning of the APPT Grand Final champion promises to be yet another highlight for the tour. We look forward to brining you all the action over the next few hours.

• Seat 1: Lei ‘oshapimasian’ He (Australia) 2,623,000
  Seat 2: Grant Levy (Australia) 1,052,000
  Seat 3: Larry ‘ldw1971’ Wright, (USA) 376,000
  Seat 4: Jeremiah ‘Believer82’ Vinsant (USA) 1,649,000
  Seat 5: Vijayan ‘the_rotter77’ Nagarajan (Malaysia) 641,000
  Seat 6: John ‘wymat’ Matwey (USA) 498,000
  Seat 7: Jai ‘Sydney St@r’ Kemp (Australia) 461,000
  Seat 8: Sol ‘shahmat’ Bergren (Canada), 2,601,000
  Seat 9: Barry ‘coolbear’ Kohlhoff (USA) 647,000

Payouts:

• 1 $1,000,000
• 2 $621,540
• 3 $322,280
• 4 $230,200
• 5 $158,830
• 6 $115,100
• 7 $92,080
• 8 $69,060
• 9 $46,040