Afshin Behniya from Melbourne shipped the inaugural APL600 Sydney Main Event for a six-figure score of $125,955 + $100K Invitational Seat and APLM Seat along with the beautiful APL Trophy. Behniya who previously had live earnings of just under $50k has now crossed the $150k mark on Hendon Mob, along with his first live poker title.
The $600 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event saw 1,567 players across nine starting flights, which tripled the $250k GTD for a prize pool of $783,500. Of the massive turnouts, it was the top 162 finishers who collected a piece from the six-figure prize pool. Here is a recap of the 2025 APL600 Sydney Main Event final table.
2025 APL600 Main Event Final Table Recap
The final table kicked off with Behniya leading the Sydney-dominant table with over 22 million chips followed by Ling Liu, and Daniel Tolomeo. Table short Adnan Al-Maliki was the first to fall off the final table, he was out in 9th place, adding $12,535 to his earnings. Guillaume Morton followed Maliki in 8th place, banking $14,885.
Hong Xie was eliminated in 7th place for $17,235, and Victor Wang exited in 6th place, earning $20,370 to kick off a five-handed play. Liu who initially was the second in chip lead busted out in 5th place, pocketing $28,205. Yang Zhang who started the final table with a middling stack, did pretty well, finishing 4th to collect an impressive $41,605 payday.
During the three-handed play Linus Goh, Daniel Tolomeo, and Behniya struck a three-way ICM deal splitting the remaining payouts while confirming a payout of $84k. Linus Goh rounded out the podium collecting $84,000 and a seat at the 2025 APL Million.
After a back-and-forth battle between Tolomeo and Behniya, the tournament eventually came to an end when Behniya with pocket eights 3-bet from the BB, and Tolomeo went all-in holding ace-six of clubs. The board ran out 10d-Qc-Kh-4c-Qs holding up the eights of Behniya. Tolomeo collected $84,000 for his runner-up finish along with a seat at the 2025 APL Millions. Behniya, in addition to the six-figure payout and an APLM Seat, also received a $100k Invitational Seat.
2025 APL600 Sydney Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Rank | Player | Payout |
| 1st | Afshin ‘Andy’ Behniya | $125,955* |
| 2nd | Daniel Tolomeo | $84,000* |
| 3rd | Linus Goh | $84,000* |
| 4th | Yang Zhang | $41,605 |
| 5th | Ling Liu | $28,205 |
| 6th | Victor Wang | $20,370 |
| 7th | Hong Xie | $17,235 |
| 8th | Guillaume Morton | $14,885 |
| 9th | Adnan Al-Maliki | $12,535 |
Source – APL Facebook
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