888 Poker Pro For A Year Winner is Luke Abolins

The website 888 started a tournament series at the beginning of last year titled Poker Pro For A Year. It would be a series of events in a series of six that would eventually name a player who would get to live as a poker pro for one year. The site hosed 12 large freerollls and 50 League events throughout the year to lead up to the main event. The final event for the series took place on January 7th 2008. The Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia was the place to be and the ten finalists began playing for their chance to be the pro for a year.

The event began in the early afternoon and would last six hours. The first player to be eliminated would come after a little over an hour. Massimo went all in after several checks and a few raises. He had an ace but Robert Price paired his Jacks and Massimo was out.

The next player to go out would be Robert Ritchie. He would go all in with A-10 but would lose to Luke who at pocket Queens. A while later Martin Page would go all in with pocket 8s and was called by Ilja who had A-K. The flop came A-K-3 with the turn and river giving no help to Page sending him out in 8th place.
Robert Price would be next when he went all in with A-J against Carlo Carione who called with A-Q. The board came and Carione paired his Q sending Price home. Just minutes later Andrew would be knocked out by Kairit who paired his Ace. He then went all in again with an Ace only to be beat by Carlo who had pocket 7s. Kairit would go home in fourth place.

Going home in third place would be Jo Abolins. With 10-8 against Luke's J-8, Abolins would get no help from the board and took home a $1,000 prize of online tournaments at Pacific Poker. Heads-up play would then begin between Luke Abolins and Carlo Carione. In the beginning they both were pretty event in chips. After only two hands Carlo would go all in with pocket 3s and Luke called with K-10. The turn gave Luke another 10 and sealed his victory.

Luke won a package that provides the buy-ins for four major tournaments in 2008. His accommodations, expenses and flights to the events will all be paid for. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a player and Luke is sure to reap the rewards.