He outplayed 134 rivals over six days to take home the 2009 NZPT Queenstown-Skycity Alpine Adventure trophy.
Mr Chevalier said the win was "fantastic".
He lived ran day spas in Queenstown for 11 years before moving back to his home town of Melbourne last November.
Mr Chevalier credits his love of poker to his grandmother Regine, who died last year aged 99.
"I play high-stake cash games, so tournaments [like this] are like the icing on the cake."
Mr Chevalier won a preliminary event and came seventh in another during the 2009 Melbourne Poker Championships.
He was "thrilled" about his Queenstown win.
"Queenstown is my second home and it was like playing in front of my home crowd . . . it was like a dream," he said.
Mr Chevalier said he was lucky to survive the first round.
"I was going backwards all day and played to survive," he said.
He went into the second round with only $13,000 in chips but turned that into $185,000 for the final.
"I shifted gears and played aggressively.
"It was boom or bust."
Mr Chevalier said he would be returning to defend his title next year.
He took the title from another Australian, Andrew Hinrichsen, with a 7 and ace of hearts giving him a nut flush.
Mr Hinrichsen took home $57,285 for second place.
Glen Maiden (Queenstown) finished third, winning $33,165, and another resort player, John Guthrie, came sixth, winning $15,075.
Former Queenstown mayor David Bradford finished ninth taking home $6030.
The final table began with nine players left from an original starting field of 134 battling for a total prize pool of over $300,000.
More than 40 of the starting field were from Queenstown, and six of the final nine were New Zealand-based players.
Other players in the tournament came from Australia, Argentina, Germany, the United States, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Observers said the tournament attracted a world-class field, including international professionals such as Eric Assadourian, Grant Levy, Celina Lin, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh and New Zealand-based Lee Nelson.
Skycity Queenstown executive manager Michelle Baillie said having such a "remarkable" tournament in Queenstown would put the resort on the world poker tournament map.
