Bluff Europe Weekend Round-Up – Aussie Millions
Monday, 1 February 2010
Well, the Aussie Millions is done for 2010. In the end, 20 different tournaments offered an eight figure total prize pool, including $7,460,000 on offer for those who cashed in the $10,500 Main Event. This week’s Bluff Europe round-up is an Aussie special – Phil Ivey hit the top spot of the tournament leaderboard, the title stayed on home soil and Annette_15 made a tidy profit. Here is a summary of all the tournaments, with all values in Australian Dollars (around £0.56):
Event 1: $1,100 NLHE (1,143 entrants) – Matthew Ephraums ($200,025)
Event 2: $550 PokerPro NLHE (90 entrants) – Andrew Hinrichsen ($12,825)
Event 3: $1,100 LHE (90 entrants) – Simon Morris ($25,650)
Event 4: $1,100 PLO (160 entrants) – Annette Obrestad ($40,000)
Event 5: $1,650 NLHE w/bounties (381 entrants) Jonathan Karamalikis ($122,700)
Event 6: $1,100 HORSE (91 entrants) John Joannou ($27,300)
Event 7: $1,150 NLHE w/rebuys (108 entrants) Simon Watson ($129,920)
Event 8: $100,000 NLHE challenge (24 entrants) Dan Shak ($1,200,000)
As big tournaments go, this is pretty damn huge. The $100,000 AUD buy-in works out at almost ten times larger than the World Series of Poker Main Event and five times greater than the WSOP Europe buy-in.
The small field is unsurprising, neither is the fact that it was packed with quality. Team Full Tilt were out in force but Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, John Juanda and Tom “durrrr” Dwan all hit the rail before the top five spots that offered at least a break-even tournament.
In the end Dan Shak defeated Phil Ivey heads-up to take down the tournament and $1.2m, but Ivey made his way to the top of the All Time Tournament Money list with a $600,000 AUD score.
Event 9: $10,000 NLHE main event (746 entrants) Tyron Krost ($2,000,000)
746 players competed in the 2010 Aussie Millions main event, with a final table featuring tournament legend Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad and online player Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi.
Australian local Tyron Krost destroyed the final table, overcoming Mizzi’s seemingly insurmountable chip lead and sending home Obrestad – among others – to steamroll his way to the title and earn a tidy $2,000,000 AUD paycheque for his efforts.
Event 10: $550 PokerPro NLHE Shootout (82 entrants) – Peter Vratsidis ($11,480)
Event 11: $550 PokerPro Omaha 8 (63 entrants) – Eugene Portlen ($9,765)
Event 12: $550 PokerPro Seven-Card Stud (25 entrants) – Leo Boxell ($5,500)
Event 13: $5,300 Australian Heads-Up Championship (50 entrants) – Kyle McMurphy ($75,000)
Reigning champion John Tabbatabi received a bye in the first round of this heads-up tournament but that didn’t save him – on Day 1a out of dozens of heads-up matches only four players advanced to the final eight: Andrew Lichtenberger, Barry Woods, Martin Gudvangen and DeucesCracked instructor Vanessa Selbst finished on top. They were joined by the four finalists from Day 1b; Kyle McMurphy, Brian Roberts, Darren Woods and Andrew Seidman.
McMurphy came out on the better side of a coinflip in the last hands, his Ad-Td beating the pocket deuces of opponent Barry Woods. The next hand saw Woods move his less-than-big-blind stack in with K2o and lose out to McMurphy’s J7 with a rivered jack.
Event 14: $1,100 NLHE Team Event (109 entrants) – Mel Judah/Mick Guttmann ($30,520)
Event 15: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (26 entrants) – Erik Seidel ($120,000)
Erik Seidel secured his 22nd career tournament win with his first place finish in the $10,500 PLO event. The 40-year-old Full Tilt Pro and multiple WSOP bracelet-winner bested a small but tough field to claim the crown of PLO champion at the 2010 Aussie Millions.
Seidel beat a field including Chris Ferguson, Richard Ashby, Jeff Lisandro and Ross Boatman before seeing off Mick Guttmann in the heads-up stages with a straight against two pair and a busted flush draw.
Event 16: $1,100 No-Limit Hold ‘em (248 entrants) – Vincent Van Der Fluit ($53,816)
Event 18: $10,500 H.O.R.S.E. (27 entrants) – David Bach ($102,600)
The reigning $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. WSOP champion took on the WSOP Player of the Year as Jeff Lisandro, winner of three Stud bracelets in 2009 (R.S.E., as a matter of fact) took on David Bach heads-up for the $10,500 H.O.R.S.E. event at this year’s Aussie Millions.
Richard Ashby lost out on a title as he left in third place so it was down to Lisandro and Bach to do battle for the championship. At first, Lisandro was eating into Bach’s formidable chip lead but Bach didn’t take down the most prestigious H.O.R.S.E. event in the world on pure luck. He fought back and delivered the death blow in Stud with trip threes. Lisandro might be the best Stud player in the world but even he can’t control the cards when all the money is in the middle.
Event 19: $2,200 6-max NLHE (245 entrants) – Kristian Lunardi ($118,580)
Event 20: $550 NLHE Turbo (250 entrants) – Roland Hawkins ($28,875)