Russian Prodigy Defeats Poker Icon to Win Aussie Millions
Monday, 21 January 2008
The final table showed us what makes poker the game it is today.
Seven players, ranging from a former car salesman to an icon of the
game and who came so close to being World Champion.
The final table showed us what makes poker the game it is today.
Seven players, ranging from a former car salesman to an icon of the
game and who came so close to being World Champion. All of them had
a chance to win $1.65m and the Aussie Millions title – the stuff
that poker dreams are made from.
The man who harboured the greatest hopes must have been Michael
Chrisanthopoulos, starting the day with nearly half of the chips in
play. Standing in his way were six others striving to win
themselves, one of those being none other than Eric Seidel.
The chip stacks at the start of the final table were as
follows:
Seat 1: Alexander Kostritsyn - 1,439,000
Seat 2: Peter Mobbs - 1,357,000
Seat 3: Antonio Casale - 1,995,000
Seat 4: Erik Seidel - 1,491,000
Seat 5: Nino Marotta - 1,649,000
Seat 6: Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 6,806,000
Seat 7: Peter Ling - 877,000
With so many even stacks (bar Chrisanthopoulos), you might have
expected the early pace to come from the chip leader himself, but
the early move came from Peter Mobbs. Opening the pot with As-Js
and then re-raising Kostritsyn before all the chips made their way
to the middle, Mobbs would have felt like he overplayed his hand a
little when he saw his opponent’s Ad-Ks. Spiking a Jack on the flop
soon changed hi mood though, before a King on the turn sent him
spiralling to the rail.
Local favourite Casale was next out, running pocket jacks into
Kostritsyn’s pocket aces. No jack for the Crown Casino regular, and
he was out in sixth. Marotta was next out in fifth, before the
action finally slowed.
Four handed play was tough, with two hours passing before a
major pot brewed. Ling and Chrisanthopoulos got all the chips in
the middle on a Ac-Kc-Th, but Ling’s A-5 was dominated by
Chrisanthopoulos flopped top two pair. No improvement saw Ling pack
up and leave Australia $500,000 richer.
Chrisanthopoulos then fell in third, leaving Seidel and
Kostritsyn to battle it out heads-up. The final hand came after a
couple of hours play between the two, with Seidel check raised all
in on a flop of Jd-8s-7s. Seidel made the call with As-Qc against
Kostritsyn’s Jh-9h. Seidel’s hand didn’t improve, leaving
Kostritsyn as the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event champion.