The Aussie Millions, Southern Hemisphere’s biggest togel poker championship, kicked off at the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia last week on January 5th. Nine champions have already been crowned, and the Main Event’s day 1 starts on Monday. There are 16 events scheduled, and the 10,000 AUD Main Event features a guaranteed first prize of 1 million AUD.
The events started with a 1,100 AUD No Limit Holdem tournament which was played over two days and had total prize pool of 537,000 AUD. Vincent Wan, a Melbourne native, battled Michael “Timex” McDonald heads up and emerged victorious, winning a handsome 142,302 AUD first prize. McDonald received 85,920 for his second place finish. The heads up match was in no way easy to win; it lasted for over 60 hands and the lead was traded back and forth a number of times before things were said and done. Wan eventually won with JJ after managing to get McDonald’s stack in the middle with A8o.
Event #1 results:
1) Vincent Wan (142,302 AUD)
2) Mike “Timex” McDonald (85,920 AUD)
3) Peter Pratis (56,385 AUD)
4) Justin Gendle (40,275 AUD)
5) Jovan Scekic (29,535 AUD)
6) Yevgeniy Timoshenko (21,480 AUD)
7) Alex Luck (16,110 AUD)
8 ) John Georges (12,888 AUD)
9) Con Cotsomitis (10,203 AUD)
10) Kalan Shuttlewood (7,787 AUD)
Event two was a 1,100 AUD Pot Limit Holdem tournament, attracting a 189 field and also played over two days. Chris Chronis, an Australian fashion designer, made a late run on Day 1 and went from 6,000 chips to 195,500 chips, which was good for the Day 1 chip lead. He finished in a fairy-tale like fashion, making it to the final table where he dominated and eventually took home a 60,398 AUD first prize.
Event #2 results:
1) Chris Chronis (60,398 AUD)
2) David Gorr (35,910 AUD)
3) Sam Youssef (20,790 AUD)
4) Anna Wroblewski (15,120 AUD)
5) Harris Pavlou (11,340 AUD)
6) Richard Sera (9,450 AUD)
7) Jonathan Karamalikis (7,560 AUD)
8 ) Manny Stavropoulos (5,670 AUD)
9) Alex Keating (3,780 AUD)
10) Paul Taylor (2,363 AUD)
Event three featured Limit 7C Stud, 7C Stud Hi-Lo, and Razz, which attracted 96 partipants for 550 AUD each. This unique tournament rotated between the three stud games, allowing 40 minutes for one before switching to another. Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, a familiar name to the Aussie Millions, took the chip lead with three tables left, dominated the final table, and ended up winning the 16,800 AUD first prize.
Event #3 results:
1) Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (16,800 AUD)
2) Graeme Putt (16,800 AUD)
3) Emmanuel Sideridis (5,760 AUD)
4) Jared Bottroff (4,800 AUD)
5) Rich Holmes (3,840 AUD)
6) Jethro Horowitz (2,880 AUD)
7) Trung Tran (2,400 AUD)
8 ) Sean McKenzie (1,920 AUD)
A two day Limit Holdem event was scheduled next, featuring a 1,100 AUD buy-in and a total prize pool of 123,000 AUD. James “Welcome Back” Potter ended Day 1 as the chipleader with almost one third of the total chips in his stack at the final table, but he couldn’t seal the deal. Jamie Pickering started Day 2 second in chips and ended up heads up with Potter, eventually emerging as the victor and winning 39,360 AUD. Potter still took received a nice 23,370 AUD for his second place effort.
Event #4 results:
1) Jamie Pickering (39,360 AUD)
2) James Potter (23,370 AUD)
3) Simon Morris (13,530 AUD)
4) Ivan Sop (9,840 AUD)
5) David Lacchia (7,380 AUD)
6) Jim Sachinidis (6,150 AUD)
7) Ben Edwards (4,920 AUD)
8 ) Michael Lipari (3,690 AUD)
9) Martin Cardno (2,460 AUD)
10) Marc Goodwin (1,538 AUD)
The championship’s first rebuy tournament was scheduled for event five, a 1,150 AUD buy-in with 1,000 AUD rebuys. 150 participants generated a prize pool of 536,000 AUD, the largest so far in the tournament, and many well-known pros battled it out during this two day event. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst ended Day 1 with the chiplead, but he was unable to take it all the way and ended up busting out in 10th place. A popular local player, Michael Pedley, took home first prize, capturing the event and 168,320 AUD while surrounded by friends and family.
Event #5 results:
1) Michael Pedley (168,320)
2) Robert Wang (99,940 AUD)
3) Larry Karambis (57,860 AUD)
4) Rayan Nathan (42,080 AUD)
5) Julian Powell (31,560 AUD)
6) David Steicke (26,300 AUD)
7) Anna Wroblewski (21,040 AUD)
8 ) David Bach (15,780 AUD)
9) Dane Lomas (10,520 AUD)
10) Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (6,575 AUD)
Event six was the unique bounty tournament. What is that you ask? Each starting table had one bounty player, and busting that player earned you 1,000 AUD cash. Once 32 players remained, the tournament became a shootout, advancing two players from each of the four remaining tables to create an 8 player final table. This bounty tournament had a 1,650 buy-in, 370 entrants, and a nice first prize of 155,400 which was won by a popular local player, Marlon Goonawardne. He had a big stack going into his heads up match versus Michael Binger, and he said after he won, “I did this for all the $2-5 donks out there!”
Event #6 results:
1) Marlon Goonawardne (155,400 AUD)
2) Michael Binger (88,060 AUD)
3) Steve Leonard (51,800 AUD)
4) David Kruger (41,440 AUD)
5) Ramy Tadros (31,080 AUD)
6) Josh Egan (23,310 AUD)
7) Jeppe Nielsen (17,094 AUD)
8 ) Kim Peart (11,396 AUD)
9) Greg Tomas (7,511 AUD)
10) Grant Levy (7,511 AUD)
Next up was another rebuy tournament, the 3,250 AUD Pot Limit Omaha with 3,000 AUD rebuys. It attracted 65 entrants and generated an impressive 516,000 AUD prize pool, awarding 180,600 to first place. Lee Watkinson, an Aussie Millions newcomer, won the event, bringing his career earnings playing Omaha to over $1 million dollars. He was victorious heads up versus Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, a familiar name to those who follow online poker. Dwan was dominant at the final table, but it wasn’t enough and he ended up taking second prize instead, which was still a nice 103,200 AUD.
Event #7 results:
1) Lee Watkinson (180,600 AUD)
2) Tom “Durrrr” Dwan (103,200 AUD)
3) Van Marcus (61,920 AUD)
4) Mike Sexton (51,600 AUD)
5) Mark Kassis (41,280 AUD)
6) Michael “Sticky” Guttman (30,960 AUD)
7) Lenny Barshack (20,640 AUD)
8 ) Jamie Pickering (15,480 AUD)
9) Max Pescatori (10,320 AUD)
Event eight was a 3,250 AUD buy-in for 2 Card Manila, which attracted only 10 people, much lower than the 32 people that entered last year. Atonis Kambouroglou won a tight heads up match versus Warwick Mirzikinian and took home 16,200 AUD for his efforts.
Event #8 results:
1) Atonis Kambouroglou (27,000 AUD)
2) Warwick Mirzikinian (16,200 AUD)
3) Yevgeniy Timoshenko (10,800 AUD)
The highly anticipated 100,000 AUD Holdem tournament was featured in event 9, attracting 25 players and generating a giant 2,500,000 AUD prize pool. This tournament was unique because the betting was Pot Limit before the flop and No Limit after the flop (except for heads up where it was No Limit preflop as well as postflop). Howard Lederer ended up winning, earning 1,250,000 AUD and outlasting several online and B&M pros. He really did ‘outlast’ them too; he had a short stack for most of the tournament and utilized a lot of patience before making a run for the win.
Event #9 results:
1) Howard Lederer (1,250,000 AUD)
2) Mark Teltscher (650,000 AUD)
3) Michael Sampoerna (350,000 AUD)
4) Jeff Lisandro (150,000 AUD)
5) Nikolaus Jedlicka (100,000 AUD)
Event 10, the 2,200 AUD PLH/Omaha/Omaha Hi-Lo tournament, is underway as I write this. The Main Event is still to come, so check the FTR blogs for more updates as the Aussie Millions continues and the prize pools get even larger!
