The 2014 Aussie Millions is beginning to come to its conclusion as, on Sunday, the Main Event champion was determined and, back on Saturday night, the $100,000 Challenge came to a conclusion.
Aussie Millions Main Event
A strong group of contenders came to the final table on Sunday afternoon at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, looking to take home the latest title of one of international poker’s biggest events. Starting the day off, Ami Barer held almost a 2.75 million chip lead over his closest competitor, Vincent Rubianes, but two men behind them drew much of the attention. Looking for his best Aussie Millions Main Event finish ever, Sorel Mizzi was stalking the duo in third and 2012 WSOP “November Niner” Jake Balsiger was close behind him. Darren Rabinowitz, Andrew Phaedonos and a short stacked Scott Seiver rounded out the table as the cards hit the air.
Even though he was short, Seiver didn’t seem to want to leave the land Down Under very quickly. It would take three hours before he became the first elimination after he lost a race situation (with pocket eights) against Rabinowitz’ A-10 and an Ace came on the flop. Phaedonos dropped from the proceedings a bit after that, his suited Q-J bumping into Mizzi’s pocket Kings to push Mizzi to the lead, and Rabinowitz came back to crush Rubianes K-J with pocket Aces to bring the action to four handed play.
Mizzi seemed to be in control of the final table at this point, holding more than twice as many chips as Rabinowitz and almost three times the stacks of Balsiger and Barer, but the day was only halfway over. It would take another two hours before a clash between Rabinowitz and Barer would change the course of the tournament.
After Rabinowitz opened the action to 240K, Barer three bet him and Rabinowitz moved all in. Barer immediately called, tabling his leading pocket nines against Rabinowitz’ pocket fives, but now he had to fade five cards. A J-4-2 flop was innocent enough, but a six on the turn brought a few more outs for Rabinowitz. He would miss either his five or three when an Ace hit the river, sending him home in fourth and shooting Barer to the lead with more than nine million chips.
Barer extended that lead in administering a bad beat on Balsiger thirty minutes later. With all of Balsiger’s chips in the center, his pocket Kings were out in front of Barer’s A-10. A 9-8-7 flop opened some more doors for Barer, but a five on the turn wasn’t one of them. When the six came on the river, it gave both men a straight; Barer’s ten, however, gave him a bigger one than Balsiger to cruelly knock Balsiger out in third place.
Barer started the heads up match with Mizzi with a better than 2:1 lead and quickly moved to fortify it. Within an hour of action, Barer held 15.79 million chips to Mizzi’s 4.25 million and Mizzi seemed to never find any offense against Barer’s assault. His frustration came to a head on the final hand when, after a Barer raise, he moved all in and Barer nearly beat him into the pot with the call. Tabling his pocket Aces, Barer was in a hugely dominant position over Mizzi’s Q-8. A flop of 2-K-2 had Mizzi looking for Queens or eights, but the turn three left him drawing dead. To add insult to injury, another Ace came on the river to give Barer a full house and the Aussie Millions Main Event championship.
1. Ami Barer, $1,600,000
2. Sorel Mizzi, $1,000,000
3. Jake Balsiger, $650,000
4. Darren Rabinowitz, $450,000
5. Vincent Rubianes, $335,000
6. Andrew Phaedonos, $250,000
7. Scott Seiver, $170,000
$100,000 Challenge
The action that had already occurred on Friday in the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge was dizzying enough, but Saturday brought it to another level. After 40 men generated 67 entries into the rebuy event, another nine players stepped up for either their first shot (such as Mizzi and Seiver, on their day off from the Main Event) or to fire another bullet. Those men came in and joined 22 others in a search for a champion.
The newcomers to the tournament weren’t treated very well, to say the least. Seiver and Gus Hansen both left within minutes of the opening gun and Isaac Haxton, who was in for his sixth bullet in this tournament, joined them when Patrik Antonius’ pocket Queens beat his Big Slick. Mizzi dropped at the hands of defending World Champion Ryan Riess, who also sent Tony Bloom home on the same hand. Finally, Tom Dwan eliminated Marvin Rettenmaier when Dwan’s pocket tens held up against Rettenmaier’s A-K.
As this action went down, the prize pool was announced for the tournament. The 76 entries generated a $7.486 million prize pool that the final eight men would divvy up amongst themselves. The champion of the tournament would walk away with a stunning $2 million payday.
It would take nine hours to get to the eight handed final table but, once Doug ‘WGCRider’ Polk’s A-K caught Fabian Quoss’ pocket tens on an K-7-Q-6-8 board, the table was set with Polk in the lead. The real story was Daniel Negreanu, who was in for five buy-ins in the tournament and needed to at least make it to sixth place to make back his $500K in expenditures. After Martin Jacobsen (eighth) and David Steicke (seventh) were eliminated, Negreanu had survived to make back his money (he would go in sixth at the hands of Mike McDonald).
Down to five players, McDonald’s elimination of Negreanu moved him back to the lead but only by 300K chips over Yevgeniy Timoshenko. He extended that lead in knocking off Antonius in fifth while Erik Seidel put his name in the race for the title by eliminating Polk in fourth. The chips that Seidel earned in that pot soon went to Timoshenko, however, when he doubled through Seidel. When he eliminated Seidel a few hands later, Timoshenko went to heads up with McDonald with a 200K chip lead.
Timoshenko took control of the heads up match nearly immediately. He would push McDonald down to a 5:1 deficit but McDonald would fight back. He never was able to take the lead from Timoshenko and, on the final hand, called off his chips against a Timoshenko all in. With his 10-7, McDonald was in difficult shape against Timoshenko’s K-Q as the flop came down 6-5-2. An eight on the turn opened more opportunities for McDonald, but it wasn’t to be. A three on the river kept Timoshenko in the lead and earned him the championship.
1. Yevgeniy Timoshenko, $2,000,000
2. Mike McDonald, $1,500,000
3. Erik Seidel, $1,076,000
4. Doug Polk, $860,000
5. Patrik Antonius, $700,000
6. Daniel Negreanu, $550,000
7. David Steicke, $450,000
8. Martin Jacobson, $350,000
There is still one more bit of business to finish before the book is closed on the 2014 Aussie Millions. The $250,000 Challenge is underway as we speak at the Crown Casino and will play to a champion by tonight in Australia (morning time in the United States). The prize pool for the tournament was a shocking $11,270,000 from the 46 entries the tournament drew and the eventual champion walks off with a stunning $4 million first place prize.