Eight players remained entering GSN’s coverage of the 2010 Aussie Millions High-Roller Event on Saturday night. The one-hour show, which airs at 9:00pm ET, features commentary from Paul Khoury and Grub Smith.
Four of the final eight were Americans, three were Aussies, and one was a Brit. With the blinds at 6,000/12,000, Full Tilt Poker front man Howard Lederer raised to 36,000 with A-10 and PartyPoker pro Tony G, who had been playing back at Lederer throughout the final table, made it 120,000 with pocket aces. Lederer moved all-in and Tony G snap-called. Lederer flopped a 10 to keep his tournament hopes alive, but a running 7-3 sent him to the rails in eighth place. Lederer took down the 2008 Aussie Millions High-Roller event for over $1 million.
Bill Jordanou doubled up with pocket kings against Tony G’s pocket jacks. Then, Tony Bloom doubled his stack at the expense of Full Tilt’s Dan Shak, who called Bloom’s all-in with A-4. Bloom held pocket tens and watched as the board ran out 2-K-5-6-9. Shak had a flush draw by the time the river was dealt, but could not hit it. Bloom promptly doubled once more, this time through PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, by sucking out on pocket kings with pocket jacks.
Shak was all-in with pocket eights and up against Jonathan Karamalikis’A-2. Karamalikis turned a deuce to make matters interesting, but he bricked the river to double up the dangerous pro. Karamalikis goes by the moniker “Monster Dong” online and, like many of his tablemates, is a sponsored pro of Full Tilt.
On a flop of 9-10-2, Karamalikis check-called a bet of 50,000 from Phil Ivey holding J-9 to see a four on the turn. Karamalikis once again checked and Ivey, who held A-10 for top pair, bet 145,000. Karamalikis tanked before eventually moving all-in. Ivey called and the river came a six, doubling up the eight-time bracelet winner. Smith remarked, “If there’s one person the rest of the table didn’t want to have chips in front of them, it’s Phil Ivey.” Ivey stacked one-third of the chips in play in the process.
Karamalikis’ exit came when he was all-in pre-flop with A-10 against Shak’s pocket nines and Tony G’s pocket sevens. When the flop came 6-4-3, Shak moved all-in for 196,000 and Tony G tossed in his time button to receive 30 extra seconds to act before finally folding. The board filled out 4-5 and Karamalikis, who was the chip leader when eight players remained, exited stage right in seventh place.
Crippled from the earlier kings versus jacks hand, Greenstein ultimately hit the rails in sixth place after running Q-10 into pocket kings. Then, Tony G was all-in with pocket tens against Shak’s A-K, setting up a race situation. Shak flopped top two pair and Tony G couldn’t catch up, hitting the rails in fifth place as the final casualty of the night.
Coverage of the 2010 Aussie Millions airs on Saturday nights at 9:00pm ET on GSN and repeats at Midnight ET as part of the network’s weekly poker block. Its Aussie Millions coverage originally featured almost exclusive coverage of Full Tilt pros, but has since expanded to include players like Greenstein and DoylesRoom’s Dani Stern that don the logos of competing online poker sites. Aussie Millions coverage will air until August 14th, when the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship replaces it.
The Aussie Millions High-Roller event features a mammoth buy-in of AUD $100,000, the equivalent of nearly USD $90,000 at today’s exchange rate. A top prize of AUD $1.2 million is on the line, with the runner-up receiving exactly half of that amount.