In a rapid four-hour final table – after a four-day layoff for the Aussie Millions Main Event – Germany’s Fabian Quoss defeated the start of day chip leader Ben Tollerene to capture the championship of the $100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne on Saturday.
Tollerene was the massive leader coming into play, being the only one who was over the one million mark in chips with 1.522 million markers in front of him. Connor Drinan was the closest one to Tollerene with his 943,000 in chips and it appeared, at least at the start, that the other four men were simply playing for honor. Jason Mercier (508K), Quoss (478K) Sam Greenwood (458K) and Fedor Holz (192K) all needed some serious help if they were to work their way into contention.
Quoss would get that help on the very first hand dealt at the final table. Drinan raised the action out of the hijack with Big Slick and Quoss, sitting on his big blind, three bet with pocket Aces. As you might figure, the hand played itself out from there; Drinan pushed in the remainder of his stack, Quoss called and, following a Queen-high board, Quoss became the second place stack with 984,000 in chips while Drinan dropped to 465K. Five hands later, Drinan would get some of those chips back in eliminating the short-stacked Holz from the tournament.
The pace of play continued to be rapid as, only seven hands later, the next player would depart the scene. Now the short stack, Greenwood was forced into making some moves. He would chop a pot with chip leader Tollerene and lose a chunk to Quoss before his demise occurred. On Hand 12, Drinan would open up the betting from the cutoff and Greenwood moved all in from his small blind. Drinan, faced with the option of folding or taking out a dangerous opponent, opted to take a shot and called, showing a Q♣ 9♣ that was alive – but just barely – over Greenwood’s A♣ 2♣. All was good through the J-6-3-4 flop and turn, but the nine on the turn wasn’t what Greenwood wanted to see. With that card, his tournament was complete in fifth place and Drinan reached the 900,000 chip plateau.
That would be the apex of the day for Drinan, who was slinging chips from the drop of the flag on Saturday. Only six hands after knocking off Greenwood, Drinan let a decent sized pot go to Mercier when he couldn’t make the all-in call on the river against Mercier. Another seven hands after that, Mercier returned the favor in doubling up Drinan. One hand later, it would be all over for Drinan and it would provide Quoss with the chips he would use to win the championship.
After Quoss raised from the button. Drinan defended his big blind to see a 7♣ 10♦ J♣ flop. Drinan, sitting with a Q♣ 9♠ for the open-ended straight draw, opted to check his action over to Quoss in an attempt to trap. Quoss, unfortunately for Drinan, had the better end of the deal with his A♣ 2♣ for the lead and a better draw at the nut flush. He would bet 75K and, after Drinan made the call, the 9♣ landed on the turn. This brought another check-call out of Drinan into Quoss’ made nut flush, this time for 135K, and the river was devastating. A 6♣ put four clubs on the board and ramped up the action.
On the river, Drinan suddenly woke up and fired what he figured was a 165K value bet for his Queen-high flush. When Quoss came back all in against him, Drinan suddenly was left with a decision for his final 292,000 in chips. Using special time extension chips used at the Aussie Millions for players to contemplate difficult decisions, Drinan would use all but one SECOND before calling Quoss’ bet. When Quoss unveiled the turned nut flush, Drinan was out of the tournament as Quoss took a massive chip lead.
With two seven figure stacks ahead of him, Mercier did his best to stay in the game. He hung around for nearly 40 hands before Quoss was able to get a bit fortunate against him, his K-Q catching both ends by the turn against Mercier’s A♥ 8♥ flush draw, to bring the tournament down to heads up play with Quoss firmly in charge.
Tollerene would prove to be just as resilient as Mercier when it came to battling Quoss. Only seven hands into heads up action, Quoss had chopped Tollerene’s stack down to slightly more than 400K (nearly an 8.5:1 advantage), but just couldn’t seem to put Tollerene away. Within ten hands, Tollerene had reduced Quoss’ advantage to 3:1, but he never could quite get it back to even to truly make a battle out of the match.
On the final hand, Quoss moved all in from the button and, after a glance at his cards, Tollerene decided they were good enough to go home on. Quoss’ K-J held the edge against Tollerene’s J-10 and, once the board rolled out 6-5-4-5-5, Quoss’ K-J played over Tollerene’s holdings to give him the hand and the championship of the $100,000 Challenge.
1. Fabian Quoss, $1,446,480
2. Ben Tollerene, $924,140
3. Jason Mercier, $602,700
4. Connor Drinan, $441,980
5. Sam Greenwood, $321,440
6. Fedor Holz, $281,260
(all denominations in Australian dollars)
With the $100,000 Challenge complete, the Aussie Millions Main Event will resume on Sunday afternoon (local time, roughly Saturday night in the United States) at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Simultaneously beside the Main Event final table, Day One of the LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge – featuring some of the most well-heeled players in the game – will open up action. When the $250,000 Challenge concludes on Monday, that will signify the end of the Aussie Millions for another year.
