The eve of the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event is upon the entities gathered at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, but several players have already taken some cash in the land Down Under from the preliminary action.
In the $1000 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy event, ten men came back to the felt early this morning (Eastern Time) looking for their share of $423,000 that was built during Friday’s action. Leading the way was Germany’s Marvin Rettenmaier, but he faced a formidable field that included Canada’s Mike Watson, Jim Collopy, 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Tyron Krost and Dan “djk123” Kelly. As the field was 92 players, the ten men doing battle on Saturday would be the only players to be paid.
Rettenmaier was able to extend his lead in the early going, hitting trip Kings on the river against Michael Benvenuti to knock out Benvenuti in the tenth place slot. Krost would make a move up the leaderboard with his elimination of Andrew Scarfe in ninth. While this was occurring, players such as Jonathan Karamalikis and Michael Pedley started accumulating some chips on their own accords.
Karamalikis and Rettenmaier would eventually clash on the final table felt, sending a shockwave through the tournament that flipped the leaderboard. After a raise from Rettenmaier on the button, Karamalikis three bet the pot from the big blind. Rettenmaier wouldn’t go away, however, pushing out a four bet of almost 23K, which brought an all-in move from Karamalikis and a call from Rettenmaier.
Karamalikis tabled his pocket Jacks against Rettenmaier’s A-9 of diamonds and the race was on. A nine on the flop gave some hope to Rettenmaier, but no other help came with the Queen on the turn and another Jack on the river. After the hand, Karamalikis had seized the lead and Rettenmaier was crippled down to fewer than 23K in chips. He would bust out of the tournament a few hands later in eighth place after his A-Q couldn’t catch Krost’s pocket Queens.
After that big hand against Rettenmaier, Karamalikis put those chips to good use. At the dinner break, he held a more than 2:1 lead over Pedley, while Kelly, Krost, Collopy and Watson were battling to get back in the event. Kelly would be the first to make a move, knocking out Collopy in sixth and then taking down Watson in fifth to assume the lead. He would extend that lead by dumping Krost in fourth place, but that was the extent of Kelly’s run.
Once the play was three handed, Karamalikis and Pedley took their turns knocking chips from Kelly’s stack. After doubling up through Kelly, Pedley doubled again through Karamalikis to take a chip lead he would not relinquish. Once he knocked out Kelly, Pedley held a nearly 4:1 lead over fellow Aussie Karamalikis.
In the span of 25 minutes, Pedley eroded the stack of Karamalikis to the point where Karamalikis had to make a move. He did so with a K-10, moving all in and drawing a call from Pedley. Unfortunately for Karamalikis, Pedley turned up a dominating K-J and, once the board ran dry for him, Karamalikis was eliminated in second and Michael Pedley had captured his second Aussie Millions championship.
1. Michael Pedley, $122,670
2. Jonathan Karamalikis, $88,830
3. Dan Kelly, $57,105
4. Tyron Krost, $40,185
5. Mike Watson, $29,610
6. Jim Collopy, $25,380
7. Tony Sama, $21,150
8. Marvin Rettenmaier, $16,920
9. Andrew Scarfe, $12,690
10. Michael Benvenuti, $8,460
One of the final preliminary events prior to the start of the Main Event is the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Bounty tournament, with a unique twist. 315 players entered the event and, by the end of action on Saturday, only 32 players remained. The “unique twist” is these final 32 players will now play out the tournament in a Shootout format, with four tables set for action Sunday.
Leading one of those tables will be the latest signing to the Lock Poker Pro Elite team, Melanie Weisner. Weisner will have a huge stack when play begins on Sunday, holding 241,100 in chips, but with the format change she now has to survive her table. The other table leaders will be Jamie Pickering, Hans Dorn and Mark Betts.
Sunday’s action will feature the final table of the $1500 tournament as well as the beginning of the Main Event. Later in the week, the two “Challenge” tournaments, with their $100,000 and $250,000 buy ins, are sure to draw attention as the biggest names in the game step to the felt.
