Well, that didn’t take long.
After battling for 15 hours, from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning and seeing the officials suspend final table play until Sunday afternoon, the final three men quickly came to a champion of the Aussie Millions Main Event at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.
Joseph Cabret held over a two million chip lead over Mervin Chan and Patrik Antonius as the cards hit the air Sunday afternoon at the Crown and, within an hour and a half, a champion was determined. Cabret pushed around his opponents on the first two hands to extend his lead, but a battle between Chan and Antonius would eventually determine the champion
After Chan opened the betting, Antonius pushed all-in with his approximately five million chip stack in an attempt to push Chan off his hand. Instead of that, Chan instead immediately called, tabling pocket Jacks against Antonius’ dubious A-4. There was no Ace that came to the rescue on the 9-8-6-K-6 board and the Finnish poker superstar was knocked down to only 160K in chips; Cabret would finish him off on the next hand.
Chan, now holding the lead, and Cabret didn’t waste time in determining the champion. A few hands into heads up, Chan would raise the pot and see Cabret three bet the action to 860K. After an 8-7-3 flop (both players checked) and an eight on the turn, Cabret led out for 1.2 million, but Chan moved the price to play up to three million. Cabret moved all in and Chan nearly beat him into the pot, tabling an 8-6 for trips over Cabret’s A♦ 3♦ (flush draw). The river was red, but it was the K♥, securing the championship for Mervin Chan at the Aussie Millions.
1. Mervin Chan, $1,600,000
2. Joseph Cabret, $1,000,000
3. Patrik Antonius, $600,000
4. Dan Shak, $400,000
5. Jarrod Glennon, $290,000
6. David Yan, $220,000
7. Jennifer “Jay” Tan, $150,000
(All figures in Australian dollars)
Sam Trickett Wins $250,000 Challenge, Igor Kurganov Ends Epic Aussie Millions Run With Win In $25,000 Challenge
Wrapping up the two remaining Challenge tournaments at the Aussie Millions, Sam Trickett continued his 2012 run in dominating high buy-in tournaments in winning the $250,000 Challenge on Friday at the Aussie Millions, while Igor Kurganov took down the $25,000 Challenge to cap an epic run in Melbourne.
18 players took part in the $250,000 Challenge and only four of them would get anything back for their hefty investment. After Richard Yong, Erik Seidel and Winfred Yu departed the seven-handed final table without any ducats, Kurganov was in the lead with the remaining four players in the money. He would be cut down, however, after hitting his flush draw only to see Trickett hit a straight flush to knock him out in fourth place.
Fabian Quoss was the next to go, once again at the hands of Trickett, and heads up play commenced with Trickett holding a dominating edge over Tobias Reinkemeier. With such a huge lead, the clash came on the first hand of play, with Trickett’s A-5 holding up over Reinkemeier’s K-2 to earn Trickett the championship.
1. Sam Trickett, $2,000,000
2. Tobias Reinkemeier, $1,250,000
3. Fabian Quoss, $750,000
4. Igor Kurganov, $500,000
Kurganov and Quoss were obviously wanting some more action because after they were eliminated from the $250,000 Challenge, both jumped into the $25,000 Challenge. The rebuy tournament saw 30 entries from 27 players and, as the final table started on Sunday, Quoss was in the lead with Kurganov in the pack. Things wouldn’t work out well for Quoss as he saw his stack slowly dwindle away, eventually finishing in fourth place.
Seidel got a cash for his time in Australia, but it might not even touch his buy-ins. His third place finish set up Philipp Gruissem and Kurganov for the championship, with Gruissem holding a nice lead over Kurganov at the start of action. That lead quickly evaporated, however, after Kurganov got paid off with his pocket Aces against Gruissem’s Q-J. On the final hand, Kurganov turned trip tens to defeat Gruissem’s Kings up to take home the prize.
1. Igor Kurganov, $275,000
2. Philipp Gruissem, $187,000
3. Erik Seidel, $125,000
4. Niklas Heinecker, $85,000
5. Fabian Quoss, $51,000
Even though he won, Kurganov probably didn’t get very excited. This was only his third largest cash of his stay at the 2013 Aussie Millions! Earlier in the event, Kurganov was the runner-up in the $100,000 Challenge for $610,000 and, as noted above, he finished in fourth in the $250,000 Challenge for $500,000. A pretty nice two weeks’ work, wouldn’t you say?
With that, the chips have gone quiet on this year’s Aussie Millions. The international poker community will be back to the Crown Casino in Melbourne in a couple of months, however, as the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific takes the stage in April.
