The Aussie Millions wrapped up one of its premiere events, the AUD $100,000 Challenge, on Sunday, with England’s Sam Trickett taking down the prestigious title over a stacked field.
Saturday saw the event begin with perhaps one of the most difficult fields ever assembled. With the AUD $100,000 buy-in, only the crème of the poker world could even conceive of entering. By the time play started, 38 of the biggest names would be in action, including such top players as 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Joe Hachem, former WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, and Erick Lindgren.
The itself had several rules that made it intriguing. Players started with 100,000 in chips and had 30 seconds to make their decisions. Additionally, pre-flop play would be Pot Limit and the action post-flop would revert to No Limit.
Trickett seized the chip lead almost from the start, taking a bit pot against Patrik Antonius that saw the Finn’s stack cut nearly in half. Trickett then administered the first knockout of the tournament barely an hour in, eliminating Wang Qiang when the latter’s straight draw didn’t come home. Trickett would use these chips to dominate the first day of play and reached the final table with the chip lead.
When the final eight players came back on Sunday to decide a champion, Trickett, sitting on a 961,000-chip stack, held over a quarter of the chips in play. Still, the Englishman had some difficult opposition in 2009 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge champion David Steicke (622,000), 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel (619,000), and top online pro James “Andy McLEOD” Obst (571,000). Also at the final table were David Benyamine, Tony Bloom, Jeffrey Lisandro and Chris Ferguson.
With only six players set to receive any of the $3.8 million prize pool, the early play was cautious by most. Two players, Trickett and Seidel, used the first couple of hours to bolster their chip stacks before the first elimination occurred. Bloom raised a hand to 24,000 only to see a short-stacked Ferguson come over the top for his remaining chips. Bloom immediately made the call and tabled A-J over Ferguson’s A-8. Once the board ran dry for the 2000 WSOP Main Event champion, he headed to the rail in eighth place.
Once Steicke eliminated Lisandro in seventh place, the remaining players were guaranteed at least AUD $150,000 for their efforts in the two-day tournament. Play noticeably picked up when the money bubble burst, with Trickett getting some of his lost chips back when he eliminated Benyamine in sixth place. By the time the players had reached the next break, Trickett had been able to retake the chip lead, which he continued to hold as the next round played out with no eliminations.
Down to four players, Seidel began to make his move. He eliminated Steicke in fourth place to jump over both Bloom and Trickett for the chip lead. The three would play for over four hours, with each player holding the chip lead at one point or another. Seidel’s momentary rush cooled as he drifted to the short stack.
The end came very quickly considering the final table had taken over seven hours to play out. Seidel limped in from the small blind only to see Bloom pop him back for a 50,000 bet. Seidel made the call and the two saw a J-9-3 flop. Seidel checked, Bloom bet out 90,000, and Seidel decided to make his stand, moving his remaining 450,000 in chips to the center. Bloom called in an instant, tabling A-J against Seidel’s J-8 and holding a hammerlock on the hand. Once the turn and river ran dry, Seidel was out in third place.
Even with the knockout, Bloom was still a 2:1 underdog in chips against Trickett. The duo played for a very short time and, once Trickett hit back-to-back straights, Bloom was on life support. On the final hand, Bloom faced a raise of 60,000 from Trickett before announcing he was all-in. Trickett snap-called and showed A-K against Bloom’s suited Q-9, a sizeable advantage pre-flop. The board came with no saving cards for Bloom and Trickett earned the championship of the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge.
The six players who finished in the money cashed out as follows. All prizes are given in AUD:
1. Sam Trickett – $1,525,000
2. Tony Bloom – $975,000
3. Erik Seidel – $625,000
4. David Steicke – $325,000
5. James Obst – $200,000
6. David Benyamine – $150,000
Poker News Daily will keep you updated as to the action “Down Under” as the Aussie Millions Main Event champion is crowned.
