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Poker is about to mystify and mesmerise us for another month. January animated 2020 with splashes of brilliance from three continents and February maintains that trend.

After the Aussie Millions, the high roller fraternity took a flight to Queensland to compete in the Australian Poker Open (APO). That new series ends with the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia.

Australia becomes the fifth country to host an SHRB when the players descend on the Star Gold Coast in Queensland, 2-4 Feb for the AUD 250,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) extravaganza.

Here are the previous winners.

Las Vegas

2015: Brian Rast beats 43-entrants to win $7,525,000*
2016: Rainer Kempe beats 49-entrants to win $5,000,000
2017: Christoph Vogelsang beats 56-entrants to win $6,000,000
2018: Justin Bonomo beats 48-entrants to win $5,000,000
2018: Isaac Haxton beats 36-entrants to win $3,672,000**

  • The buy-in was $500k before dropping to $300k in ensuing years.
    ** Poker Central held dragged the 2019 event into Dec 2018, creating two SHRB games in a single calendar year to align with their new Player of the Year setup.

China

2018: Justin Bonomo beats 75-entrants to win $4,823,077

London

2019: Cary Katz beats 12-entrants to win $2,610,317

Bahamas

2019: Daniel Dvoress beats 37-entrants to win $4,080,000

Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, Jeju

After the SHRB, the high stakes glacier glides to the Korean island of Jeju for the first Triton Poker Super High Roller series of 2020.

It’s the third Triton Jeju event. The first comprised of five games. Mikita Badzuakouski starred by becoming the first player to win back-to-back No-Limit Hold’em Main Event titles, and Kenneth Kee won the Short-Deck Main Event. The series returned in 2019 with seven events. Jason Koon won two of them, including the Short-Deck Main Event, and Timothy Adams won the NLHE Main Event.

The action takes place between 9-22 Feb at the Landing Casino in Shinwa World, Jeju, South Korea with an 11-event series. There are two Main Events, both priced at HKD 1m (NLHE & Short-Deck), and it’s the first time at this price point for the NLHE Main Event having previously been HKD 2m.

Here is the lineup:

10-11 Feb: HKD 250k NLHE
11-12 Feb: HKD 500k NLHE 6-Max
12-13 Feb: HKD 750k NLHE
13-14 Feb: HKD 250k NLHE 6-Max Turbo
14-16 Feb: HKD 1m NLHE Main Event
16-17 Feb: HKD 300k NLHE/Short-Deck Mix Turbo
17-18 Feb: HKD 250k Short-Deck
18-19 Feb: HKD 500k Short-Deck
19-20 Feb: HKD 750k Short-Deck
20-22 Feb: HKD 1m Short-Deck Main Event
22 Feb: HKD 300k Short-Deck

partypoker MILLIONS South America

Running simultaneously with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series is partypoker’s MILLIONS South America event.

The series runs from 6-16 Feb, from the Enjoy Conrad Resort & Casino, Punta del Este, Uruguay, and the main feature is a $10,300, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event.

As has become standard, there is a $25,500 NLHE MILLIONS Super High Roller, and that takes place 10-11 Feb and a $10,300 NLHE MILLIONS High Roller Finale.

It’s the second MILLIONS event of 2020. Dusk till Dawn (DTD) in Nottingham hosted MILLIONS UK in January, and the in-form Kahle Burns took down the $25k Super High Roller, Joao Vieira took down the $10k High Roller Finale, and Anton Suarez won the $10k Main Event.

In 2019, MILLIONS South America hailed from the Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel in Brazil. Marty Mathis won the $10k Main Event, Guillaume Nolet won the $10k High Roller, and there were two $25k events with Jonathan Depa owning one. Pablo Joaquin Melogno Cabrera took down the other.

And that’s a wrap for the February high roller action.

Australian Poker Open

The molecular world of poker is one that often escapes the eye of Pulp’s ‘Common People,’ but if they did spot it, and could pierce the bubble, they would think it was a beautiful place.

It isn’t all unicorns and rainbows.

After becoming the 28th human being to earn more than $19m in live tournament earnings through winning Event #3: AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) at the Australian Poker Open (APO) in The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, the Canadian said:

“I’ve been playing for so long now, and I’m still very passionate about the game, but I can’t do this my whole life. This game takes a toll on you, the travel, the playing, the studying, it’s really a full-time job. I think I have a few good years left though, and maybe then I can relax a bit more.”

Adams’ win sees him move into third place in the overall leaderboard behind Andras Nemeth and the current leader, Mike Watson. Still, his chances of taking it down are hampered slightly by his decision to skip the Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) events.

One person who won’t skip the PLO events is the $25k PLO World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Stephen Chidwick. The former US Poker Open winner glides ominously into fourth place after losing to Adams, heads-up.

Also breaking into the Top 5 is Orpen Kisacikoglu. The Turkish, London-based, businessman, added a fifth-place finish to the fourth-place finish he enjoyed in Event #1: AUD 10,000 NLHE.

“To win a tournament a lot of things have to go your way and today that happened to me,” said Adams.

Let’s take a look then shall we?

The Nutshell Action

The final table began with Stephen Chidwick cutting down the field with some cunning and culling. The in-form Aaron Van Blarcum became the first player to feel the former Global Poker Index (GPI) World # 1’s wrath when his ace-three fell to pocket sevens.

Orpen Kisacikoglu’s face turned from delight to desperation when he got it in with ace-queen, only for Chidwick to cooler him with ace-king, and suddenly, the poker press began to wonder if the man from the UK and Event #3 honours had been betrothed.

A feature of a vagabonding Poker Central is the ability of players to feature who are unlikely to head to Las Vegas to fight. Andy Lee is a prime example. The Australian began the final table with the chip lead, and he joined Chidwick in the final table list of vanquishers when his ace-six came from behind to hit a flush, beating ace-queen of the dangerous Steve O’Dwyer.

Three-handed play became heads-up when Lee himself hit the rail. The former World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) AUD NLHE High Roller winner, got it in good, with top pair versus the flush draw of Adams, but the Triton Champion hit his flush on the river to set up a titanic tussle with Chidwick for the Event #3 title.

As adjectives go, ‘titanic’ was the wrong one to pull out of a Google search.

‘ Short’ is a more apt choice.

The heads-up action lasted only a few hands, and Adams won them all, including the last one of the tournament when his pocket sevens beat ace-five to confirm victory.

Australian poker players have suffered of late with the government deciding to ban online poker. The presence of events like the APO must give the activists hope that one day the government can be persuaded to see that poker is a game of skill. If they ever need an experienced man to take the stand, then the $19m man Adams is a grand choice.

ITM Results

  1. Timothy Adams – $416,500
  2. Stephen Chidwick – $269,500
  3. Andy Lee – $183,750
  4. Steve O’Dwyer – $122,500
  5. Orpen Kisacikoglu – $98,000
  6. Aaron Van Blarcum – $73,500
  7. Chino Rheem – $61,250

APO Leaderboard

  1. Mike Watson – 450 points
  2. Andras Nemeth – 360
  3. Timothy Adams – 300
  4. Stephen Chidwick – 210
  5. Orpen Kisackoglu – 210

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #4: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open in the Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida, has offered a respite for those abstaining from the long haul flight to Melbourne. 

Two events lit up the festival like a streetlight.

The first was the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em. 41-entrants stepped out of the shadows to compete in the high roller genre.

It was a final table containing a balanced range of $25k+ experience. 

Byron Kaverman is the type of player that reminds you to lock your backdoor. He is a former Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year and World #1. However, it’s been a quiet time of late with Kaverman winning a mere $356,219 in 2019 compared to the multi-millions earned in previous years while battling it out in the high roller scene, and he took the sixth place. 

For all of Kaverman’s achievements, he’s never won a $25k at a WPT festival whereas Maria Ho has. The oft-time broadcaster turned it on during the 2019 WPT Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC), beating Kristen Bicknell, heads-up, to claim the $25k high roller tiara. 

There was also two WPT Champions Club member at the final table. Jared Jaffee earned his honours after winning the 2014 WPT bestbet Fall Poker Scramble. It’s not Jaffee’s first $25k+ rodeo, having collecting four ITM finishes at the ARIA in 2018.

The other WPT Champions Club member was Jonathan Jaffe, and the Massachusetts man, took this one down, beating Arkaday Tsinis in heads-up action. Tsinis has a WSOP bracelet somewhere in his house but has never cashed in a $25k+ event before. Jaffe narrowly lost out to Chris Kruk in the $25,000 NLHE at the 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).

Jaffe’s win (his eighth title) moves the needle above the $4m mark in live tournament earnings. It’s his first win since taking down a small field $5k in 2018, and he only banked $393,662 in 2019 earnings, with most of that coming in his 6/606 finish in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event.

Final Table Results

  1. Jonathan Jaffe – $340,285*
  2. Arkadiy Tsinis – $257,207*
  3. Jared Jaffee – $146,842
  4. Ping Liu – $101,270
  5. Maria Ho – $70,889
  6. Byron Kaverman – $55,699
  7. Kevin Rabinchow – $40,508

*Denotes a heads-up deal

Brian Altman Wins The Main Event; Makes History

Winning multiple WPT titles is becoming as common as stairs on a staircase with 24 people doing the do. Still, nobody had ever won the same WPT Main Event twice, until, today. 

Brian Altman conquered a field of 843-entrants to win the $3,500 buy-in Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event, and now tops the Season XVIII WPT Hublot Player of the Year race, after securing his third in the money finish of the season. 

Altman collected $482,636 for the win, after beating John Dollinger in heads-up action. Altman won the same event in 2015, beating 1,027-entrants to bank the $723,008 first prize. 

Here are the final table results. 

Final Table Results

  1. Brian Altman – $482,636
  2. John Dollinger – $311,751
  3. Chanracy Khun – $230,086
  4. Nadya Magnus – $171,642
  5. Nadeem Hirani – $129,438
  6. Peter Walsworth – $98,686
Australian Poker Open

The Star Gold Coast is ground zero, and we’ve just had another explosion of activity, with Andras Nemeth taking down the 43-entrant Event #2: AUD 10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) at the Australian Poker Open (APO).

Given the fact that mother nature has decided to burn the face off most of Australia these past few weeks, it’s not top of the ‘Places to Live’ list for many people.

The Hungarian star is not in that camp.

After securing the third live tournament win of his career, Nemeth waxed lyrical on the virtues of Australian life, suggesting if it weren’t so far away from Budapest, he would live there.

That distance is 9.6k miles, and Nemeth is glad he made the trip. It’s his second final table of the APO after finishing sixth in Event #1: AUD 10,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE), and you can be sure he will be pressing for full APO honours.

Nemeth defeated Najeem Ajez in heads-up action. Ajez had a decent Aussie Millons cashing three-times, and making two final tables, including 3/59 in the AUD 25,000 PLO for $136,840 – the most significant score of his career.

Let’s see how the pair came to lock horns in this one.

The Nutshell Action

Erik Seidel came into the APO on the back of a final table appearance at the Aussie Millions Main Event. Seidel had a great chance to win that event, and he’s given himself a shot of having a run at the APO, after eking onto the scoreboard with a sixth-place finish. The New Yorker went out after running jack-ten-seven-four rainbow into the pocket kings of Ajez.

Sean Winter had an outstanding 2019, and when there’s a Poker Central event, it seems Winter is in tow. The top man finished fifth in this one after running his pocket kings into the double-suited queens and nines of Mike Watson, with the Canadian finding a flush.

Joni Jouhkimainen is a dab hand at the four-card game and finished in fourth place after running ace-king-eight-six into the queen-ten-eight-four double-suited of Ayez. Two pair on the turn for Ajez, sending the Finn into a prism of pain.

After eliminating the partypoker pro, Ayez held a commanding lead three-handed against Nemeth and Watson with 2.6m chips v 655,000 and 985,000. Still, the Event #1 winner, took the chip lead, before Nemeth put together a run that his ancestors would have been proud of to snatch it from him. Nemeth then ousted Watson when his two-pair hand held against an open-ender.

Twice, Ayez came within a single card of winning Event #2, and twice the Poker Gods went to the Hungarians’ rescue. The final plotline arrived when kings beat a suited ace hand to hand Nemeth the victory.

ITM Results

  1. Andras Nemeth – $99,811
  2. Najeem Ajez – $63,901
  3. Michael Watson – $44,034
  4. Joni Jouhkimainen – $29,356
  5. Sean Winter – $23,485
  6. Erik Seidel – $17,614
  7. Chino Rheem – $14,678

APO Leaderboard

  1. Mike Watson – 450 points
  2. Andras Nemeth – 360
  3. Michael O’Grady – 210
  4. Najeem Ayez – 210
  5. Benjamin Shannon – 150

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #3: 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #4: $25,000 Pot-Limit Pmaha
Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Australian Poker Open

It’s time to put your seat back into an upright position, stow your tray table, and stop watching whatever crap you’re watching – the Australian Poker Open (APO) is about to kick into gear.

It’s the first time that Poker Central has brought their unique brand of broadcasting to Australia, and The Star Gold Coast is going to be their home for the next few days. There’s nothing bitter about this lemon, but it will still pull your lips over your teeth with a ‘Wow!’

The melody kicked off with Event #1: AUD 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE). 59-entrants created a prizepool of $402,785, and Mike Watson sat alone amid the smouldering wreckage, after beating Michael Grady in heads-up action.

It’s Watson’s tenth live tournament title of his career, and the $120,836 he bagged for the win tipped his total live earnings over the $12m mark. Although there were no red, white and blue flashing lights, Watson will be relieved with the win, his first since winning the 928-entrant PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event in 2016 for $728,325.

And ‘SirWatts’ defeated a solid End Boss in Michael O’Grady, who won the opening event of the Aussie Millions, defeating 867-entrants to collect the $130,365 first prize in the AUD 1,200 NLHE Accumulator.

Let’s see how Watson took it down the Gold Coast town.

The Nutshell Action

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Andras Nemeth – 615,000
Seat 2: Mike Watson – 1,355,000
Seat 3: Orpen Kisacikoglu – 1,100,000
Seat 4: Jamie Lee – 675,000
Seat 5: Michael O’Grady – 1,815,000
Seat 6: Benjamin Shannon – 400,000

The first person to feel like the deck had stuck a knife in his back was Andras Nemeth. The Hungarian made his last stand with the teeny-tiny looking deuces, and O’Grady called and hammered him with those giant-looking pocket aces.

Jamie Lee fell short before moving all-in holding jack-nine-suited, and Watson took him apart with ace-queen to create four-handed action. Orpen Kisacikoglu arrived in Sydney fresh off a third in the AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge at the Aussie Millions and put in another sharp showing finishing in fourth after an ill-timed bluff ran into Watson’s flush on the river.

The tournament slipped into the heads-up phase after Benjamin Shannon exited in third. Still, what a display from the man who arrived at the gate after winning two satellites (the first was AUD 250!). Shannon moved his little stack into the middle with ace-deuce, and O’Grady’s big stack gobbled him up with eight-four-suited.

Heads-Up

Watson had lost 13 of his 26 heads-up encounters, with a barrage of them happening in world-class events whereas O’Grady had won 16 of his 26 End Boss battles and was undefeated in his previous four match-ups.

According to the little we know gleaned from the Poker Central website, the final was entertaining. The chip lead moved from one stack to the other until Watson’s ace-queen finally battered the ace-eight of O’Grady into submission, and it was all over.

It’s the third time that Watson has won a live tournament on dirty Australian casino floors. In 2010, he won a 108-entrant AUD 1,150 NLHE event for $119,911, and in 2013 he won a 99-entrant AUD 2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha side event at the Aussie Millions for $76,010.

ITM Results

  1. Mike Watson – $120,836
  2. Michael O’Grady – $80,557
  3. Benjamin Shannon – $56,390
  4. Orpen Kisacikoglu – $40,279
  5. Jamie Lee – $32,223
  6. Andras Nemeth – $24,167
  7. Elio Fox – $20,139
  8. Ben Lamb – $16,111
  9. Lucas Greenwood – $12,084

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #2: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #3: 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #4: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em

We have sexism, racism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, nationalism, fascism, and reentryism. It’s time to bring the isms down, and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is playing its part.

The folks behind the most iconic poker brand in the world have released another flurry of events. As it did the last time a piece of electronic paper appeared on my Gmail account amid adverts for Harry’s Razors and Barefoot Writers, an all-out attack on reentryism is the headline.

The WSOP has added 17 more eggs to the basket, and 12 of them belong to a genre named ‘The Freezeout Series” priced between $500 and $5,000. According to the press release, more than 40-events afford you a single shot. I have no idea why the moon looks bigger here in LA than it does in the UK, but I know the WSOP wouldn’t be making this decision if it were bad for business.

Mystery Bounty

One of those freezeout events is the $1,500 buy-in Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold ’em.

On Sunday, June 28 at 11 am, competitors in this event will begin with a 50,000 starting stack and a bounty. After elimination, they hand that bounty to the player who sent them crashing into the rail.

In a standard bounty competition, each player knows the amount of the bounty, and in this event, that amount is $100. However, like a baseball game – there is a catch.

One hundred people will hold a mystery bounty; only they are not aware of this. Once registration ends, players who have won a bounty (eliminated or still in the competition), can jump on the stage, waltz over to the ‘redemption area’, and spin a randomised wheel to see how much they’ve won.

And get this.

There are 80 bounties worth $2,500, ten worth $10,000, six worth $25,000, three worth $100,000, and one worth $250,000.

That’s $1m, folks.

The Super High Roller

If you do win the $250,000, and find yourself standing there like Eve holding a palm leaf wondering what to do with it, then the WSOP has an answer for you.

For the first time in WSOP history, there is an event pitched at the $250,000 price point. It takes place on June 27 at noon and will be a three-day event.

The WSOP has confirmed that there will not be a $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop this year, and so this represents the wealthiest buy-in of the festival, and it’s history (outside of the One Drop).

$25k News

The high roller action doesn’t end there.

A few press releases ago, the WSOP stuck the knife into the back of the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold ’em Championship.

Now, we know why.

In 2020, there will be a $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold ’em event capped at 64-players. Entry is on a first-come, first-served basis, and it will be one of the earliest games on the calendar, scheduled for a 6 pm start on May 31.

There is also a $25,000 No-Limit Hold ’em event slated for May 29, and a $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha on July 7.

Next up, the WSOP.com Online Gold Bracelet Schedule, and then that’s a wrap for the 51st Annual WSOP.

The New Events

May 27 – $1,000 NLHE Freezeout
May 29 – $25,000 NLHE
May 31 – $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up
Jun 4- $1,500 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 7 – $1,000 FortyStack NLHE
Jun 11 – $2,500 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 15 – $500 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 18 – $3,000 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 19 – $2,500 9-Game Mix
Jun 21 – $5,000 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 27 – $250,000 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 28 – $1,500 Mystery Bounty NLHE
Jul 6 – $5,000 Mixed NLHE/PLO
Jul 7 – $50,000 PLO
Jul 9 – $1,500 Fifty-Stack NLHE
Jul 12 – $800 NLHE DeepStack
Jul 13 – $1,000 Super-Turbo NLHE

After taking down the 2020 Aussie Millions Main Event, Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan told reporters that he had a love-hate relationship with the Crown Casino. Given that he had previously won two six-figure Royal Flush jackpots, and now has AUD 1.3m bucks in his bank account, you get a sense of the amount of time and money Wan must spend in this part of Melbourne.

It’s only Wan’s second win of his career, and he’s earned them both in this festival. Back in 2008, Wan defeated Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, heads-up, to bank the $125,087 first prize in a 537-entrant AUD 1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event, but that was a hand grenade; this is the Manhattan Project.

Erik Seidel started as the one bona fide star.

Ngoc Tai Hoang turned up 15-minutes late.

414-hands.

15-hours play.

Let’s find out what went down.

The Nutshell Action

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Nino Ullmann – 5,500,000
Seat 2: Gareth Pepper – 2,465,000
Seat 3: Vincent Wan – 4,150,000
Seat 4: Erik Seidel – 4,050,000
Seat 5: Ngoc Tai Hoang – 1,875,000
Seat 6: Nicolas Malo – 1,975,000
Seat 7: Oliver Weis – 4,475,000

It took a full level before the bombs that fell out of the deck started slamming people into the rail. The first to suffer that fate was Nicolas Malo, who called out of the big blind holding Td8c after Nino Ullman had opened in position with QsTh. The spiciest flop you could imagine hit the deck (Jc9h8s), and all of the money went in with Ullman holding the nuts, and Malo holding middle pin and an open-ender. The 3s and the Ks were the final stakes in Malo’s heart, and we were down to six. Ullman had the chip lead.

The next player eliminated was one of the favourites.

With blinds at 50k/100k/100k, Gareth Pepper opened with a raise to 220k from the hijack, and Oliver Weis moved all-in for 2.19m. Pepper, who held AdKc, made the call, and he beat the KsTs of Weis, rivering an ace for good measure.

Coming into the final table, Erik Seidel must have been brimming with confidence, but it wasn’t to be his day. With blinds at 80k/160k/160k, Vincent Wan opened to 325k from the cutoff and called when Seidel jammed for 2.875m. Seidel turned over AcTs, but Wan had him dominated with AsJc. Seidel did flop a second ten, but the flop also contained an additional jack. No more tens honked their horn, and Seidel left the competition in fifth place.

Upon his departure, PokerNews reporters asked Seidel a few questions about his final table combatants.

“Nino is the strongest player remaining.” Said Seidel.

And then he wasn’t.

With blinds at 100k/200k/200k, Ngoc Tai Hoang played his pocket queens sneakily, limping into the pot from the small blind, and Ullman checked Td7s in the big blind. A flop of Tc7d5h hypnotised Ullman. Hoang bet 300k, and Ullman made the call with his two-pair hand. The turn was the Jd, and with both players holding seriously under-repped hands, the money went in with Hoang, the aggressor. Hoang needed some luck, and he got it when a second five hit the river to give Hoang a stronger two-pair hand.

Three-Handed Deal

Shortly after Ullman left the building, the remaining three players cut a deal.

Ngoc Ta Hoang – 10,515,000
Vincent Wan – 9,880,000
Gareth Pepper – 4,215,000

Hoang had the chip lead, but he had to settle for less than an ICM cut with Wan and Pepper successfully negotiating better deals (all in AUD).

Ngoc Ta Hoang – ICM Deal $1,341,392 & Deal Agreed $1,318,000
Vincent Wan – ICM Deal $1,314,128 & Deal Agreed $1,318,000
Gareth Pepper – ICM Deal $973,003 & Deal Agreed $1,000,000

With the money locked up, the three played for the trophy, and Pepper was the first to exit when he moved all-in from the small blind holding 9d2c, and Wan called and eliminated him with Ad3s.

Heads-Up Action

Ngoc Tai Hoang – 12,445,000
Vincent Wan – 12,265,000

Hoang pulled away.

Wan recovered to take the chip lead.

The pair exchanged the chip lead until Hoang widened the gap to 21.2m v 3.7m.

Then came the Wan comeback.

First, he doubled when Ac7d beat Kc8s. Then he did it again coming from behind with Ad9c to beat AcQc after flopping a nine. Then after taking the lead, Wan left Hoang with chip dust, once again getting lucky, when AcTh beat AhQc, with a ten falling on the river. The final hand saw Tc9h beat As3h when Wan flopped a nine. Three suckouts and the title was his.

Final Table Results

  1. Vincent Wan – $907.196*
  2. Ngoc Tai Hoang – $907,196*
  3. Gareth Pepper – $688,312*
  4. Nino Ullmann – $330,501
  5. Erik Seidel – $260,637
  6. Oliver Weis – $211,877
  7. Nicolas Malo – $165,250
    *Indicates a three-handed deal

There are plenty of people drifting around the poker scene on a raft. I’m sure at one point in his career, Kahle Burns also held an oar in his hand. Not today. Today, Burns is floating around the high stakes poker scene in a luxury yacht, armed with torpedoes and railguns, and he’s blowing everyone away.

The 2020 AUD 1000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge attracted 54-entrants, the second most attended AUD 1000 NLHE Challenge in history (Richard Yong defeated 70-entrants in 2015), and the final table was MTV.

In December, Kahle Burns led the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY) race only to see Alex Foxen snatch the honour from his grasp with an incredible performance at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Burns had his opportunity for revenge when the pair squared off, heads-up, for the AUD 100k Challenge title, although to be fair, Foxen did have to compete without any oars, as you’ll see in our nutshell action review.

The Nutshell Action

Only seven players would find a piece of the treasure map leading to an in the money finish (ITM), with the person finishing in eighth finding a route to the rail.

With blinds at 25k/50k/50k, Bryn Kenney moved all-in from the button for 1.7m, and Michael Zhang called for his last 605k from the small blind. The big blind melted away, and Kenney’s Ad7d beat the pocket jacks of Zhang when a second ace landed on the river. The AUD 1000 Challenge Bubble Boy had a name.

One level on and Timothy Adams would follow Zhang into the crowd. Alex Foxen min-raised to 160k from the first position, holding pocket queens, and Adams called from the big blind holding Qs3s. The one remaining queen in the deck appeared on the flop like a lone gull in a dump. Adams check-raised all-in, and Foxen made the call. A flush draw appeared on the turn for Adams, but never materialised on the river. Adams left the competition with an AUD 317,250 consolation prize.

Sam Grafton had to scrap and scrape throughout this final table, and his luck eventually ran out at the same level that saw Adam ousted from the competition. Grafton moved his last 610k into the middle holding Jc9c, and Kenney called and killed him in the big blind holding Kd8d, with king-high holding. It may have been an earlier exit than Grafton would have imagined, but the man from the UK continues to demonstrate his ability to compete with the best in the business.

Michael Soyza fell next.

The man from Malaysia moved all-in for 350k from the small blind holding Jc4h, and Burns called and bettered him with Kc7c in the big – once again king-high proving an effective finishing weapon.

Chip Counts

Kahle Burns – 6,420,000
Alex Foxen – 2,815,000
Bryn Kenney – 2,615,000
Aaron van Blarcum – 1,650,000

Burns was running away with it, and he placed one hand on the trophy after eliminating Kenney. With blinds at 50k/100k/100k, Foxen opened to 220k from the button with As4c, Kenney made it 975k from the small blind holding AdKc, and Burns moved all-in from the big blind holding pocket tens. Foxen felt a little homesick for his chair, Kenney called and lost his tournament defining flip.

Burns then took a massive chip advantage into heads-up when he eliminated Aaron van Blarcum in the third spot. Burns opened to 210k from the button, and then called a 950k Van Blarcum shove. The Australian’s Kh7c began behind the AdJc of the American, but a rivered straight fixed that minor complication.

Heads-Up

Kahle Burns – 10,645,000
Alex Foxen – 2,855,000

Do you know those people turned into chickens by stage hypnotists, well they never stand a chance.

And neither did Foxen.

In a short and shrift heads-up scrap, the pair found a cooler with Foxen’s Ac9s losing to Burns’ AsTs, and Burns, and not Foxen, became the newest AUD 100k NLHE Challenge winner.

Burns’ win capped a memorable week for the man who joined the Australian Poker Hall of Fame a few short days ago.

Final Table Results

  1. Kahle Burns – AUD 1,746,360 (USD 1,198,161)
  2. Alex Foxen – AUD 1,111,590 (USD 762,651)
  3. Aaron van Blarcum – AUD 740,880 (USD 508,311)
  4. Bryn Kenney – AUD 582,120 (USD 399,387)
  5. Michael Soyza – AUD 423,360 (USD 290,451)
  6. Sam Grafton – AUD 370,440 (USD 254,145)
  7. Timothy Adams – AUD 317,250 (USD 217,653)

If there’s a poker festival worth abandoning your pillow for it seems to be the Aussie Millions. We’ve had a record-breaking AUD 50,000 field. The Main Event fell three players short of setting a new bar, and the AUD 100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge also had a healthy 40 entrants. 

Tournament organisers are yet to draw a chalk outline on the registration period, so that number of 40 could still rise. Unless madness erupts, it’s never going to reach the dizzy heights of 2015 (Richard Yong beat 70-entrants), but it could eclipse the 42-entrant field, which Cary Katz found the right blend of stealth and skill to top last year.

Twenty-one players have boots in this thing, and sitting up top, is a man who likes being on top in Alex Foxen. The back-to-back Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY), and reigning GPI World #1, placed 853,500 chips into a plastic bag. Australia hasn’t seen the best of Foxen, yet – could this be his year?

The only other player to bag up more than 800,000 chips is also a man in form. Aaron van Blarcum ended the year with more heat than a bottle of tabasco sauce. Blarcum finished second in the partypoker MILLIONS World Main Event for $970,000, before winning a $25,000 at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and finishing second in the $50,000 for more than $700,000.

Sitting in third place is the man Foxen plays tag with at the top of the GPI World Rankings. Stephen Chidwick finished in fifth place in the AUD 25,000 NLHE Challenge, and did win the €50,000 NLHE Super High Roller in December’s European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague – so he’s not coming to war, holding a blunt knife. 

The Top 10 is certainly not monochrome. 

Few play better than Dan Smith at the sharp end of these things. Smith begins in ninth place. The Australian Poker Hall of Fame (APHoF) recently inducted Kahle Burns, and the GPI Australian PoY starts in eighth, and the All-Time Money List leader, and reigning Aussie Millions Main Event winner, Bryn Kenney, starts in seventh place.

And keep an eye out for Cary Katz.

The defending champion, finished second to Michael Addamo, in the AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge, and he starts Day 2, 14th in chips. Addamo also made it through to Day 2. The APHoF handed him the Young Achiever Award a few days shy. 

Here are the Top 10 chip counts.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Alex Foxen – 853,500
  2. Aaron van Blarcum – 824,500
  3. Stephen Chidwick – 745,000
  4. Seth Davies – 646,500
  5. Sam Grafton – 635,500
  6. Junichi Nakanowatari – 632,000
  7. Bryn Kenney – 584,000
  8. Kahle Burns – 545,000
  9. Dan Smith – 519,000
  10. Timothy Adams – 505,000

As Osama bin Laden found out if all that talk about heaven was real, Erik Seidel left Melbourne with $3m heading to his bank account. The year was 2011, and Seidel had just won the AUD 250,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) Challenge, and finishing third in the AUD 100,500 version at the Aussie Millions.

The Poker Hall of Famer would later tell me that he never intended on playing a heavy live tournament schedule that year. Still, after running so hot in Australia, he extended his leash, finishing the year with more than $6.5m in gross earnings – more than enough to buy a new mahogany table or whatever else floats the Seidel family boat. 

In 2019, $6.5m would have seen Seidel finish 14th in the Annual Money List. Back then, only the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner, Pius Heinz, won more. It was the first bombshell run. Fedor Holz, Dan Colman, Justin Bonomo and Bryn Kenney would go on to have similar sterling years, but Seidel seismic song was the first, and he’s back singing that same familiar tune. 

We finally have a 2020 Aussie Millions Main Event final table after the 14hr+ Day 4 became a distant memory, and Seidel is the star attraction. Although it’s safe to say, he has mixed emotions.

With 81 big blinds, Seidel starts the event as the favourite. Nino Ullman took down a 184-entrant $1,100 NLHE event at partypoker’s MILLIONS World Bahamas, recently, and Vincent Wan is a former gold ring winner, after taking down a 537-entrant AUD 1,100 NLHE event in 2008. Still, on experience, Seidel is the man. Only Oliver Weis has memories of handling the pressure at the funeral pyre end of these things. 

If Seidel does win, it will be his first title since taking down the €100,000 NLHE Super High Roller at the 2015 European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo. But don’t feel too bad for him; cockroaches don’t tend to vacation at the Seidel family residence.

The event attracted 820-entrants, making it the second-highest attended in history. There were 822-entrants in 2019, and 800 in 2018, and one man nearly ended up playing the final table of all three. 

In 2018, Mike Del Vecchio finished in fifth before finishing second to Bryn Kenney the following year. Del Vecchio’s unprecedented third successive final ended in tenth. 

On the high roller side of things, Fabian Quoss came out of retirement for four days to finish 14th, a spot behind the former EPT & Triton champion, Manig Loeser. Pete Chen (34th), Steve O’Dwyer (38th), Ben Lamb (39th), and Sergio Aido (48th) also sneaked under the Top 50 bar, as did Triton Commentator, Randy Lew. The newly crowned father finished in 28th place.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Nino Ullmann – 5,500,000
Seat 2: Gareth Pepper – 2,465,000
Seat 3: Vincent Wan – 4,150,000
Seat 4: Erik Seidel – 4,050,000
Seat 5: Ngoc Tai Hoang – 1,875,000
Seat 6: Nicolas Malo – 1,975,000
Seat 7: Oliver Weis – 4,475,000

Prizes (AUD)

  1. 1,850,000 (USD 1,266,550)
  2. 1,125,000 (USD 770,199)
  3. 661,000 (USD 452,535
  4. 480,160 (USD 328,728)
  5. 378,660 (USD 259,229)
  6. 307,920 (USD 210,801)
  7. 240,080 (USD 164,358)