Tag: aussie millions

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)

It’s been a long road to get there for the Melbourne man, but get there he did.

Michael Addamo began racking up live tournament scores in 2012, and he earned his first 17 in the money (ITM) finishes playing in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, including his first-ever win: a 36-entrant AUD 20 NLHE event for AUD 640 in 2013.

Two years later, and Addamo made a deep run in the Aussie Millions Main Event, finishing 21/648, securing a record AUD 40,000 score. Another two years passed, before Addamo made another impression at the Crown, finishing 3/15656 in the AUD 1,200 NLHE Opening Event for AUD 117,910, and winning a 31-entrant AUD 5,000 at the Crown Poker Championships for AUD 58,900.

A year later, and Addamo, went one step further in the Aussie Millions Opening Event finishing runner-up to Benedikt Eberle in the 1,538-entrant AUD 1,200 NLHE Opening Event for AUD 194,690.

And now this.

Addamo has just defeated Cary Katz in heads-up action to take the title and $741,752 first prize in the AUD 50,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLH) Challenge.

A ring, at last.

The Nutshell Action

Day 1

It was a record-breaking Day 1, with 67-entrants surpassing the previous record set in 2019 when Toby Lewis defeated 62-entrants. 39-players waded through a moat of treacle to make it to Day 2, and with late registration and unlimited re-entry available until the end of the first level on Day 2, the attendance figure would rise.

The 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Australian Player of the Year (PoY), Kahle Burns, led the field. Former AUD 50,000 winners Mikita Badziakouski and Sam Greenwood ended the day in the Top 10. Addamo settled for a berth in the middle of the pack

Day 2

The day began with three new entrants, as Sosia Jiang, Jorryt van Hoof, and Cary Katz hoped their new bullets weren’t rubber.

By the end of the first level, and a series of sugared-up re-entries, the final attendance was 82-entrants, with 44-players left to battle for the $738,000 first prize.

Addamo took the chip lead in Level 11, after eliminating Sam Grafton when pocket tens outstripped AK during a five-card sprint. Then we lost the starting day chip leader when Elio Fox’s AdJc beat Burns’ QhJh after an all-in and call in the same level.

The Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 would fall in Level 12 when Alex Foxen’s AdKh faced Rainer Kempe’s pocket tens in a hip-hop dance-off, did a headspin and broke its neck.

Ten would earn a buck, and Michael Soyza was the last person not to. With blinds at 2,500k/5,000/5,000, Soyza limped into the action from the small blind, holding Ac7c, and called when Addamo raised to 20,000, holding Qh8h. The flop of AhKh8d contained a bit of something for both players, and Soyza check-called a 30,000 Addamo bet. The Js hit the turn, keeping Soyza in the lead, and he once again check-called, this time for an overbet of 105,000. Addamo hit his flush on the river when the 7h decided the myopic lifestyle of the deck was not for him. Soyza checked, Addamo moved all-in, and after using 3 of his 4-time extension chips, Soyza made the fatal call.

The first player to exit with a few AUD in her purse was Kristen Bicknell. The 2019 GPI Female Player of the Year lost a race versus Cary Katz when pocket fives failed to dodge the landmines that aided AhKc.

Yong Wang felt the sharp sting of the Poker Gods wrath when he got it in with pocket kings versus the pocket tens of Erik Seidel, only for the New Yorker to hit his two-outer on the flop to send Wang home with a bang.

The next time Seidel came up against pocket kings, the Poker Gods deserted him. Seidel got it in on 9s8s6h chasing a flush draw with As5s in a single raised pot against Katz, holding KsKd. The flush flirted with an appearance but decided against it, and Katz extended his chip lead, leaving Seidel feeling more styrofoam cup than China.

Sharpshooter, Sam Greenwood, took out two in a single shot to keep his hopes of a second AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge win alive. Rainer Kempe moved all-in for 142,000 from midfield, Greenwood was all-in from the button, and Timothy Adams called all-in from the big blind. Adams had the lead with pocket jacks versus the pocket nines of Greenwood, and KcQc of Kempe, but a 9s hit the turn to give Greenwood trips and the triple up.

Addamo replaced Katz as the chip leader with four remaining after eliminating the short-stacked Ben Lamb. The cash game star made a move holding 8c2c for the flush draw on 7c5h4c, and Addamo called and won with pocket jacks.

Then Greenwood’s voyage hit the rocks in fourth-place.

With blinds at 5,000/10,000/10,000, Addamo opened to 22,000, holding pocket aces in the first position, Katz called on the button with an unknown hand and Greenwood three-bet to 105,000 from the big blind. Addamo four-bet to 230,000, Katz moved out of the way, Greenwood jammed for more than 800,000, and Addamo called. Greenwood did flop the nut flush draw, but the turn and river were as red as Greenwood’s jumper, and the Canadian was out.

Chip Counts

Michael Addamo – 2,450,000
Cary Katz – 1,250,000
Orpen Kisacikoglu – 375,000

Kisacikoglu had a mountain to climb, and he didn’t climb it.

With blinds at 6,000/12,000/12,000, Kisacikoglu bet 12,000 on a flop of 4s3d3c, and Addamo made the call. Kisacikoglu held Kd4d for two-pair, and Addamo held Qh3s for trips. The turn card was a cooler when the Kh improved Kisacikoglu’s hand even further. The London-based entrepreneur checked from his seat in the small blind, Addamo bet 45,000 from the big, and the call came. The final card was the 5s, and Addamo moved all-in prompting a call from Kisacikoglu, and heads-up play moved over the horizon.

Heads-Up

Michael Addamo – 2,815,000
Cary Katz – 1,285,000

In what turned out to be a bit of a battle, Katz would double-up once, but never take the lead from Addamo throughout the duration. The final hand came with blinds at 10,000/20,000/20,000, when Addamo limped into the action holding pocket sixes, and Katz made a sneaky check with AhJs. The Jh6d2d flop would have had all the poker TV junkies on the edge of their seats like trained monkeys watching a cocaine bottle refill. Of course, the money went in, and the set for Addamo held to deliver him his 10th title. Last years AUD 100,000 Challenge winner, had to settle for second place.

Previous AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge Winners

2017 Mikita Badziakouski beat six entrants
2018 Sam Greenwood beat four entrants
2019 Toby Lewis beat 62-entrants

AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge ITM Results

  1. Michael Addamo – $741,752
  2. Cary Katz – $494,501
  3. Orpen Kisacikoglu – $329,668
  4. Sam Greenwood – $274,723
  5. Ben Lamb – $219,778
  6. Timothy Adams – $192,306
  7. Rainer Kempe – $164,834
  8. Erik Seidel – $137,362
  9. Yong Wang – $109,889
  10. Kristen Bicknell – $82,417

If you were playing poker on the Playstation, and you were Latin American, then Farid Jattin would be one of your hot character picks. The 31-year-old from Barranquilla, Colombia, had his best year on the live tournament circuit in 2019, recognised by the Global Poker Index (GPI) awarding him the Latin American Player of the Year (PoY) title.

The weatherman has spoken, and you can expect nothing but heat for the Colombian in the near future.

A year after finishing runner-up to Anton Morgenstern in the AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), and a lost train ticket away from finishing 7/59 in the same tournament, Jattin finally has an Aussie Millions gold ring.

Jattin brought the field of 169-entrants to its knees in the AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge beneath the poisonous skies of Melbourne to collect the second most significant score of his career ($678,900).

To reach the summit, Colombia’s All-Time #1 Live Tournament Money Earner had to beat George Wolff in heads-up action, but not before the pair agreed upon a heads-up deal.

Like Jattin, 2019 was Wolff’s best year for live tournament consistency, earning a record $1.6m. He won a £10k PLO event at the British Poker Open (BPO) in September, but it’s been his consistency at the top end of these things that’s impressive with five runner-up finishes. A tad more luck on the occasional flop, turn or river, and Wolff would have had more toasts.

Wolff came into this one in fine fettle, finishing 3/37 in a $25k NLHE during the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and 3/160 in a $3k event at the Venetian, both in December.

It was a final table brimming with quality, making it challenging not to be verbose when it comes to their accomplishments.

I’ll make it short and sweet.

Steve O’Dwyer followed up his 5/37 finish in the $25k NLHE at the MILLIONS UK in Nottingham with a third-place finish here. The GPI Canadian PoY, Sam Greenwood, finished fourth. The former WPT Jeju Champ, Masato Yokosawa finished fifth, the former World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event winner, Jack Sinclair was sixth, and former Aussie Millions ring winner, Kenney Hallaert, finished seventh.

It’s the second successive calendar year that Jattin has propelled himself out of the starting blocks like a phantom. He finished 7/1039 at the $25,000 NLHE PokerStars Players’ Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas for $746,000, before a decent outing in Melbourne.

Here are the final table results in full.

Final Table Results

  1. Farid Jattin – $678,900*
  2. George Wolff – $566,832*
  3. Steve O’Dwyer – $322,501
  4. Sam Greenwood – $238,371
  5. Masato Yokosawa – $168,262
  6. Jack Sinclair – $119,185
  7. Kenny Hallaert – $91,142

*Indicates a heads-up deal.

We’re not about to carve his head into the granite of poker’s Mount Rushmore, but Jorryt van Hoof seems to have the oomph needed to traverse from the darkness of high stakes cash games to the bright lights of high stakes live tournaments.

Van Hoof appeared under poker Pentagon’s radar in 2014, finishing third in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $3.8m, but while that year is all about the glitz and the glamour, 2019’s wrap sheet looks more like the grind.

It was the Dutchman’s best live tournament return on gross earnings outside of that remarkable run in 2014. All told, van Hoof earned $858,805. In late November, he won a 45-entrant €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller at the Master Classic of Poker (MCOP) in Amsterdam for $181,102. He then finished runner-up to Chin Wei Lim in a 50-entrant €25,000 NLHE event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague earning another $303,100.

Now he has an Aussie Millions ring.

Van Hoof won the 59-entrant, Event #11: AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, defeating three Australians while four-handed to add $322,400 to his bank account.

It’s van Hoof’s first cash at the Aussie Millions, and the third live tournament win of his career.

Here is the nutshell action.

The Nutshell Action

Of the 59-entrants, only seven players would receive a return on investment, and Miroslav Sheynin was the last to see that hope vanish like the silt on a mantlepiece against the brush of a cleaner when Hun Lee sent him packing after flopping the nut flush against a straight.

Van Hoof doubled through Farid Jattin after a flush arrived on the river to beat the Colombian’s flopped two-pair hand, and Lee eliminated Jattin not long after.

Lee continued to be the punk amongst mods, eliminating his third player at the final table. Fabian Brandes went for it on a Td5s3h flop holding AhAd7h3c, only for Lee to river a two-pair hand to send the Austrian packing.

Van Hoof doubled again, this time through Lee, before taking out the dangerous Stephen Chidwick when AsQs8c6c rivered a two-pair hand to beat the KcKsTs5c of the man from the UK.

Chip Counts

Hun Lee – 1,474,000
Jorryt van Hoof – 771,000
Martin Kozlov – 472,000
Najeem Ajez – 237,000

Martin Kozlov fell first when Lee found aces and nines to beat the AhKdQcJc of Kozlov before Najeem Ajez took the lead after doubling twice through Lee.

Lee gained revenge, doubling through Ajez twice, before van Hoof took the chip lead for the first time at the final table, eliminating Ajez when Ah8h8s5c beat Jc7h5h5d when all-in pre and the eights held.

Heads-Up

Jorryt van Hoof – 1,825,000
Hun Lee – 1,130,000

Van Hoof extended his lead winning the first few pots before Lee doubled back into contention when KcKsQc9h beat AsJs9c4d. Despite, Lee knocking on the door, it never opened. The final twist in this plot saw all the money go in on a flop of Tc6h4s in a limped pot. It was Lee’s 9c8d7s3h versus the JsThTd5d of van Hoof, for a set versus a wrap, and the Dutchman scored a full house on the turn to signify the end of the contest.

Final Table Results

  1. Jorryt van Hoof – $322,400
  2. Hun Lee – $205,164
  3. Najeem Ajez – $136,776
  4. Martin Kozlov – $107,467
  5. Fabian Brandes – $68,388
  6. Farid Jattin – $58,618
This picture taken on December 31, 2019 shows firefighters struggling against the strong wind in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Australia is in crisis. 

Mother nature has torched the country like no country has been torched before. Flames from the 130+ fires have reached 230 feet into the sky, with temperatures rising to 1,000 degrees Celcius.

The smoke is destroying air quality, and firefighters have to contend with a new phenomenon as the fire creates thunderstorms and lightning strikes, fire clouds and ember attacks.

Help is needed.

The Aussie Millions is the most prestigious poker tour in the Asia-Pacific region and the first significant event of 2020. In November, hosts, the Crown Melbourne, and it’s owner, James Packer, donated $1m to help bushfire fighting services and provide community support. This week that donation rose to $5m.

Speaking to the press, Packer said:

“Australians are digging deep to support each other in these tough times; it’s truly inspiring. My family and Crown are eager to do more, and the best way we can help is to significantly increase our donation.

We hope these funds play a small part in helping our firefighters and easing the suffering of people who have lost their homes and the poor wildlife caught up in the blaze. We just want to do our bit.”

The money will go to areas where Crown properties exist such as New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, and here is a breakdown of fund distribution:

N.S.W. Rural Fire Service – $1m

Victorian County Fire Authority – $1m

Western Australia Bush Fire Brigade – $500,000

Australian Red Cross – $500,000

Victorian Government Fund in Conjunction With Bendigo Bank and the Salvation Army – $1m

Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service, Zoos Victoria – $1m

Aussie Millions News

The Aussie Millions consists of 23-events with buy-ins ranging between AUD 1,500 – 100,000, and Dzmitry Urbanovich is the first player to experience the comfort blanket feel of a win.

Image by Andrew Burnett.

The Pole defeated Julien Sitbon after close to five hours of heads-up action at the boiling point of Event #2: AUD 2,500 H.O.R.S.E. Urbanovich collected AUD 28,755 (USD 19,964) for the win, after agreeing upon a heads-up deal. 

It’s Urbanovich’s thirteenth live career title, and his second in H.O.R.S.E. after winning a 30-entrant $500 buy-in event during the 2017 partypoker MILLION in Sochi, Russia. 

The partypoker pro’s Aussie Millions experience has resulted in 7 in the money (ITM) finishes, including 3 in 2018 along with a runner-up finish to Kenny Hallaert in an AUD 1,200 No-Limit Hold’em (N.L.H.E.) Shot-Clock event. Urbanovich has now earned more than $6m playing live tournament earnings and is the Polish All-Time Live Tournament Money Earner.

The 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event attracted a record 822-entrants, and Bryn Kenney won the AUD 1,272,598 (USD 914,617) first prize – launching himself into the year of his life.

I hope someone from Hasbro was watching the Aussie Millions Main Event livestream because it produced a cracking Trivial Pursuit question for when Santa’s little elves start chucking them into his sledge come December.
aussie-millions-2019
Question: “Name the person who won the Aussie Millions Main Event without eliminating a single player.”
Answer: “Bryn Kenney.”
822 LAGS, TAGS and WAGS competed in the AUD 10,000 Main Event smashing its attendance record for the second successive year. Kenney started the final table with the shortest stack of the lot (18 bb) but doubled up twice to put him amongst the favourites to land his first Main Event title.
The chip lead didn’t arrive until he was three-handed, and it was during his fist fight with Andrew Hinrichsen and Mike Del Vecchio (who was making the final table for the second successive year) that the action stopped. The trio stepped away to cut a deal, and Kenney returned as the champion in a damp squib of a final scene.
Final Table Results
1. Bryn Kenney – $923,269*
2. Mike Del Vecchio – $922,953*
3. Andrew Hinrichsen – $796,410*
4. Clinton Taylor – $350,417
5. Mathew Wakeman – $275,908
6. Gyeong Byeong Lee – $224,180
7. Hamish Crawshaw – $175,571
*Indicates a three-way deal
Kenney jumped straight into the AUD 100,000 Challenge but wasn’t so lucky. The event pulled in a 42-entrant field, the third highest in the event’s 14-year history, and Cary Katz won the $1,066,867 first prize after beating Johannes Becker, heads-up.
It’s the second time Katz has won a $100k event after winning the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) version in 2018. Rainer Kempe continued his excellent run of form finishing fourth to take the early lead in the Global Poker Index (GPI) 2019 Player of the Year race, and it was fantastic to see the GPI Ladies #1, Kristen Bicknell, firing multiple AUD 100k bullets on her way to a sixth-place finish.
Final Table Results
1. Cary Katz – $1,066,867
2. Johannes Becker – $681,610
3. Abraham Passet – $444,528
4. Rainer Kempe – $325,987
5. Jack Salter – $329,280
6. Kristen Bicknell – $207,446
And there was an AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event for the first time. 67-players gave it a shot, and Anton Morgenstern beat the lot to win the $382,061 first prize after beating Farid Jattin, heads-up. It was another excellent performance for Jattin, who made the final table of the $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) finishing seventh for $746,000.
Poker Central Power Rankings; Run It Once Launch; And More

Bryn Kenney’s victory in Melbourne ensured the top berth in the Poker Central Power Rankings this week.

Sitting in second place is Phil Galfond, who finally launched Run It Once (RIO) Poker in public beta mode, and Chris Kruk was one of the first players to live stream RIO Poker action on Twitch, and the former partypoker MILLIONS $25k High Roller winner agreed to hand all donations and subs to Dan Smith’s next Charity Drive.
Daniel Negreanu made the number three spot without doing anything (perhaps they gave it to him for NOT creating a war on Twitter?) Cary Katz picked up a fourth place spot for his performance Down Under, and I assume Phil Hellmuth made the top five because of this:

Poker Central Power Rankings

1. Bryn Kenney
2. Phil Galfond
3. Daniel Negreanu
4. Cary Katz
5. Phil Hellmuth
Eli Elezra Successful But Painful, Book Launch; Bill Perkins Celebrates 50-Years on the Planet and Joins Vegan Debate
With Negreanu having a quiet time on social media, the baton in the race to piss people off fell to the unlikeliest of poker players.
Eli Elezra hopped onto 2+2 to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) in a bid to market his new biography ‘Pulling The Trigger,’ and what a disaster it turned out to be.


Here are the cliffs:
Someone asks Ezra where he got his money from to play high stakes, and during his response, Ezra comments that he always has 100% of himself, and always pays his debts – cue Cole South.
South comes onto 2+2 and states that Ezra owes him $40,000 of a $100,000 loan given to Ezra in 2010. It then emerges that Ezra also owes Shaun Deeb some money. Then Abe Mosseri breaks radio silence and tells all and sundry that Ezra owes him $853,000 and that Ezra had threatened his family.
Ezra eventually makes a statement on 2+2; talks to PokerNews and the ChipRace Podcast to confirm that he does owe South the money and they have since come to a satisfactory arrangement. Ezra admits that he does owe Mosseri that obscene amount of money and that his safety has been threatened, pointing the finger at Mosseri’s partner.
During the statements, Ezra also said that he is on good terms with Deeb despite owing him some money, but I wonder if that’s still the case after Ezra appeared on Poker Central’s Dolly’s Game where each man pays $50,000 to take a seat.


Bill Perkins is celebrating his 50th birthday in style this week. Most people book a room in a pub for a birthday party; Perkins rented the entire Necker Island from Richard Branson.

 

Happy bday to The PERK!!! @billperkins knows how to turn 50 ????????????

A post shared by Antonio Esfandiari (@magicantonio) on


It takes time to blow out 50-candles, so Perkins decided to hop onto Twitter and get involved in the vegan debate started by this tweet from Doug Polk.


The tweet got the effective altruist community in a headspin with the likes of Liv Boeree and Justin Bonomo duelling with the outspoken carnivore. Somewhere along the way broadcaster, David Tuchman, suggested a vegan prop bet, asking how much people would need to go vegan for a year. Dan Smith was briefly in the running at $200,000, but eventually, Jamie Kerstetter fell into the crosshairs saying she would give it a bash for $10,000. Perkins took the bet. Should Kerstetter fail then she has to do 100 hours community service at Perkins’ pleasure.
And we will end with a vegan high roller as Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger took a timeout from producing YouTube videos on emotional intelligence to stream a few online poker sessions on twitch, and won a tournament playing on WSOP.com on only his second night.
And that’s this week’s Pinnacle.

William Wordsworth penned a poem called ‘The Happy Warrior’, and a stanza that feels apt this morning.

Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or, he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name –
Finds comfort in himself and his cause;
And, while the mortal mist of gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
That every man in arms should wish to be.

Bryn Kenney has won the AUD 10,600 Aussie Millions Main Event. Kenney, who vowed never to leave a dead unprofitable name. Kenney, who finds comfort in himself and his cause – to sit upon the throne reserved for the person who wins the most money playing live tournaments.

Bryn Kenney Wins Aussie MIllions

This is the happy Warrior; this is He.

That every man in arms should wish to be.

It was hardly phonebooth poker, but the period between 2012 – 2015 saw the attendance in the Aussie Millions Main Event drop below the 700-mark. The once mighty redwood of poker in the Southern hemisphere had turned into a weeping willow. 

But the Aussie Millions has strong roots. 

Who doesn’t have the image of Gus Hansen beating Jimmy Fricke, heads-up, to win the title in 2007 seared into our minds?

Last year, the worm turned, with Toby Lewis returning to the South of England with close to $1.5m in his back pocket after outlasting a record 800-entrants, and this year they beat that number by a further 22. 

Here is how the final table shaped up.

Final Table Chip Counts

Seat 1: Mike Del Vecchio – 5,465,000 (109 bb)

Seat 2: Andrew Hinrichsen – 5,300,000 (106 bb)

Seat 3: Hamish Crawshaw – 3,640,000 (73 bb)

Seat 4: Gyeong Byeong Lee – 1,540,000 (31 bb)

Seat 5: Matthew Wakeman – 4,010,000 (80 bb)

Seat 6: Bryn Kenney – 920,000 (18 bb)

Seat 7: Clinton Taylor – 3,845,000 (77 bb)

Bryn Kenney was the most experienced player, but he was also the favourite to hit the rail first with a shove or fold 18 big blinds. If you had asked his seven opponents to seal one request to the Poker Gods in an envelope, they would have all read the same.

“Don’t double up Bryn Kenney.”

Those envelopes never reached the Gods.

Kenney laddered into a seventh-place score by default after Hamish Crawshaw became the first person to slip, fatally, in the bathtub. Andrew Hinrichsen picked up AJ; Crawshaw QQ and the two went at it, tooth and nail, with AJ surviving the five card dust-up.

Then Kenney got moving, doubling up through Mike Del Vecchio AJ>A2, and then through Gyeong Byeong Lee AK>JJ. Lee tried to put a bandaid on that wound, but it wouldn’t stick. Lee picked up AK and drove his stake deep into the ground. Hinrichsen’s JT picked up a shovel, dug up that stake, and pushed it through Lee’s heart. 

Mathew Wakeman was next to exit the competition when he ran pocket queens into the pocket aces of Clinton Taylor, and here’s how the final quartet shaped up.

1. Hinrichsen – 11,325,000

2. Taylor – 6,435,000

3. Kenney – 4,800,000

4. Del Vecchio- 2,025,000

Taylor fell first when his AK failed to find the support it needed to batter the pocket nines of Hinrichsen, and the pub grinder who qualified via a $130 satellite moonwalked to the cash desk to pick up his  $350,417 prize.

With three players remaining, Kenney needed to apply some elbow grease.

1. Hinrichsen – 15,365,000

2. Kenney – 4,870,000

3. Del Vecchio – 4,830,000

The first player to make a run for the title was Mike Del Vecchio who picked up quad sixes in a hand that saw Hinrichsen double him up after rivering a straight. Next, it was Kenney who took control, winning a series of sizeable pots to move into the lead. And that’s the way it went for a hundred hands – the lead changing hands like a game of passing the parcel.

Then the game paused.

The three sat down to negotiate a deal. 

Kenney wanted the title.

Hinrichsen and Del Vecchio gave it to him.

The tournament ended.

Not exactly ’The Sixth Sense’ ending the fans would have liked, but its one that Kenney knew in his heart was always going to be the eventual outcome because he is the happy warrior. 

But could he sleep without his fame?

For one night?

“I’m just going to be the champion, and not think about poker!” Kenney told PokerNews. 

I guess so. 

Final Table Results

1. Bryn Kenney – $923,269*

2. Mike Del Vecchio – $922,953*

3. Andrew Hinrichsen – $796,410*

4. Clinton Taylor – $350,417

5. Mathew Wakeman – $275,908

6. Gyeong Byeong Lee – $224,180

7. Hamish Crawshaw – $175,571

*Indicates a three-way deal

Anton Morgenstern Wins the AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

Anton Morgenstern has won the first-ever AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event at the Aussie Millions.

The German star defeated 67-entrants to win a career-high $382,061 after climbing the steep steps of a 4:1 chip deficit, heads-up against Farid Jattin. 

Jattin was a tour de force during the final table, eliminating half of the field; true to form, after flying into Melbourne on the back of a 7/1039 finish in the $25,000 PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship in the Bahamas for $746,000.

Morgenstern began heads-up with a 715,000 v  2,600,000 chip deficit, but quickly evened the score with two critical double-ups. It was at this time that Jattin suggested the pair chat about a deal. 

“No.”

Morgenstern refused because he had the heat, and in the next hand he flopped a full house and doubled into a 3,100,000 v 250,000 chip lead. Jattin doubled once but finally hit the rail when the pair both flopped two pair hands, with Morgenstern’s that little bit better. 

The victory is Morgenstern’s second of his career, and both came in PLO events after winning a 35-entrant €1,100 PLO side event at the PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo in April 2017.

Morgenstern’s two big scores before this win came in the 2013 and 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events winning $285,408 and $262,574. The German star also made the final table of the Marathon last year finishing 7/1637 for $86,631.

ITM Results

1. Anton Morgenstern – $382,061

2. Farid Jattin – $243,130

3. Tobias Ziegler – $162,086

4. Daniel Demicki – $127,354

5. Jarryd Godena – $92,621

6. Max Lehamnski – $81,043

7. Alex Foxen – $69,466