There's still plenty of action in store at the Aussie Millions, including
the Main Event, but the competition at the Crown Casino in Melbourne
is already generating serious excitement...and big winners.
This week Erick Lindgren walked away with a $1 million check as the
top dog in Event 8, which had a buy-in of $100 000 and attracted many
of the top global poker aces around, including defending champion
John Juanda.
Several devotees of big money tournaments pointed out that the seats
for Event 8 were filled by a formidable array of tough, competitive
players, citing names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen,
Rolande De Wolfe, Lee Nelson, Jeff Lisandro, David Benyamine and TonyG.
Every player started with $100 000 in chips in a Pot-Limit before
the flop and No-Limit after the flop game. There were also time restraints
on each hand with two thirty-second time extensions.
The first three players to go to the rail were Kevin O'Donnell, Roland
de Wolfe and Daniel Negreanu, dispatched by Michael Sampoerna who
amassed a comfortable chip buffer in the process.
Masaki Kagawa, a Japanese businessman and high stakes gambler playing
in one of his first big live events, took out names like Gus Hansen
(12th position) in some audacious and aggressive play. Hansen was
followed in 11th position by Juanda after Tony Bloom took him out,
and then Phil Ivey sent Jason Gray home.
Jeff Lisandro was next to go in the number 9 slot after a brush with
Joe Reina, who was himself busted out in 8th place by Phil Ivey. By
then the contestants were all around one table and the excitement
was intense, with some provocative trash talking by some players and
dangerous silence and composure from others. Erick Lindgren and Michael
Sampoerna were the two chip leaders.
Tony Bloom was next man out, taken down in 7th position by Erik Seidel,
and that quiet Japanese businessman Masawa again came to notice as
he assumed the chip lead in a series of clever plays, mainly against
Ivey. Meanwhile former chip leader Sampoerna was in trouble in a clash
with the vociferous TonyG, who took him out. Then it was Kagawa vs
Ivey again, and this time the US ace was the casualty, going out at
position 5.
Lindgren took out TonyG (4th position) leaving Kagawa, Lindgren and
Seidel facing off, with the Japanese player holding a 200 000 chip
lead. Despite an excellent and very impressive showing overall, Kagawa
was no match for the two highly experienced players and he eventually
went down to Seidel, very creditably picking up the third prize for
the event of $250 000 and a great deal of respect from the ace community.
In the 46 hand head-to-head, Seidel faced Lindgren with double his
chips but the lead was steadily whittled away. On the final hand,
Lindgren moved all in with Ac-7c. Seidel called with Kh-Jh. Although
Lindgren flopped an ace, two hearts were on the board, giving Seidel
a nut flush draw. Seidel couldn't catch any of his outs and Lindgren
ended up winning the hand with an 8 high straight on a board of Ah-9h-8d-6d-5c.
It was still a profitable day for Seidel, who pocketed a check for
$550 000 for second place, while Lindgren took home the major $1 million
prize.