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, despatched 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.