Yesterday the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event kicked off in a big way as 175 players turned out for the first of three starting flights. After seven 90-minute levels, the field was whittled down to 86 players with David Malka and his stack of 205,400 leading the way. Today a whole new field will pack into Crown's Poker Room for their shot at poker glory.
Due to the Super Bowl and Day 2 of the $25,000 Challenge, we expect tomorrow's Day 1c flight will be the biggest and contain the most notables. That said, there should be plenty of stiff competition in today's flight.
Action is set to kick off at 12:30 local time, which is a half an hour from now. Stay tuned as we bring you all the action and eliminations from the floor of the Crown Poker Room. In the meantime, check out this Chinese New Year video by Kristy Arnett:
It no secret that German's have been dominating the poker world as of late thanks to players like Fabian Quoss, Philipp Gruissem, and Ole Schemion, just to name a few. Another German player who is making a name for himself is Christoph Vogelsang.
The 28 year old, who has a Masters in Risk and Finance from the London School of Economics, hails from Germany but has lived in London for a few years. He mainly plays online high stakes heads-up cash games and has just started playing six max. Last October, Vogelsang played his first High Roller at the European Poker Tour London. He managed to make the final table of the £50,000 Super High Roller and ultimately finished in third for £383,200.
Vogelsang played the $25,000 Challenge yesterday, but was not one of the 30 players to make it through to Day 2. As a result, he's decided to take his shot in the Main Event here on Day 1b. He's obviously hoping for a deep run to the final table, but if things don't go according to plan he's already declared his intentions to play both the $100,000 Challenge and $250,000 Challenge later this week.
On the historic 200th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier joins the crew in Melbourne Australia to answer some fan questions, discuss his future in poker, and guess the over/under for runners in the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event. If a listener guesses the exact number using the hashtag #PNPod, they will win a PokerNews t-shirt signed by Mercier.
It all started when David Steicke limped in from under the gun. A player on his direct left raised to 600, Julius Colman called in late position, and a player on the button three-bet to 1,500. All three of his opponents called.
The dealer fanned , Steicke checked, and the original raiser fired out 1,500. Colman called, the three-bettor folded, and Steicke check-raised to 6,500. The original raiser called, Colman moved all in for 23,500, and only Steicke called.
Steicke:
Colman:
Steicke could eliminate Colman with running sixes or a club, but the turn () and river () both produced bricks.
Colman doubled to 60,000 chips, while Steicke fell to 4,500.
Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel has been fairly quiet today, so we decided to spend an entire orbit at his seven-handed table to see if we couldn't catch him in a big pot. Ultimately we failed, but we did catch a couple interesting hands. Have a look:
Hand #1 (Big Blind): Action folded to Andrew Scarfe in the small blind and he limped. Duhamel checked his option from the big and it was heads-up action to the flop. Scarfe led out for 300 and Duhamel quickly folded.
Hand #2 (Small Blind): A player in the hijack opened for 775 and "Crazy" Marco Johnson called from the cutoff. Duhamel folded the small blind, the big three-bet to 1,700, and the original raiser folded. Johnson decided to make the call, the flop came down , and the big blind led out for 1,700. Johnson pushed back to 4,200, the big blind called, and the dealer burned and turned the . The big blind checked and then folded to a bet of 5,200 from Johnson.
Hand #3 (Button): Rob Schiffbauer opened for 600 under the gun only to have the hijack three-bet to 1,200. Duhamel folded, the small blind called, and Schiffbauer came along to make it three-way action to the flop, which all three players checked.
When the turned, the small blind led out for 800 and Schiffbauer raised to 1,800. The hijack folded, the small blind called, and the completed the board on the river. Schiffbauer bet 2,125 after his opponent checked, but he couldn't shake the small blind who called with the . It was good as Schiffbauer could only muster the .
Hand #4 (Cutoff): Action folded to Duhamel in the cutoff and he does the same. Schiffbauer ultimately get a walk.
Hand #5 (Hijack): Scarfe opened for 800 from middle position and Duhamel looked him up from the hijack. The rest of the players folded and it was heads-up to the flop. Duhamel called a bet of 1,100 from Scarfe and then folded when his opponent fired out 3,600 on the turn.
Hand #6 (UTG+1): The under-the-gun player folded and Duhamel did the same.
Hand #7: (Under the Gun): Duhamel folded.
It wasn't the most interesting seven hands, but we're confident we'll catch Duhamel in a big hand sooner or later.
We can confirm that Anita Le, who is a disability nurse who plays at Crown regularly, emerged victorious to earn a seat into the Day 1c flight. For a full recap of her victory, as well as the consolation prize her opponents received, head on over to the PokerStars Blog.
Both Erik Seidel and Antonio Esfandiari are playing in Day 1b of the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event. Despite being at two different tables in the event, Esfandiari has done some reaching out to Seidel in an attempt to take their friendship to the next level. A couple of hours ago, Esfandiari tweeted the following:
It turns out, Seidel is quite the hard man to get some face time with, but Esfandiari has finally pulled it off and will be having dinner with the eight-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner tomorrow night. That is, if Mr. Seidel doesn't have "something come up."
Esfandiari was no doubt excited about landing a dinner with Seidel, but he also seemed a bit nervous. "I feel like this is a date!" he joked.
While we unfortunately won't be attending the dinner with the two, we can only imagine that it will be full of fun and lots of great food.
Mervin Chan was the only player not to experience elimination last year on his way to a $1.6-million payday, but this year he had to deal with it on Day 1b in brutal fashion. The betting details escaped us, but we do know that Chan was sent to the rail by Sotirios Kappas.
The last of Chan's chips went in on the river with a board reading , and he was likely confident with his flopped Broadway straight. Unfortunately for him Kappas, who won a big pot earlier in the day by hitting running cards, managed to make a runner-runner full house with the . A shell-shocked Chan watched his chips pushed across the table and then took his leave from the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event ensuring that a new champion will be crowned.
The 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event continued on Monday as 153 players entered the second of three starting flights. hat number was down slightly from Day 1a’s 176 runners, but that wasn’t exactly a surprise considering it overlapped with the Super Bowl.
Still, it was a full day of action as dozens of players hit the rail over the course of seven 90-minute levels. By the time the clock expired for the night, 81 players remained with Dean Schneider and his stack of 188,800 leading the way.
Others who bagged up big stacks were Gareth Dwyer (161,100), Daniel Neilson (119,900), Michael Hussey (106,400), Michael Laming (105,000), and Tim English (104,200). Furthermore, notables Erik Seidel (116,800), Antonio Esfandiari (77,700), and Paul Klann (56,200) all advanced to Day 2.
We caught up with Schneider late on Day 1b to find out how he acquired his stack:
It was a busy day of action in Crown’s Poker Room on Monday as 30 players returned in the $25,000 Challenge to play down to a winner and a sea of tables were set up to accommodate the second starting flight of the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event.
Chan was the only player not to experience elimination last year on his way to a $1.6-million payday, but this year he had to deal with it in Level 6 (250/500/75) in brutal fashion. The betting details remain a mystery, but we do know that Chan was sent to the rail by Sotirios Kappas.
The last of Chan's chips went in on the river with a board reading , and he was likely confident with his flopped Broadway straight. Unfortunately for him Kappas, who won a big pot earlier in the day by hitting running cards, managed to make a runner-runner full house with the . A shell-shocked Chan watched his chips pushed across the table and then took his leave from the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event ensuring that a new champion will be crowned.
Day 1c is set to kick off at 12:30 local time on Tuesday, and it’s expected to be the biggest and best starting flight yet. Among those expected to take their shot are Daniel Negreanu, Angel Guillen, Jason Mercier, Dan Smith, Philipp Gruissem, Scott Seiver and Dan Shak. Join us then as we bring you all the latest and greatest from Melbourne.
In the meantime, check out this video on how to stay healthy while on the road: