Ami Barer opened for 120,000 and received a call from Andrew Phaedonos. Darren Rabinowitz then moved all in from the small blind, the big folded, and Barer wasted little time in making the call. Phaedonos got out of the way and the cards were turned up.
Barer:
Rabinowitz:
Phaedonos informed his friends on the rail that he had folded an ace, which meant there were just two left in the deck. The odds were against Rabinowitz, but that didn't stop him from taking the lead when the flop delivered him one of those aces.
Rabinowitz's rail, which includes reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champ Ryan Riess, went wild for their man while Phaedonos' rail, who are no doubt hoping their man would move up the pay ladder, were vocally disappointed.
Neither the turn nor river changed a thing and Rabinowitz doubled through Barer.
Sorel Mizzi opened for 120,000 from early position and Scott Seiver called from the button. Ami Barer came along from the big blind and three players saw a flop of . Barer checked, Mizzi bet 220,000, and Seiver called.
Barer then woke up with a check-raise to 485,000, both his opponents called, and the dealer burned and turned the . Barer slowed down with a check, Mizzi did the same, and Seiver came out with a bet of 435,000. Barer quickly folded, and then Mizzi sprung to life with an all-in check-raise. Seiver, who only had 800,000 or so behind, snap-folded.
Scott Seiver open-shoved again - this time for around 800,000 in the cutoff - and Andrew Phaedonos called all in for less from the small blind.
Seiver:
Phaedonos:
As we highlighted earlier, Phaedonos is the only Aussie at the final table, so his rail was up on their feet before the cards were on their backs. The flop gave Seiver backdoor straight and flush draws to go along with his two over cards, and both draws remained live when the turn was the .
“Too many outs!” someone yelled from the rail.
Phaedonos was amongst his brethren, pacing in between streets, and they all fell silent as the dealer rapped the table for a final time.
The on the river was a brick, and Phaedonos’ rail exploded. The Aussie doubled through, while Seiver is back on the short stack.
Ami Barer was first to act, and raised to 100,000. Sorel Mizzi called on his direct left, the rest of the players folded, and the dealer fanned . Barer continued for 90,000, Mizzi called, and the turn brought the .
Barer fired a second bullet worth 270,000, Mizzi called, and the completed the board.
Barer emptied the chamber, plopping 665,000 in front of him - roughly three quarters of the pot - and Mizzi went into the tank. The Canadian riffled chips with his left hand while studying the board, then finally reached for chips.
With two hands full of chocolate T25,000 chips, Mizzi pushed forward a raise to 1.55 million. Barer sat back in his chair, breathing deeply, then started to fidget a bit. He moved his mouth back and forth while he thought about the decision, then finally flicked his cards into the muck, conceding the pot.
For a third straight hand, Ami Barer raised to 100,000. This time his open came from under the gun, and Vincent Rubianes defended his big blind.
Rubianes checked, then folded when Barer continued for 120,000. The Canadian has raked in the last three hands, one with a preflop raise and two with continuation bets on the flop.
“I didn’t want to get a job,” 23-year old Jake Balsiger tells us when asked how he got his start in poker. Well he seems to have a made a good living out of poker so far, amassing almost $4 million in tournament results. Most of that came when he finished 3rd in the 2012 WSOP Main Event. He’s guaranteed another $170,000 for making this latest final table.
Balsiger says that Phil Galfond is the biggest influence on his poker game and the thing he has enjoyed most about his visit to Melbourne this January is making the Aussie Millions Main Event final table. Outside of poker Balsiger enjoys hiking and playing tennis.
Darren Rabinowitz has been playing poker professionally for two years. The 25-year old says that making a few WSOP final tables have been a highlight of his career, but making the Aussie Millions final table is “pretty epic”. Rabinowitz claims that winning a flip with ten players remaining was “good”.
His biggest influences in poker are fellow poker players Joe Kuether, Carter Newhof and Mike Corson, along with the late TuPac. Outside of poker Rabinowitz loves food and the highlight of his Aussie Millions trips has been going to the beach and watching Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.
Scott Seiver is the short stack heading into the final table, but also happens to be one of the most successful poker players of the last decade. The 28-year old has been playing poker for eight years and claims that this Aussie Millions has been the highlight of his poker career – topped only by meeting Fabian Quoss.
Seiver tells us he got started in poker “by playing” and he has certainly done well at it. Before his recent $25K Challenge result at the Aussie Millions, Seiver had never posted a result in Australia. Now he is guaranteed another $170,000 to be added to his more than $9 million in career tournament results.
Vincent Rubianes claims to be “unemployed”, but considering he’s posted almost $200,000 in tournament results over the last couple of years, and will be adding at least another $170,000 by making the Aussie Millions final table, we are going to go right ahead and call him a poker player.
Like Jake Balsiger, Rubianes claims Phil Galfond to be the biggest influence on his poker game. The biggest highlight of his poker career was finishing 5th in the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event in 2011. Rubianes is the only player at the final table who has been at an APPT final table before. He finished 2nd in the 2012 APPT Seoul Main Event.
Ami Barer may be from Canada but he clearly has strong ties to Australia considering he cites Aussie Daniel Neilson as both the biggest influence on his poker game and meeting him as the highlight of his poker career.
The 22-year old has been playing poker for a “couple of years”, which was long enough to post almost $6 million in online tournament results under the screen name “UhhMee”. The largest live tournament result on Barer’s resume is $180,064 for finishing 2nd in the EPT Prague Eureka Main Event in 2013. Anything better than 7th at the Aussie Millions final table will top that.
![[user153638]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop delivered him one of those aces.
turn nor 
river changed a thing and Rabinowitz doubled through Barer.
. Barer checked, Mizzi bet 220,000, and Seiver called.
. Barer slowed down with a check, Mizzi did the same, and Seiver came out with a bet of 435,000. Barer quickly folded, and then Mizzi sprung to life with an all-in check-raise. Seiver, who only had 800,000 or so behind, snap-folded.
flop gave Seiver backdoor straight and flush draws to go along with his two over cards, and both draws remained live when the turn was the 
.
on the river was a brick, and Phaedonos’ rail exploded. The Aussie doubled through, while Seiver is back on the short stack.
. Barer continued for 90,000, Mizzi called, and the turn brought the 
