Aussie Millions daily report – January 27, 2013
The eyes of the poker world turn to Crown Melbourne today for the start of the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event. In a massive day in the Crown Poker Room, and at the Aussie Millions HQ area in the new West End precinct, the first flight of the $10,600 Main Event is just one of many highlights today.
You could still freeroll your way into the field thanks to an innovative Crown Poker promotion. For your chance to win, tweet about Crown’s Aussie Millions and include @crownpoker and #aussiemillions in your tweets.
Three winners will be drawn tonight (Sunday) and tomorrow night (Monday) and go through to a freeroll tournament at 10am on Tuesday. The lucky winner will receive an entry into the third flight of the Aussie Millions Main Event at 12:30pm on Tuesday.
The latest edition of the $100,000 Hold’em Challenge also kicks-off today and, for the first time, re-entry will be available for players with a spare $100k until the end of the sixth level.
Other events scheduled include the $1100 No Limit Hold’em Teams Event and $2500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, while the $1650 No Limit Hold’em Bounty title will be decided with the field down to 32 players after attracting a field of 355 players.
• Appropriately on Australia Day, one of our most respected players carved his way through a world class line-up to claim victory in the $1150 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy event.
Australian Poker Hall of Fame member and WSOP bracelet winner Gary Benson was the last man standing in an event that he also won in 2007 and in which he finished runner-up to Mike Watson in 2010.
Benson started day two fifth of nine in chips behind WA’s Patrick Healy, a pair of WSOP bracelet winners (Craig McCorkell and Valdemar Kwaysser) and Jake Balsiger, who finished behind only Greg Merson and Jesse Sylvia in the 2012 WSOP Main Event.
It came down to a battle between youth and experience, with Benson starting the heads-up battle against Balsiger with a small buffer. However, it would be mostly one-way traffic as Benson delivered death by 1000 cuts, with his pocket jacks delivering the final blow against the K-7 of Balsiger.
Aussie Millions Event 5: $1150 No Limit Hold’em w/ Rebuys (83 players; 257 rebuys/add-ons; total prizepool $340,000) results
1 Gary Benson (Australia) $109,000
2 Jake Balsiger (USA) $71,000
3 Patrick Healy (Australia) $44,500
4 Craig McCorkell (UK) $30,000
5 Neil Channing (UK) $24,000
6 Tino Lechich (Australia) $20,500
7 Alex Rich (UK) $17,000
8 Valdemar Kwaysser (Hungary) $13,500
9 Tony Sama (Australia) $10,500
Fast fact
The first $100,000 buy-in event was played at the 2006 Aussie Millions under the banner of the Speed Poker World Championship, with John Juanda taking home the winner-takes-all AUD $1 million first prize ahead of Jeff Lisandro and Jason Gray.
What’s on today
12.15pm $200 Last Chance Aussie Millions Super Satellite
12.30pm Event 8: $10,600 No Limit Hold’em Main Event day 1 flight 1
2.15pm Event 9: $1100 No Limit Hold’em Teams Event
2.30pm Event 10: $100,000 Hold’em Challenge
6.15pm Event 11: $2500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
6.15pm $1150 Phase 3 SuperShot Satellite
9.15pm $130 Main Event Rebuy Satellite
• Special thanks to Crown Poker for supplying information used in this report, photography Shannon Morris – 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship
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