Poker Superstars
Phil Hellmuth
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Seidel Fails To Add Aussie Millions Bracelet To Collection
The Aussie Millions, held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia hosted the final table of their Main Event on January 20, 2008. The event saw 780 entrants put up 10,000 AUD dollars generating a total prize pool of 7,800,000 AUD dollars.
On the fifth day, 773 players had fallen and only 7 players remained to make up the final table. Most players entered the table with around 1.5 million chips and all of them realized that it would be a hard day’s work considering the chip leader and local Australian; Michael Chrisanthopoulos held nearly 7 million chips when play at the final table began.
One of those players looking to take those chips was Full Tilt pro Erik Seidel. Seidel entered the table with nearly 1.5 million chips and undoubtedly the most final table experience of all the players in attendance.
With all eyes on Chrisanthopoulos and Seidel a young Russian, named Alexander Kostritsyn took control of the final table pushing other players around with his chips and building up a stack that he would use to defeat nearly all of the final table participants including local favourite Chrisanthopoulos. After Kostritsyn felted the tables start-of-day chip-leader the heads up battle between Kostritsyn and Seidel would begin. Seidel was able to sit back most of the day and watch Kostritsyn eliminate almost everyone while Seidel built up his chip stack in a slower more methodical method.
Heads-up play lasted nearly two hours when Kostritsyn took his chip advantage at the start of heads-up play and turned it into an Aussie Millions Championship bracelet. Kostritsyn check-raised his top pair, straight redraw all-in and Seidel called with two over cards. Neither card hit for Seidel and Kostritsyn took down the title and $1,650,000 Australian dollars.
Professor Lederer Schools Top Pro’s During Aussie Millions
With the New Year upon us that means that one of the most anticipated tournaments gets under way. The Aussie Millions has quickly proven to a marquee event on the tournament poker slate. The event hosts 16 events being held from January 5th to January 20th. The variety of games and buy-in amounts are sure to please almost all the players in attendance.
One of those events is not part of the official rotation but to win it could be a defining moment in any players’ career. The event in question was a $100,000 buy-in PL/NL Texas Hold’em tournament. With those stakes the event turned into a showcase of some of the best live and on-line poker pro’s in Australia. 25 Players dug deep into their pockets to pony up the buy-in to generate a prize pool of $2.5 million. $1.25 million dollars would go to the eventual winner.
Erik Seidel , Gus Hansen, Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson were just some of the big names who took their shot in this star studded event. Jeff ‘ActionJeff’ Garza , Michael ‘Timex’ McDonald, and Tom ‘Durrr” Dwan made up the contingent of top on-line players trying to make their mark in this huge event.
When heads-up action began, the two names left in the game were well known Howard Lederer and lesser known, but equally respected Mark Teltscher. Teltscher started the final table of eight in seventh place and worked his way up to only having a 2-1 disadvantage in chips. Lederers advantage in chips took him to the victory after an hour of heads-up play. The $1.25 million dollar first place prize represents the largest of Lederers career. |
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