Alexander Kostritsyn tops Erik Seidel to win Aussie Millions Main Event

Seven finalists returned to the Melbourne Australia’s Crown Casino today with their sites set on the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event Championship and the $1,650,000 prize that accompanied the title. Michael Chrisanthopoulos, a former car salesman who recently began to consider poker his career, started the final table 6.8 million chips which was almost 4 million more than any other player at the final table. Many spectators questioned if Chrisanthopoulos’ massive starting chip lead would be enough to overcome his lack of high stakes tournament final table experience.

Speaking of inexperience, there were four locals who have never won more than a couple thousand dollars on a circuit’s event, managed to also make this years Main Event final table. These local players and their starting chip counts were Antonio Casale with 2 million chips, Nino Marotta with 1.6 millions chips, Peter Mobbs with 1.4 million and Peter Ling with 877K chips.

A final table player with experience, surprising because of his age, was the 21 year old Russian poker prodigy Alexander Kostritsyn who started with 1.4 millions chips. Today marked his 7th final table appearance. The previous ones came at lower buy-in events on the Russian circuit. While Alexander has done moderately well in live tournament play, he is better known for his high stakes online cash game play under the handle joiso.

Last but not least, we have Erik Seidel who despite starting with just 1.5 million chips was favored by odds makers to be the last man standing at days end. Seidel has much more high stakes tournament experience than his six opponents combined as he’s cashed in 111 major events, winning 14 of them.

During the first ten hands of play, Michael Chrisanthopoulos showed he is no slouch at big stack poker and his aggression won him 5 of the first 10 pots. Meanwhile, Alexander Kostritsyn and Erik Seidel’s used their reading abilities and other poker talents to quickly overcome their starting chip disadvantages.

The first to chip up big was Kostritsyn who on the 9th hand of the day got his money all in preflop with Ace-King versus Peter Mobbs’ Ace-Jack. This hand sent Mobbs to the rail in 7th place.

Next it was Seidel’s turn to win some big pots. On hand 13 he double to 2.5 million when his flopped a set of 4’s cracked Marotta’s slow played aces. A couple hands later Seidel would pick up 500,000 chips off Chrisanthopoulos, but he did not keep these chips long. On hand 20, Seidel unluckily chose the wrong time to attempt a stone cold bluff and ended up doubling Peter Ling.

Kostritsyn on the other hand would not be giving back many chips on this day. On hand 24 his pocket aces won him a big pot which sent Casale, who held pocket jacks, to the rail in 6th place. He would then 3 hands later send Marotta to the rail in 5th place on a hand in which Morotta pushed all in with Qs-10c on a flop of Jd-10h-3s. Kostritsyn held As-Jh and at the hands conclusion became the new chip leader.

Once four players remained the play slowed and it took just under 2 hours for the next elimination to occur. On hand 70, Chrisanthopoulos and Ling took a flop for 120,000 chips and when the flop came Ac-Kc-10h both raised back and forth till Ling was all in with Ace-Five versus Ace-King. The turn and river brought Ling no help and he collected $500,000 for his 4th place finish.

With 3 players remaining the chip counts were:

Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 8,035,000
Alexander Kostritsyn - 5,740,000
Erik Seidel - 1,805,000

It did not take long for Michael Chrisanthopoulos to find himself short stacked against his more experienced competitors. As 19 hands later the chip count was:

Alexander Kostritsyn - 8,500,000
Erik Seidel - 4,500,000
Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 2,400,000

The two finalists would be decided when hand 112 was complete. This hand had significant pre-flop action when Seidel opened from the button for 175,000, Chrisanthopoulos called, Kostritsyn re-raised to 750,000, Seidel folded, and Chrisanthopoulos moved all in for 3,235,000 which Kostritsyn called. When the cards were tabled Kostritsyn held 10c-10d and Chrisanthopoulos held Ac-6c. The board ran 5s-5d-3c-3s-10h and Chrisanthopoulos was eliminated in 3rd place.

The lesson to be learned at this point is that in poker experience does matter. Despite each player starting the day with a major chip advantaged the two players with the most final table experience were now pitted heads up to decide the tournaments championship. When this heads up player started Erik Seidel had 5,685,000 chips and Alexander Kostritsyn 9,925,000.

After a couple of hours play it became apparent, that even if for only this day, these two players were equally matched. For nearly two hours each went back and forth and 64 hands into heads up play the chip counts were similar to the chip counts at the start of heads up play.

Perhaps it was a stamina issue, or Seidel had other things to do, because on 65th heads up hand he appeared to be itching to see the event end. On this particular hand Seidel opened for to 300,000 and Kostritsyn called. Both players checked after the flop ran Ah-8c-4d. When the turn came Kc Kostritsyn checked, Seidel bet 250,000, Kostritsyn check-raised to 950,000, and Seidel called. The river is was 7s and Kostritsyn bet 1,750,000 and Seidel verbally declared, “That sucks.” After several minutes in the think tank Seidel called and then mucked after Kostritsyn showed 8s-9d. This hand gave Kostritsyn a commanding chip lead of 12,295,000 to 3,315,000.

Kostritsyn picked up 300,000 chips off Seidel on hand 177 and then captured the remainder of Seidel’s chips when Seidel tossed them all in with no pair on the flop.

Even with the odd way the last couple hands played out, nothing can be taken away from either the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event Runner-Up Erik Seidel, or the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event Champion Alexander Kostritsyn performances. These two players started the day with major chip disadvantages but proceeded to provide further evidence that in tournament poker experience carries much weight and this game is much more about skill than it is about chance.