Lee Watkinson Wins Aussie Millions Event 7Lee Watkinson, just hours ago, added to his impressive resume of recent poker successes by winning event 7 of the 2008 Aussie Millions.

Even though, since 2004, Lee Watkinson has cashed in 20 major events, including a 2007 WSOP bracelet (Event 16 PLO) and an 8th place finish in the 2007 World Series of Poker Main event, he was still considered an underdog going into this event. This is largely because these higher buy in preliminary events are usually made up primarily of the top players in poker. For example the four finalists in this event included professionals Mike Sexton, Tom Durrr and Van Marcus. While Van Marcus might not have the following the other three finalists have, he is an accomplished professional from Australia who has 16 major cashes since 2004 (four of them being at the WSOP of which one was a 3rd place finish).

In getting to heads up each of the two finalists did their part; Watkinson eliminated Mike Sexton and Tom Durrr eliminated Van Marcus. When Durr and Watkinson found themselves heads up they were about even in chips. On the final hand both got their chips all in on a flop of Kc-8h-10h. When the cards where revealed Durr had the best hand of KsKhJsTc, but Watkinson had plenty of outs with Qc9cKdJd. The turn brought a baby club giving Lee even more outs, and the river completed the backdoor flush draw and gave Lee Watkinson the tournament championship and the 180,000 AUD first place prize.
Here are the full final table results:

1st: Lee Watkinson – $180,600
2nd: Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan – $103,200
3rd: Van Marcus – $61,920
4th: Mike Sexton – $51,600
5th: Mark Kassis – $41,280
6th: Michael ‘Sticky’ Guttman – $30,960
7th: Lenny Barshack – $20,640
8th: Jamie Pickering – $15,480
9th: Max Pescatori – $10,320