Once again, we come to you live from Melbourne Australia and the 2009 Aussie Millions, today we have the H.O.R.S.E. Event which should see more of the well known players come out of woodwork! Today’s event is going to run over 2 days and we should see some great action, for those of you who don’t know this is a mixed game event in which the action is spread over 5 different forms of poker (Hold’em, Omaha 8 or better, Razz, Seven card stud, seven card stud Eight (8) or better) in a limit format.

As we get underway here today we have just been informed that the field is capped for today’s action at 96 players, creating a prize pool of $96,000AUD. We are seeing some well known faces here today but not near as many as I would have thought. Thus far we have Jeffrey Lisandro, Ross Boatman (Team FullTiltpoker.com) Richard Ashbey (who entered off the alternate list), Mel Judah, Grant Levy, James Potter and Lee Nelson (Team PokerStars.com) as we see more faces we’ll let you know.

So far early on we are seeing a surprising trend that players are getting all there chips in the middle :-( in only the 2nd level, so far we have lost Grant Levy and nearly lost Lee Nelson who had to chop to stay alive. We have just seen James Obst today whoever to his dismay it was as the remainder of his chips where being shipped else where, and he is here and gone.

As this event is progressing we are seeing some of the favorites to win going home, as we have just watched Billy “The Croc” Argyros, Ross Boatman (Team Fulltiltpoker.com) and Lee Nelson (Team PokerStars.com) depart for the day. As Level 9 was coming to a close we have just seen Van Marcus take the chip lead after some aggressive play in the last round, he sits a just over 40k.

Mel Judah has had a quiet day here thus far today trying to stay in the event while weathering the run of bad cards, hopefully luck is starting to turn his way as he got a well timed double up when his K-10 won a coin flip with pocket 2’s. As we get closer to the end of day 1 here at the Crown we are seeing the field slowly shrink down as the players prepare to tag and bag the chips.

Mel Judah has just been hot since his double up not to long ago, after picking up a couple more pots Mel Judah happened to get the right hand at the right time as his opponent Charles Sanderson was essentially forced to move all-in in Razz while showing a King on 3rd street.

When it came to Mel he looked down and saw A-4-7 and made a no brainer call and ended up with a 7 low on 5th street and Judah is sitting on around 35k. However the run for Mel was short lived as he found himself all-in during Stud 8 or better play with a board of 8-8-Q-x-Q up against Anthony MacNamara’s 8-x-A-8. To Mel Judah’s astonishment one of the remaining 2 Aces spiked MacNamara and with only 8 players till the money Mel is done.

As the night comes to an end Van Marcus continues his stellar play as he increases his stack to 61k and still sits atop the leader board. We have seen the action slow considerably even by HORSE standards as we have reached the final two tables. As is common with poker we can go for absolute stagnancy to crazy action and it is precisely what happened as we lost 5 players in approximately 40 hands culminating with Eivind Syslak in 9th place as the bubble. It happened after he raised preflop in a Hold’em hand and found a unwanted caller.

With a flop of 2h-Jd-8d Syslak bet following a check from Kerry Stead, who then check raised Syslak. This caused Syslak to tank for nearly 2 minutes before making the call, which left him with only 12,000 chips. The Turn brought the Ah making a very very scary board for Syslak who was facing a bet to push him all-in. With the Ace on the turn Stead made that very bet pushing out a bet of 10k, which after about 90 seconds Syslak raised all-in for a total of 12k leaving Stead to call a mere 2k which he instantly did.

With the call Syslak produced a pair of 9’s and had to look at the awful sight of a Ad-3d for top pair with nut flush draw. To Syslak’s advantage he did have both 9’s live as the 9 of diamonds was in his hand but the 2d just made the loss even more painful. With that we are left with our final table and with the chip lead Van Marcus will look to take home the ring and the $30,380 in first place prize money. The chip counts and seat assignments are as follows:

Seat 1 – Joe Meissner 43,000
Seat 2 – Jarred Solomon 65,000
Seat 3 – Van Marcus 123,500
Seat 4 – Leo Boxell 104,500
Seat 5 – David Morton 38,500
Seat 6 – Michael Guzzardi 98,000
Seat 7 – Kerry Stead 81,000
Seat 8 – Anthony MacNamara 34,500

Day 2

When we left you last night only eight men remained all vying for just over 30k AUD and the Gold Ring, of the players left the only one of any type of notoriety is chip leader Van Marcus who has had an impressive run thus far. We pick up the action here today as the $1,150 No-Limit Hold’em w/re-buys event kicks off. Early on here today Van Marcus is on a tear getting involved in quite a few pots and winning a lot of them. Considering we started with some short stacks it did take a fair while for one of them to get sent home.

That player was David Morton who did start the day on the short side of the pile, and following Morton out the door “stage right” was Leo Boxell after he picked up Kings’ in the hole in Stud 8 only to run into Guzzardi and his Rockets suited with a 2. Boxell got all the chips in on 5th street, after 3 men went to 4th street.

Boxell: Ks-Kh / Jh-10s-8h
Guzzardi: Ah-Ac / 2c-7d-10c

When all the chips hit the middle and the cards hit there backs things were looking very bad for Boxell who would need perfect perfect straight cards, perfect perfect hearts while avoiding Guzzardi running perfect clubs, or a King, Jack, Ten or Eight all the while avoiding Guzzardi’s hand improving. When the 2d hit Guzzardi things got very bleak for Boxell as the 4s didn’t help him.

This leaving him only one of two Kings left in the deck while avoiding an Ace or Duece from Guzzardi. Ironically both the King and the Duece came to these two men on 7th street however the Duece went to Boxell and the King to Guzzardi, leaving Boxell in 7th place.

The trend of the short stacks getting knocked out which has been common thus far in the 09 Aussie Millions continued with the departure of Joe Meisnner in 6th place and Anthony MacNamara in 5th immediately following the first break of the final table. All the while Van Marcus is continuing his hot play. Van Marcus got mixed up in yet another hand this time with Michael Guzzardi.

With a board reading x-x / 8h-4h-Qh-2c for Van Marcus things were looking very promising for Van Marcus to get some portion of the pot against Guzzardi, who was holding x-x / 2d-6c-9h-10d. With Guzzardi only holding 14k in chips left going to 7th street, Marcus made a bet of 20k blind going into 7th street. At which point Guzzardi squeezed his card ever so slowly and let out a defeatist sigh and mucked his hand giving Van Marcus a key pot and leaving Guzzardi in tough tough shape.

At which time Van Marcus did the so called “polite” thing and showed his Qc-7h-5d for a pair of Queens for high and a 8-7 low. As was expected Guzzardi put all his chips in the middle on the next hand and with action folded to Van Marcus, Marcus said to Guzzardi “Say Please Fold and I will” upon which Guzzardi replied “Please put me all-in” however Marcus folded and Guzzardi survived one hand. On the next hand he was eliminated in 4th place. With 3 players left the chip counts are as follows:

Jarred Solomon – 345,000
Van Marcus – 193,000
Kerry Stead – 59,000

It didn’t take long for Kerry Stead to take leave of this event in 3rd place. He got all his chips in on a Omaha 8 hand in which he held:

Stead: Ac-Jd-10s-4d
Solomon: As-3s-9d-7d

The flop landed 8d-10h-9h and with a 6c on the turn and all the chips in the middle Stead needed help. He would be looking for a Seven, Queen or Three to get half the pot. However the river was a 2s and Stead left us with just over 15k in hand.

Jared Solomon made a quick chip lead during heads up play taking the first two hands, however on a the last Hi/Lo hand Van Marcus picked up a nice pot to reset the chip count to the same as at the beginning of heads up play. The chip counts are 414k for Solomon to 174k for Van Marcus heading into the various Stud forms. After 24 exciting hands of the various Stud games Van Marcus has taken back just over 100k and cut Solomon’s lead to just over 20k. Over the next 15 hands (8 hold’em and 7 Omaha 8) Van Marcus tipped the scales to the point Solomon was all-in on the final Omaha 8 hand. All the money got in after 3 preflop bets, one on the flop and 4 bets on the turn:

Board: Ah-8s-9s-Kd

Van Marcus: As-5c-4c-Kc
Jared Solomon: 2s-3h-3d-4h

Giving Van Marcus Aces’ up with a 5-4 low draw vs. a nut nut low draw for Solomon, who could only split this pot. To his luck and Van Marcus’s dismay the 2h did just that on the river. Following that hand the chip counts are:

Van Marcus – 447,000
Jared Solomon – 141,000

As the blinds increase yet again Solomon has driven his stack up to 227k during Razz play. With the play in Stud 8 Solomon picked up a monster scoop during a hand in which both men started with rolled up pairs. Van Marcus 9’s and Solomon 10’s, Marcus made two pair on 6th street when his board paired 6’s. However Van Marcus went from excited and tasting victory to sick when Solomon spiked a King to pair his board on 7th street and take a big pot and the chip lead. One has to wonder if Van Marcus can make another comeback.

On the first hand of Omaha Hi/Lo Solomon sealed the deal as he limped from the button and Van Marcus checked behind him. With a flop of 5c-7h-3h Marcus checked called Solomon’s bet, which brought forth a turn in the form of the 10d. Following the turn Van Marcus led out for 32k and was raised to 64k, Van Marcus re-raised to 84k all in so fast some wondered if it happenend. Bringing forth a call from Solomon and causing the cards to hit there backs for what would be the last hand here tonight.

Solomon: 2d-4h-7c-Qc
Marcus: 8h-8c-2s-6s

To win half this pot Marcus would need to avoid a 2, 7 or Q and to win the whole pot would need to hit a perfect 4. To win all the pot Solomon would need a 2, 7, 6 or Queen and to his elation the Six of Hearts peeled off on the river and with that we have our 2009 H.O.R.S.E. Champion. It took these two men the better part of two hours to settle this heads up play, and he managed to beat one of the toughest competitors down under in the form of Van Marcus who deserves much credit for a job well done. For his efforts Van Marcus is leaving with $20,580AUD and Solomon will get $30,380AUD along with the Gold Championship Ring.

To all those who followed us through the action; thank you! From all of us at PokerProp stay tuned as we will have more coverage for you from tonight’s second event the No-Limit Hold’em w/Re-buys.