Today’s event is a first for the Aussie Millions as the players are going to sit down and split a bunch of pots. This is another one day event and due to the nature of hi/lo split, we expect this event to go late into the night. As the players are taking their seats, thus far we have noticed one major name who is making his first appearance here at the Aussie Millions Ivan Demidov.
Demidov reached mass notoriety after becoming one of the infamous November 9 and then finishing 3rd in the WSOPE, only to sit down with the November 9 and finish 2nd in the WSOP “Main Event”. Demidov is joined here today by his good friend Alexander Kostritsyn both these men will be looking forward to go deep in a number of events here at the Aussie Millions. Tony Gouga is also playing here today and is looking to do well in his native Australia.
With three levels in the books, we have seen much of what was expected and that is many split pots. The action in this game is pretty heavy due to the nature of constantly drawing to nut hands. However, in the end you tend to split the pot so eliminations have not been happening much, as the limits go up however this trend will change. As level 4 came to a close Billy “The Croc” Argyros found his way into a 3 pot with 2 of his opponents all-in. All the money got in the middle on a flop of 8c 6d 6h at that point the cards were on their backs and read:
Argyros: Ah Ac 2c Jc
Humunicki: Ad 4d 4h Js
Swalling: As 5s 9s 8h
Leaving Argyros in great shape for the whole pot needing to only avoid a 7, 2 or 4 to get it all. With a 3h on the turn nothing changed Argyros was still way ahead and trying to avoid a 7, 2 or 4. The river fell the 6c and Argyros eliminated two players and has increased his starting stack of 5k to an impressive early 14k.
As we approach the end of level 6 Ivan Demidov has been shown the door after mucking against A-Q-3-5 on a board of A-8-Q-5-10, also shown the exit is Steve Topakas who finshed 2nd in event 1 here just the other day. While Demidov’s good friend Alexander Kostritsyn is cruising here in event 3. One of the worst things that can happen in Omaha Hi/lo is that you can make an absolute monster like Quads and only get half the pot, that exact thing happened to a young Aussie named Justin Dorazio.
As this event is winding down, we are left with only 40 of the 102 entrants today. In that field we still have some big names such as Billy “The Croc” Argyros, Tony G, Mel Judah and others. The top 5 stacks are as follows:
Rainer Quel – 31,200
Alexander Kostritsyn – 25,600
Paul Sharbanee – 23,000
Giuseppe Gumina – 21,400
Michael Guzzardi – 19,100
As we are getting later on in the evening we are seeing the pots get bigger and bigger with many of them being decided over a multi-way action. Alexander Kostritsyn has found a new experience in the Crown Casino as for the first time he has been eliminated from a tournament here, Kostritsyn was last years Aussie Millions Main Event champion. On a flop of 10d 9s Kh that was seen by 4 players Kostritsyn got all his chips in the middle against Marcus both men tabled there hands and it read:
Kostritsyn: Ac Js 9h 10c
Marcus: Qs Jd 8c 8s
When the cards were shown Kostritsyn was staring down a tough situation looking for a 10, 9 or Q to take the pot. However with running 5’s Marcus took the pot and Kostritsyn took heed of the door. This was followed by James Potter breaking his streak of cashes after cashing in both events 1 and 2 a deep run today left him short of the money. If that wasn’t enough, Tony G followed soon after Potter in heading for the door to this event. Tony G had been defending a short stack for the last while and his luck finally turned south down under. Both Billy “The Croc” and Mel Judah are making deep runs here today and are looking to make the final table.
We have reached the money bubble following the elimination of Cy Jassinowsky and now all the short stacks begin to feel the pressure of not being that guy, the guy who got so far to go home empty handed. Robert Collina found himself all-in with a massive “Wrap” straight draw on a flop of Jd 9c 2s. Collina holding K-Q-10-9 was up against Mountt and a A-K-K-6 giving Collina any 8, 9, 10, Q, or K to make the best hand. However the turn and rivered ran out 4-J and Collina bust on the bubble. With that elimination it’s time to put the Ipod’s away and play for the money as the final 9 men take a break before the formation of the final table, chip counts and seat assignments are as follows:
Seat 1 – Rainer Quel 132,000
Seat 2 – Danny Mountt 89,000
Seat 3 – Mark Furniss 10,500
Seat 4 – Mel Judah 109,500
Seat 5 – Derek Raymond 37,000
Seat 6 – Michael Guzzardi 12,500
Seat 7 – Jeffrey Duvall 36,000
Seat 8 – Billy “The Croc” Argyros 68,500
Seat 9 – Mick Stanton 12,500
It didn’t take long to lose both Mick Stanton (9th) and Michael Guzzardi (8th) two of our short stacks. While mark Furniss who came in with the lowest chip count has now doubled up and looks to make a stand here already improving himself by 2 pay spots. Updated chip counts are as such:
Rainer Quel – 198,000
Mel Judah – 150,000
Danny Mountt – 58,000
Derek Raymond – 33,000
Jeffrey Duvall – 22,000
Mark Furniss – 21,000
Billy Argyros – 17,000
However, the comeback was short lived as Furniss doubled up Duvall leaving him with just a few thousand chips then very quickly after was knocked out of the event in 7th. Local favorite Billy “The Croc” Argyros was next to make a move to the door in 6th place after missing his flush draw in a three way pot that left him all-in against one other on the turn. With level 19 coming to an end the final 5 players will go on break. Unfortunately, for Danny Mountt it only delayed the inevitable as he was eliminated upon the restart.
Derek Raymond was the next to find the door after getting into a multi-way pot in which all his opponents seemed to have the intention of his elimination. Shortly after Derek’s exit, Jeffrey Duvall was no longer able to hold on as he was left with under 30k whilst both his opponents are sitting on around 250k and playing as if heads up has already begun. As was predicted earlier on in the night it has been 15 hours, and we have only just made it to heads up action, the night is still young with a ring and bragging rights on the line.
Rainer Quel – 320,000
Mel Judah – 190,000
Both men have been battling for a while with no one really establishing dominance over the other. However, after trading pots back and forth and splitting many others Rainer is finding himself come out on the short end of the stick more often than not. It took better then 2 hours for these two men to come to the end and it happened on consecutive hands. The first being a flop of 3c 9d 10d followed by a turned 8d and a rivered 6s the action was heavy all the way through with both men showing down:
Rainer Quel – Kd Qs 7h 7d
Mel Judah – Ad Jd 8h 8s
Leaving Rainer in the tough spot of losing a big pot with 2nd nuts heads up, a spot in which even the best can’t get free of. On the very next hand Quel and Judah went all-in:
Quel – Ad Kd 8d 6h
Judah – Kh Kc 3c 3s
Again two big hands for heads up and as the board ran out again Quel found himself on the wrong side of a cold deck and a 2nd place finish here today. The board ran out:
9d 4c 9h 9s 6c
Giving Judah two fullhouses to best the two pair of 9’s and 6’s held by Quel.
Congratulations to Mel Judah and all those who participated here today the payouts and placing are as follows:
1st Mel Judah $30,600AUD
2nd Rainer Quel $21,420AUD
3rd Jeffrey Duvall $14,280AUD
4th Derek Raymond $10,170AUD
5th Danny Mountt $8,160AUD
6th Billy “The Croc” Argyros $6,120AUD
7th Mark Furniss $4,590AUD
8th Michael Guzzardi $3,570AUD
9th Mick Stanton $2,550AUD
Once again I would like to thank all the players today and tournament staff here at The Crown Hotel & Casino. Till next time may your Aces hold and your luck stay true. Stay tuned to PokerProp for more coverage of the 2009 Aussie Millions.
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