Welcome back to the Crown Hotel & Casino in Melbourne Australia, we are continuing our coverage from the 2009 Aussie Millions here at PokerProp.net. We are here today covering the 6-handed No-limit hold’em event live from the Crown Poker Room.
Today we expect a field of well over 200 that should contain many notables. Some of the notable names here today are Phil “Unabomber” Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Tony “BOND18” Dunst, Jamie Pickering, Lee Nelson and Michael Guzzardi.
The field has been finalized at 268 players comprising a prize pool of $536,000AUD and will pay out 24 places, leaving first with $130,248AUD. As is the case with short handed play the action is moving along at a fever pace, simply due to the fact that the short handed play opens up your hand range and will get players in trouble easily. We are seeing many 50/50 coin flips with all the chips in preflop, which is a little surprising considering that the players started with fairly deep stacks.
The goal here today is to play down to the final table and then come back tomorrow, however I believe that will not be the case and that even 18 players left (3 tables) will be optimistic. Michael Binger has just found himself crippled in a hand in which his opponent made a “HERO” call following what should have been a well executed bluff. However, to his dismay he was eliminated just prior to the dinner break.
James Obst is playing like a man determined here today, it doesn’t hurt that he is getting great cards in great situations, as Level 9 is coming to close Obst has just eclipsed the 200k mark in chips and looks poised for a deep final table run. Phil Laak’s tournament has just come to an end following a great situation for him as his Kc-Jc got all the chips in against Phillip Peters Kd-10d and with a flop of Ad-Js-Jh things looked amazing.
However, in a sick twist the Qc fell on the turn leaving Laak needing a pair up which never came, and he is done for the day and will join girlfriend Jennifer Tilly on the rail. Following last nights 2nd place finish Marlon Goonawardana is making a deep run here tonight, all the while James Obst keeps his dominant performance going as he is closing in on 300k with the blinds a mere 800/1600.
Just after we felt Goonawardana was going to replicate last nights effort he vacates his seat as level 11 comes to an end after missing an up down straight draw with an over card. The Tournament Staff have just announced we will play down to 24 players (4 tables) and then break for the night. With only 25 players left we are now in hand for hand play as with the elimination of the next player we will be in the money and done for the night.
On the final hand of the night Paul Foltyn got all his chips in huge with Kings in the Small Blind only to be called by our chip leader James Obst who was holding Queens in the Big Blind. However with a Queen straight away on the flop Foltyn is done on the bubble and Obst is up to 450k heading into tomorrows action. It took only 16 hours of play to get from 268 down to 24 players all of which will leave here tomorrow with at least some amount of money in there pockets.
Welcome back everyone to the Crown Poker Room for Event 14 live from Melbourne. With the return of the final 24 players here we look to crown a winner, James Obst has been a run away train in this event and picked up right where he left off. He busted our 25th place finisher last night and did the same to the 24th place finisher Grigory Terpelyuk. Terpelyuk got all his chips in preflop with Pocket 9’s only to see Obst table Ace’s! with the board not helping Terpelyuk he is done earning $4,043AUD and Obst is inching his way towards 600k in chips.
In less then 30 mins we have seen 4 players take leave of us as we inch towards 3 tables. Graeme Putt has had an impressive overall career here at the Aussie Millions and adds to his list of cashes here today after finishing 19th and taking home $4,043AUD after failing to win a coin flip.
As level 15 comes to an end here tonight we are left with 16 players all vying for the Gold Ring, and I’m sure for some of the short stacks just to last a little longer and move up one or two pay levels. It seems that James Obst is a human being as he has begun to feel how the other half lives, since returning from break he has been bleeding chips steady doubling up a couple players. At the conclusion of the break Obst was up over 700k in chips and has doubled up 3 players in just a few hands, leaving him with just under 500k. Hopefully for James Obst he can simmer down and regain the form he has had over the last 2 days.
However, Obst has been unable to slow the fall from grace and over the last 2 levels has shipped away almost all his chips, he has just doubled up Thomas Lindbjerg after sticking all his chips in preflop with Ax-Kx. He was very quickly called by Lindbjerg who tabled Ax-Ax. With no help from the board Obst now sits on a mere 138,000 chips! Just a short while later Obst found himself done in 11th place after he ran Ax-Jx into you guessed it ACE’S! Again!
Obst will leave here with $10,640 which has to be considered a big disappointment considering with less the 20 players left he held over 700k in chips. With level 17 coming to a close we head to break yet again and will return in 15 minutes, with just 2 tables remaining and the end in site. Lauren McIver was our last female standing here tonight but was unable to make the final table finishing on the cusp in 9th place earning $14,896AUD.
Michael McDonald was our next player to vacate in 8th place earning $14,896AUD and with his finish the tournament staff here has made yet another questionable decision! This time they have elected to create a final table of 7 players (remember this is a 6-handed event) with the purpose of speeding up the process. This is surprising considering the more short handed a table is typically the loser it plays due to the wide range of hands you can open with. So with that here are our final 7 and there seat assignments and chip counts:
Seat 1 Alexander Debus – 380,000
Seat 2 Thomas Lindbjerg – 723,000
Seat 3 Jonathan Dull – 290,000
Seat 4 Phillip Peters – 331,000
Seat 5 Jacob Lysemose – 301,000
Seat 6 Noah Schwartz – 290,000
Seat 7 Sam Higgs – 340,000
As we reach the dinner break here the Tournament staff’s idea of speeding up play is not working so well, we have seen a major slow down in play and will no head into an hour long break for dinner. The players have returned from the dinner break (Aussie Millions Players Party) and with level 20 winding down we have seen 2 players eliminated and are left with 5 players. With the play at a near stand still one has to wonder if some monster pots are brewing! We have just lost the “Old Man” Phillips Peters, Peters put in one hell of a performance here tonight but came up just short finishing in 4th after getting all his chips in on the turn with a board reading Js-Qc-2d-10s.
Thomas Lindbjerg called him with top pair of Queens and had to fade Peters Jx-9x for an up down straight draw and two pair draw, however with the 4d on the river Peters vacates the final table area to collect $47,880AUD. While Lindbjerg collects the pot and is now up to just over 900,000 chips.
It didn’t take long to lose Jacob Lysemose in 3rd place, leaving just Thomas Lindbjerb and Noah Schwartz to battle for the Ring and the money. Both players are sitting dead even in chips just over 1.3 million. On what turned out to be the final hand of the tournament Schwartz opened the pot for 90k from the button and got a call from Lindbjerg.
Flop: 4c-Jh-10h
Lindbjerg checked to Schwartz who led for another 90k and Lindbjerg called yet again, bring the turn card:
Turn: 2d (board 4c-Jh-10h-2d)
Lindbjerg checked yet again drawing a bet of 235k from Schwartz. Upon which Lindbjerg check-raised all-in putting Schwartz’s tournament life on the line and the championship in the wings! It took Schwartz the better part of 3 minutes to make the call he finally made to see himself in trouble with one card to come:
Lindbjerg: 10c-2c
Schwartz: Kh-Jc
With the Ace on the river Thomas Lindbjerg adds to the lore of “Texas Dolly’s” Ten-Duece! Noah Schwartz played one hell of a tournament but comes up short, however will not leave empty handed taking $86,716AUD in 2nd place. Thomas Lindbjerg looked great to win it all after crippling James Obst prior to final table play and continued on a hot streak all the way to the $130,021AUD payday!
With that we have completed yet another event at the 2009 Aussie Millions and would like to once again say thank you for tuning in and have a great night!
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