Nevanlinna and Rozova Latest Aussie Millions Winners

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Jan 14, 2020 4 min read Last updated Feb 03, 2020

With just over one week left in the 2020 Aussie Millions, two more winners have been crowned each taking home an ANTON Jewellery Championship ring.

Read on to find out who triumphed in the Deep Freeze and 8-Game Events.

Jussi Nevanlinna Wins 2020 Aussie Millions 8-Game (A$51,975)

After Finland's Jussi Nevanlinna picked up his first Aussie Millions cash in the 2017 Main Event, today he won his first Aussie Millions ANTON Jewellery Championship ring in Event #10: A$2,500 8-Game for A$51,975.

He defeated American Andrew Kelsall heads-up at a final table that featured former A$100,000 Challenge winner David Steicke and 2019 Aussie Millions H.O.R.S.E. champion Daniel Mayoh.

Speaking after his victory, Nevanlinna told PokerNews that the victory was "so so special."

"Every time you win something, it's awesome," he said. "But winning a tournament, that doesn't happen that often, so it's so so special when it does happen."

2020 Aussie Millions A$2,500 8-Game Results

Winner's Reaction

The former Master Classics of Poker has a wide range of poker cashes, but this is only his second cash here in Australia.

"Finland's really cold this time of year," said Nevanlinna. "And although it takes me 22 hours to get here, I would gladly come here and not play poker at all. I just love the place so much!

"I've played a lot of 8-Game in my career, so that obviously helped a lot. I'm not saying I'm good in all of the games, but I have a lot of experience."

Nevanlinna says that he is planning to play the Main Event and "probably something else too" but is also looking to enjoy his time in Melbourne.

"I have my family here with me so I have days of no poker and days of poker. I haven't planned it yet. I'm looking forward to the Australian Open. It's a huge thing for me. I used to play when I was younger and I have a couple of friends playing there from Finland."

Final Table

Despite coming into the final day with just 17,500 chips compared to chip leader David Steicke's 472,500, Siya Sha managed to survive and ladder two spots as Vasco Zapantzis and Alan Wilson exited in seventh and sixth.

Sha followed next, with Steicke still holding strong at the top of the counts.

Short-stacked Mayoh, who won the H.O.R.S.E. event at the 2019 Aussie Millions followed next before it was all change at the top of the counts.

Kelsall shot into the lead and as Steicke exited in third, he took a commanding chip lead of 1.1 million to 300,000 into heads-up.

Heads-up against Andrew Kelsall, Nevanlinna was the shorter of the two stacks for much of the contest until a pivotal hand in PLO turned the tables.

"It was a basic cooler. Sometimes you catch a bluff from your opponent or play well, but this one kind of played itself. He had a very good hand against my slightly better hand and we got almost my whole stack in. I almost doubled up in one hand that was it. I was the lucky guy on that one."

The Closing Stages

The final hand came in 2-7 Triple Draw. On the final draw, and with Kelsall all in, the short stack drew one and Nevanlinna stood pat.

Nevanlinna turned over 9x8x5x3x2x and Kelsall was drawing live with 6x5x4x2x. Kelsall peeled his final card.

"It's a four across," said Kelsall. "So it's a nine or a ten."

"Is it a spade?" asked Nevanlinna, as he held the 9?.

"Let me look," replied Kelsall who peeled his card a bit harder. "Damn," he said tabling the 10? to bust in second place.

Natalia Rozova wins Event #7: Deep Freeze for $142,244 after heads-up deal

Natalia Rozova became the first female winner of an Aussie Millions Championship ring in five years after besting a 646-player field in the Deep Freeze, but stressed afterwards that the accomplishment was in defeating a field of this size and not her gender.

"I feel amazing," Rozova told PokerNews. "Not that I'm female or male but how huge the field was. It's probably the biggest field I've made a deep run in, so that was amazing. A massive field like this is always tough; you play a lot of hands and change a lot of tables. It's been really great.

Event #7: Deep Freeze Final Table Results

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Winner's Reaction

Rozova said that she has been playing poker for two and a half years, but mostly plays cash. The IT Product manager played at last year's Aussie Millions, and came back for more this year.

"Last year wasn't as good as this year, obviously. I just love Crown because I run so good here. The Aussie Millions is such a great event as always."

The Deep Freeze's three-day structure was something that Rozova couldn't praise highly enough.

"Events like this with a 10,000 starting stack mean you have to come in and try to spin it up. You have to adapt. I like the deep stack structure. It was a good event.

"I'll definitely play the Main Event and maybe consider playing the A$25,000 Challenge, I'll see how I go...maybe..."

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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