Congratulations to Martin Drewe, Winner of Event 1: $1,100 Opening Event (AUD$200,020)!
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The 2011 Aussie Millions welcomed in a new year of poker with arguably the greatest poker championship in the Southern Hemisphere, and there was no better way to kick things off then by launching this year��s Aussie Millions with the Event 1: $1,100 Opening Event!
Another AUD$1,000,000 prizepool was reached here Down Under with 1,000 entrants taking to the felt over the three day ones. Of these 1,000-players, 762 of them were unique entrants �C and when we say unique, we base this on the fact that this tournament has a distinctive structure of being a repechage.
Repechage you say? Well any player that is eliminated on day one has the option to re-enter on a subsequent day in an attempt to successfully make day two. International pros James Akenhead, Annette Obrestad, Maria Ho, Tony Dunst, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Richard Ashby and Michael Greco, along with Australasian��s Danny Leaoasavaii, Bruno Portaro, Aaron Benton and reigning Aussie Millions Champion Tyron Krost all took advantage of multiple entries but still fell short of a day two berth.
Of the 143 players that were chasing firstly a top ninety-paying spot before making a run at the final table, Scott Montgomery, Barny Boatman, Simon Watt and Jonathan Karamalikis were waving the flag for the Full Tilt Poker Team while a mixture of online professionals, tournament regulars and complete amateurs were all hoping to snag the AUD$200,020 first prize and coveted gold ring.
Watt and Karamalikis both exited before the money as John Corr was awarded the unwanted moniker of bubble boy before action continued to flow ridiculously fast as David Morton (80th), Nino Marotta (77th), Jackie Glazier (70th), Jamie Pickering (65th), Jeff Sarwer (60th), Daniel Neilson (57th), Jessica Dawley (56th), Graeme Putt (50th), Jack Powell (46th), Yann Pauchon (26th), Kristian Lunardi (25th) and Boatman (21st) were just a handful of notables that exited before the final table of ten was reached after ten hours of play.
The rapid pace that we had witnessed throughout the duration of the tournament then caught up with us as it would take over two hours before we lost Isaac Lau, and a further two hours to lose Jonathan Palmer, Montgomery and Gabriel Xiourouppa. Six-handed play would be an excruciating affair for those on the rail and at the blogging desk as chips see-sawed between players for nearly three hours before Antoine Bechara, Vito Dalessandri, Nik Lackovic and Justin Cohen exited in quick succession to leave Darren Kramer and Martin Drewe in the battle for the title.
It was a South African against an Australian, and if Kramer was to have it his way, he would be hoping that he would join his fellow countryman and roommate by snatching an Aussie Millions gold ring after Jarred Solomon collected the Event 2: $550 PokerPro Shootout title.
Unfortunately, a sick aces against jacks cooler hand would swing the momentum in Drewe��s favor, and then just a few hands later it would be the black ladies of Drewe that would see him capture the title of Event 1 Champion, earning him a handy AUD$200,020 payday as well as an elusive Aussie Millions gold ring.
Congratulations to Martin Drewe for playing an excellent tournament that saw him continually accumulate chips throughout the duration of the event, and apply timely aggression mixed with precision play to be crowned the official first champion of the 2011 Aussie Millions!
For the PokerNews Live Reporting Team, we will be back behind the computers and cameras in just under six hours hours at 12:30 pm EST as the spotlight is put on Event 3: $1,100 Pot Limit Omaha where another highly-skilled field is expected to battle it out with many calls of pot, re-pot and jokingly queries of running it twice!