2009 Aussie Millions

Day 1b completed

Posted 01-10-2009 21:35 GMT+12

Mark It -- Day 1b is in the Books

It's been an impressive and exciting start to the 2009 Aussie Millions Poker Championships. Day 1a of Event #1 saw 342 runners turn up; Day 1b got an even larger turnout with 389 hopeful poker players all putting up the AUD 1,100 buy-in. Each of them had the same dream -- chasing down a first prize of AUD 150,000.

Even though this is the first preliminary event in a three-week poker festival, the local and international poker superstars turned out in force. With fewer than one in six making it through to Day 2, most of those superstars did not fare well. For Team World, Josh "JJProdigy" Field and David Bach were early departures. The home team didn't fare much better; Andrew Scott was out before Level 1 ended and was soon joined on the rail by a host of others.

The overnight chip leader of Day 1b appears to be Dean Blatt (145,300). He is followed closely by Jim Ghobrial (86,800) and by Ben Delaney (80,000), a young online player who has been playing near the top of his game the last few months. Each of the 56 players to survive today's flight will merge tomorrow with the 54 survivors from Day 1a to create a combined field of 110 runners for the conclusion of this event.

Play kicks off tomorrow at 12:30pm local time. By the time the day comes to an end at roughly midnight, someone will be AUD 150,000 richer. Join us to find out who it will be!

Gold For Goldwater On Final Hand

One of the tables here in the Crown Poker Room has gone into overtime after their last three hands went the distance, resulting in the table not finishing up until other tables had already bagged and tagged.

In the final hand, Igor Banjac raised preflop to 3,200 and Steve Goldwater made the call on the button.

The flop came and Banjac led out for 5,000 before goldwater popped it up to 12,000. Banjac moved all in and Goldwater made the call with his tournament life on the line.

Banjac:
Goldwater:

The turn was the and the river brought the to leave Banjac with just 4,500 to enter into day two as Goldwater is thrilled to be bagging up over 65,000 chips. What a way to end the day!

Tags: Igor Banjac, Steve Goldwater.

Bouya!

In one of the final hands of the day, Steve Bouya has double through Brett Ogle. With all the chips in preflop Bouya tabled to be in great shape against Ogle's .

The board ran out to give Bouya a full house and a double to around 38,000 as Ogle ends the day on a sour note but he'll still enter day two with a respectable 17,000.

Tags: Brett Ogle, Steve Bouya.

Benson Busts

Gary Benson has been eliminated just short of the end of the day's play after calling his last chips preflop with . His opponent tabled and a queen on the flop was enough to eliminate the WSOP bracelet winner from today's event.

Tags: Gary Benson.

Steicke Eliminated As Blatt Confirms Chip Lead

Dean Blatt opened to 5,000 from under-the-gun and with it folding round to David Steicke in middle position he popped it up to 15,000. A short-stacked player in the small blind moved all in for his last 4,400 and then the action was back on Blatt.

Blatt stood up from his chair and hesitated slightly before announcing, "I'm all in" for a total of 82,000 and some change. Steicke sat there looking Blatt up and down from under his colourful pink hat. As a waiter delivered him a beer, he took a big sip never taking his eyes off Blatt. Following a chant from a fellow tablemate of "Skull, skull, skull", Steicke responded with, "Might have to soon". He glanced back down at the remaining 28,600 he had in front of him, and then back at Blatt before announcing, "All right, I call".

Blatt quickly turned over and perched his hands on his head in anticipation of taking the chip lead into day 2. Steicke tabled and the unknown player turned over .

The flop came down still leaving Steicke with two-outs and the unknown player a runner-runner draw to out-draw Blatt. The turn of the changed things slightly, but with the falling on the river the pot was awarded to Blatt.

With the unknown player headed straight to the rail, Steicke finished off his beer as he pondered what could have been as Blatt stacked his chips up to over 130,000.

Tags: David Steicke, Dean Blatt.

Lackovic Makes Straight-Flush!

Petar Lackovic moved all in preflop for his last 22,600 from the cutoff with and was called by a player on the button who tabled . A classic race -- nothing strange there.

However when then first four community cards were spread there were a few murmurs around the table as dealer burned a card a prepared the river.

Eric Assadourian called for the , and wouldn't you know it, the fell on the river. The button player thought he'd won the pot with his ace-high flush but Lackovic had made a queen-high straight flush to collect the pot in sensational fashion!

After a chip count it was discovered that Lackovic just covered his opponent, sending him to the rail, as Lackovic now stacks up over 50,000 chips and eyes off a day two berth.

Tags: Petar Lackovic.

No Leaks For Leak

When the action folded around to Derek Leak in the hijack position he moved all in for his last 17,100 chips. The cutoff player called and Jozef Berec went into the tank on the button. He grimaced and grumbled and eventually let his hand go -- which he later said was ace-king.

Leak showed against the cutoff player's . The board fell giving Leak a set and a nice double up. He's now up to 34,000 chips.

Tags: Derek Leak.

Jordanau Penalized

In one of the first penalties that we've heard about at this year's Aussie Millions, Clint Jordanau has just received a five-minute penalty for mobile phone use at the table. Doh!

Tags: Clint Jordanau.

Ambitious Assadourian

Eric Assadourian opened with a raise but found himself pot committed when a short-stacked opponent moved all in over the top. Assadourian made the call and tabled an ambitious as his opponent showed down .

The board landed to double up his opponent as Assadourian slips to 12,000.

Tags: Eric Assadourian.