2008 Aussie Millions

Day 1 completed

Posted 01-13-2008 01:46 GMT+10

Mike "Timex" McDonald Captures PokerPro Championship

That concludes our coverage of the PokerPro No Limit Hold'em Championships. Congratulations to Mike "Timex" McDonald for reaching his second final table of the 2008 Aussie Millions and for winning his first ever "live" title.

Final standings:

1st) Mike "Timex" McDonald - $33,950
2nd) Martin Cardno - $19,400
3rd) Ramy Tadros - $11,640
4th) Andrew Demetriou - $9,700
5th) Greg "DuckU" Hobson - $7,760
6th) Heng Zhang - $5,820
7th) Nick Binger - $3,880
8th) David Lee - $2,910
9th) Lei He - $1,940

Tags: Mike McDonald.

McDonald Eliminates Cardno; Wins PokerPro Title!

With 164,000 in chips in front of him, Martin "cards34" Cardno made it 9,000 to go before the flop from the button. Mike "Timex" McDonald then re-popped it to 29,000 and Cardno immediately shoved all in.

McDonald looked across the table at Cardno and then shrugged his shoulders before tapping his PokerPro card twice on the screen to make the call.

McDonald:
Cardno:

The board filled out and McDonald's A-Q high held up to win him the pot and the 2008 Aussie Millions PokerPro Championship.

For his second place finish, Martin Cardno will take home $19,400 AUD in prize money.

Tags: Michael McDonald.

Cardno Doubles Up

Mike "Timex" McDonald had the button and made it 10,000 to go before the flop. Martin Cardno then moved all in for a total of 95,000 and McDonald made the call:

McDonald:
Cardno:

The board ran out giving Cardno a pair of nines which was good enough to take down the 186,000 pot.

Tags: Martin Cardno.

Chip Counts

Mike 'Timex' McDonald: 248,000
Martin 'cards34' Cardno: 140,000

Electronic Race-Off

The blinds have just got up to 2,000/4,000 and the PokerPro computer just orchestrated a virtual race-off of the 500 denomination chips.

Mike McDonald won the race off - his besting Martin Cardno's - and pumped his fist once in the air to celebrate the small victory.

McDonald Retakes the Chip Lead

It hasn't taken Mike "Timex" McDonald long to regain the chip lead from Martin Cardno since heads-up play began. Timex is picking up one small pot after pot uncontested, with a combination of solid pre-flop play and aggressive post-flop play.

The current chip counts are:

Timex: 233,500
cards34: 154,500

Heads-Up Chip Counts

Timex: 200,000
cards34: 188,000

Martin 'cards34' Cardno Bulldozes Three Opponents

One of the benefits of holding a tournament on poker tables installed with computers is the ability to wind back and have a look at the hand histories - instantly.

Courtesy of technology, we are able to report that it was Martin Cardno who eliminated Greg "DuckU" Hobson, Andrew Demetriou and Ramy Tadros from the tournament, in that order.

Against Hobson, Martin got it all in with the against Hobson's . Cardno hit a queen on the flop and Hobson, unable to improve, finished in 5th place, worth $7,760 AUD.

Against Demetriou, Martin pitted his pocket sixes against Andrew's K-10 and the sixes held up, eliminating Demetriou from the tournament in 4th place ($9,700 AUD).

Finally, against 3rd place finisher Ramy Tadros, Martin got it all in with against Tadros' and the board blanked out giving Martin the win. Tadros took home $11,640 for his 3rd place finish.

Action is now heads up with Mike "Timex" McDonald against Martin "cards34" Cardno.

Tags: Martin Cardno.

Mayhem

In the time it took me to write the Heng Zhang elimination post, Ramy Tadros, Greg "DuckU" Hobson and Andrew Demetrious were all eliminated from the tournament!!

I'll have the details for you momentarily.