2009 Aussie Millions

$1 Million Cash Game
Day: 1
Event Info

2009 Aussie Millions

Event Info
Buy-in
1,000,000 AUD

Chris Has Died, Chris Has Risen...

Chris Ferguson is on the set now. He'll be joining the game in the seat to the right of Jamie Pickering. That should give Pickering someone to talk to who might actually be interested in something other than a one-sided conversation.

Jedlicka Again

Hold'em:

Action folds to Phil Laak on the button. His $3,500 raise is called by Patrik Antonius before Niki Jedlicka reraises to $15,500. Laak, true to his reputation as a tight player, declines to call. Antonius, however, throws the additional chips into the pot.

Both players check the {7-Diamonds} {6-Clubs} {Q-Spades} flop. Antonius makes a $24,000 stab when the turn falls {5-Clubs}. Jedlicka takes approximately a minute to make the call.

The river is the {7-Hearts}. Antonius checks to Jedlicka, who makes what looks like a value bet of $23,000. Antonius isn't interested in finding out. He folds.

Jedlicka Stacks Laak

Niki Jedlicka, from earlier in the Aussie Millions
Niki Jedlicka, from earlier in the Aussie Millions
Hold'em:

Action again folded to Phil Laak. He opened with a raise to $3,500 from the cutoff. Patrik Antonius called before Niki Jedlicka reraised to $20,500. That folded Andrew Robl.

Laak didn't take all that long to reraise to $103,000. Antonius obligingly moved out of the way; Jedlicka took that as his cue to move all in. Laak called. There was some hemming and hawing regarding opening the cards before Phil Laak said, "Everyone at home already knows what we have. Let's just catch up."

Laak: {A-Hearts} {K-Clubs}
Jedlicka: {A-Spades} {A-Clubs}

They agreed to run it twice. Both boards were a total "swing and miss" for Laak. His $200,000 now belongs to Jedlicka.

"Is the bank of durrrr open?" Laak asked Tom Dwan after the hand was over. Dwan shipped him a fresh $200,000.

Pickering Goes All the Way with Big Slick

Hold'em:

Chris Ferguson is now in the game to the right of Jamie Pickering. He sat down with $200,000 and immediately found himself in a huge pot. Jamie Pickering opened with a raise to $3,500 that was called by Niki Jedlicka and small blind Tom Dwan. Ferguson then reraised to $20,300. Everyone called, putting $81,000 in the middle before the flop was out.

{4-Diamonds} {6-Clubs} {A-Spades}

Dwan opened the action with a bet of $31,400. Ferguson peeked back at his cards and then mucked. That moved the action to Pickering, who asked for a count of the bet. He still seems the most nervous of all of the players at the table, but he steeled himself and called. Jedlicka folded, leaving Dwan and Pickering to battle it out on the turn {2-Diamonds}. Dwan tanked for a minute before betting $41,800.

"I've got no idea where I am," said Pickering. He mumbled a few other words to himself before double-checking the amount of the bet again and then calling.

The river came {9-Clubs}. Dwan must have sensed that there was no way of moving Pickering off his hand; he checked. Pickering breathed a sigh of relief and checked behind.

"You've got it," said Dwan. "I have a deuce." Pickering showed down ace-king for the winner.

"I was going to have to call," said Pickering as he collected the pot. "I didn't want to. But I was going to have to." Both statements were as obvious as they were true.

It has not been a good day for Tom Dwan.

Pickering All Smiles Now

Jamie Pickering has loosened up a bit. His body language is not quite as nervous-looking as it was earlier and he's actually cracked a few jokes. I guess netting $130,000 out of a pot will do that to a guy. The question now is whether he'll loosen up his play as well. If he plays more hands, he'll be putting himself to more decisions where he might potentially make a mistake.

More Cash for durrrr

PLO:

There was stone silence on the set for this hand. Tom Dwan apparently wasn't getting enough action; he put the straddle on for this hand. Action folded to Andrew Robl in the big blind. He raised to $6,500 and durrrr called.

{5-Spades} {7-Diamonds} {J-Spades}

Robl was first to act and bet 12,000. Dwan called again to see the board pair {5-Diamonds}. Robl slowed down and checked; Dwan took the initiative to bet $23,600. Robl thought it through and made the call. The river was the {Q-Clubs}. Again Robl checked. Dwan tanked for more than a minute before betting $68,200. Robl called after a minute of his own. Dwan turned over {k-Clubs} {j-Diamonds} {5-Hearts} {2-Diamonds} for a full house, fives full of jacks. That was a winner.

After getting absolutely smashed by Patrik Antonius during the earlier heads-up match, Dwan seems to have gotten his legs back under him. Who knows? He may dig himself completely out of the $525,000 hole he was in at dinner.

Table Talk

Ever the logician, Chris Ferguson just explained to Phil Laak that eating a stalk of celery burns more calories than the celery returns to the body. "So you can't live off celery," Ferguson added, connecting the dots for Laak.

A few hands later, Laak took a small pot off of Dwan. He was ecstatic. "Small pots from durrrr feel like big accomplishments."

Programming Note

The crew's on a ten-minute break to stretch their legs. While the cameras are off and a few players are walking from the table, the others are playing Chinese.

After the break, we will play until 1am local time. That's one more hour.

We're Back

Play has resumed. Dwan crushed in the first hand of Chinese; Antonius and Jedlicka played the second "criss cross" with each taking two hands. I didn't pay attention to how it turned out because Laak, Dwan and Robl started playing some sort of over/under game. They asked Ferguson to fix in his head the number of kangaroos that he thought were killed by vehicles in Australia in the last 24 hours. Laak and Dwan said Ferguson would say a number "over four"; Robl went "under eight" and the action was booked.

"Four," Ferguson revealed as the number he had come up with. The money went to Robl.

Dwan then mentioned that he had been playing this game yesterday with a few other people, one of whom came up with the line for "total number of women the average 30-year-old U.S. male has slept with during his lifetime".

"It's an interesting question," said Dwan, "because you have to take into account all different types of people." He cited "really religious" types as people who would skew the average downwards.

Small Pots

We've had a couple of pots go to a showdown in the last ten minutes, without much betting. Pickering took another $30,000 off of Dwan on a board of {4-Hearts} {9-Spades} {5-Clubs} {q-Spades} {q-Diamonds}. He had position and bet the flop; Dwan called. They both checked the turn and river. Pickering showed {3-Spades} {3-Clubs}, drawing a silent "Wow," from Dwan as he mucked his hand.