2012 Aussie Millions

$100,000 Challenge
Day: 2
Event Info

2012 Aussie Millions

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
22
Prize
1,012,000 AUD
Event Info
Buy-in
100,000 AUD
Prize Pool
2,200,000 AUD
Entries
22
Level Info
Level
14
Blinds
15,000 / 30,000
Ante
0

Level: 7

Blinds: 3,000/6,000

Ante: 0

Smirnov Doubles Through Hansen

Level 6 : 2,500/5,000, 0 ante

On the river with the final board reading {A-Diamonds}{6-Hearts}{3-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{J-Clubs}, Gus Hansen fired a big bet to put Mikhail Smirnov all in. Smirnov tanked for as long as he could before making the call. When he called, Smirnov pushed his chips in and all the way over to Hansen as if expecting to lose.

Hansen tabled the {K-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds} for a pair of nines. Smirnov tabled the winner with the {A-Spades}{10-Clubs} for a pair of aces and doubled up.

We aren't able to get very close to the feature table and grab much information about the bet amounts, pot sizes or stack sizes, but hopefully we'll be able to grab some of the chip counts at the break. For now, it looks like Smirnov has climbed his way into second place with that double.

Tags: Gus HansenMikhail Smirnov

Sam Trickett Eliminated in 7th Place

Sam Trickett - 7th Place
Sam Trickett - 7th Place

Sam Trickett won't be defending his title any longer as he was just eliminated by Gus Hansen in seventh place. From the cutoff seat, Hansen raised before Trickett three-bet from the button. Action folded back to Hansen and he reraised to put Trickett all in. Trickett quickly called to put his tournament life on the line.

Trickett: {6-Diamonds}{6-Clubs}
Hansen: {A-Hearts}{9-Clubs}

The flop put Hansen in front when the {Q-Hearts}{9-Diamonds}{2-Clubs} fell. The turn {7-Diamonds} and river {3-Diamonds} kept him in the lead, eliminating Trickett from the tournament.

Player Chips Progress
Gus Hansen dk
Gus Hansen
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 3X Winner
700,000 70,000
Sam Trickett gb
Sam Trickett
Busted

Tags: Gus HansenSam Trickett

Nam Le Eliminated in 8th Place

Nam Le - 8th Place
Nam Le - 8th Place

Action folded to Gus Hansen in the small blind and he raised. Nam Le reraised from the big blind and then Hansen four-bet enough to put Le all in. Le made the call holding the {10-Hearts}{10-Clubs}. Hansen had him pipped with the {J-Hearts}{J-Spades}.

The flop came down {9-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds}{4-Hearts} and Hansen's jacks held up so far. The turn {6-Spades} left Le needing a ten or eight on the river to double up, but he couldn't find it when the {K-Clubs} fell and was eliminated.

Player Chips Progress
Gus Hansen dk
Gus Hansen
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 3X Winner
630,000 63,000
Nam Le us
Nam Le
WPT 1X Winner
Busted

Tags: Gus HansenNam Le

Tony G Doubles

Level 6 : 2,500/5,000, 0 ante

Tony G has just doubled up. Our access is a bit restricted to the feature table due to the filming that's going on and there hasn't been any announcing of the action yet, but we can tell you that the money went in on a {K-}{10-}{10-} flop with Tony G flopped a full house holding {K-}{10-} against Smirnov's pocket aces.

The turn and river blanked to keep Tony G in front and earn him the double up.

Tags: Tony GMikhail Smirnov

Level: 6

Blinds: 2,500/5,000

Ante: 0

Hansen Leads Stacked Final Table; Trickett Still Alive in Title Defense

Gus Hansen
Gus Hansen

Welcome back to the 2012 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge. The field of 22 players has been cut down to just the final eight and they're all seated at the final table. Even though that may be an achievement for some, the players won't be looking at it that way as only the top four spots are being paid out so four of them will be forced to go home empty handed.

Heading the final group is Gus Hansen with 567,000 in chips. He's got the slight edge over Australia's own Joe Hachem who bagged up 538,500 in chips while no one else has over 350,000. Only three players — Hansen, Hachem and Dan Smith — have above-average stacks and two of the players — Nam Le and Sam Trickett — enter the final table with less chips than they began the tournament with.

Yesterday's Day 1 was packed with plenty of top-notch, high-stakes poker action with some of the biggest names in the game taking to the felt. Of those who failed to advance to Day 2 were Jason Mercier, Dan Shak, Daniel Negreanu, JC Tran and Tom Dwan. Phil Ivey also made an appearance, but fell short of Day 2 by just one spot as he was eliminated by Hansen in ninth place.

Final Table Seat Draw

SeatPlayerChips
1Tony G102,000
2Gus Hansen567,000
3Nam Le79,500
4Sam Trickett73,000
5Mikhail Smirnov265,000
6Joe Hachem538,500
7Sorel Mizzi228,500
8Dan Smith346,500

As you can see, the table is full of well-known players, minus maybe one in Mikhail Smirnov. Still, Smirnov put on a good showing yesterday in order to bag up the fourth most chips. Heading up the rear with the shortest stack is last year's champion Trickett. When Trickett won the event last year, he entered the final table with a commanding chip lead — much the opposite of this time around.

Also in play today will be time-bank chips for each player. Along with the allotted 30 seconds per action, each player will get two extra time-bank chips that will be worth another 30 seconds apiece.

Play is set to kick off at 2:30 PM local time here in Melbourne. You can expect plenty of excitement again today. First, we'll be bursting a big A$242,000 bubble and then we'll move towards crowning a winner of the A$1,012,000 first-place prize. You won't want to miss anything, so stay glued right here to PokerNews for all of the upcoming coverage.

$100,000 Challenge

Day 2 Started