Van Marcus just came pacing slowly past our table, munching on something out of a white paper bag and looking a little glum. Our eyes met, and he gave us the universal sign for elimination from a poker tournament, the finger-across-the-throat.
"Anything noteworthy?" we had to pry at least a little bit.
"I had two queens. He had two kings."
Marcus is pretty bummed about how that went down, and he and Aaron Benton shared a few-minute conversation in which Marcus tried to convince himself he should have considered folding preflop.
"Nothing you can do mate," Benson consoled him. "Just a coolah."
We caught up with JP Kelly on the rail just after he was eliminated. He made a valiant bluff-shove attempt on the river when everything had got there and his two opponents had checked to him. The final board was and one if his opponents called Kelly's shove with .
James Dempsey is having no such problems. His Facebook staus jsut read, "Up to 280k 40 minutes into day 2. Let's do this!"
James Dempsey is doing some big work early on. We just walked over to his table and noticed a massive stack in front of the British WPT and WSOP champion. Dempsey was involved in a hand with Grant Levy, and we only caught the end of it.
The board read as both players checked, and the river was the . Levy thew out 7,300 and got called by Dempsey right away. The Australian showed for a rivered flush and Dempsey mucked his cards. Levy profited from this hand but earlier on Dempsey took down the big one.
We asked about what went down and Dempsey told us the following. In a huge pre flop all-in Dempsey showed pocket aces against Thomas Muhlocker who was holding ace-king. The pot was around 190,000 and Dempsey's hand held up. He is now our chip leader with a massive 275 big blinds.
Sebastien Ruthenberg didn't seem too upset about busting the Main Event and told us that he was off to chill out with a coffee and a cigarette.
His bustout came about after he shoved 15 big blinds with pocket fives and was isolated by an opponent holding pocket queens. The board ran out for a set-over-set scenario.
When the action was folded to Jeremy Simon in the hijack seat, he raised it up 2,000. Jim Collopy flat-called directly on his left and the play was then promptly folded to Brian Roberts in the big blind. This is where Roberts started his trip to "running into aces" land. Roberts three-bet in the big blind and then Simon four-bet to 19,500. The rest of the table was out of the way and Roberts studied his opponent's stack before moving all in.
When Simon insta-called for his 93,200 stack, we can assume Roberts knew his was in bad shape. When Simon flipped over his , Roberts stared stoically towards the felt as the dealer dealt out the board.
The flop gave Roberts a small sweat, but the turn and the river didn't give Roberts what he needed as he now sits with a pittance of the chip he had before the hand. With that nice hand, Simon is one of the bigger stacks in the room.
With the Chinese New Year having just occurred, there was no event more appropriate at the Aussie Millions than Event #12: $5,000 Chinese Poker, which kicked off on Monday. The event drew 25 players who were seated five to a table, with the button sitting out each deal. Some pretty big names entered the event including Barry Greenstein, Daniel Cates, Jason Gray, Jeffrey Lisandro, Sam Trickett, Eric Crain, Terrence Chan, Gary Benson, Sam Khouiss, Florian Langman, Ivan Tan, Bernard Beh, Graeme Putt, Mike Watson, and Sebastian Ruthenberg.
The event was a welcome addition to the Aussie Millions schedule, and it seemed most of the participants enjoyed themselves.
The day began with four former Main Event champs, but only three remained after Stewart Scott was eliminated early in Level 8. Now, that number is back up to four as 2007 winner Gus Hansen has taken advantage of the late registration (with just minutes to go).
He begins with just 30 big blinds, and is seated right next to Tony G. Needless to say, The "Great Dane" will have some work to do.
Dominik Nitsche told us that his day has been going really good so far. We believe it too after he knocked out Don Derota, holding to the latter's . He flopped an ace too, just to make sure.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and one if his opponents called Kelly's shove with 
.
as both players checked, and the river was the 
. Levy thew out 7,300 and got called by Dempsey right away. The Australian showed 
for a rivered flush and Dempsey mucked his cards. Levy profited from this hand but earlier on Dempsey took down the big one.
was in bad shape. When Simon flipped over his 
, Roberts stared stoically towards the felt as the dealer dealt out the board.
flop gave Roberts a small sweat, but the 
turn and the 
river didn't give Roberts what he needed as he now sits with a pittance of the chip he had before the hand. With that nice hand, Simon is one of the bigger stacks in the room.
to the latter's 
. He flopped an ace too, just to make sure.
