2009 Aussie Millions

Not for the first time today, JC Tran limped from the small blind and David Steicke checked in the big blind.

The flop came down and Tran fired 12,000. Steicke made the call. The turn was the and Tran fired again for 26,000. Again Steicke called. The river was the and both players checked.

Tran shook his head and tabled as Steicke proudly showed his and pointed to the six on board to make sure everyone noticed he had a pair. Steicke takes it down with a nice call as Tran continues to slide.

In recent pots the short stacks have recovered a few chips at the expense of JC Tran.

In the first pot John Juanda put in the three-bet over the top of Tran's opening raise to collect a small pot.

This was followed by Dan Shak check-raising the 15,000 bet from Tran on a flop. Tran folded and Shak is now up to 220,000.

Bill Jordanou opened with a raise to 35,000 from the cutoff before Dan Shak announced "pot" from the button which was determined to be a raise to 88,000. The blinds folded and Jordanou tossed out a time breaker button before calling for the rest of his chips.

Jordanou:
Shak:

The board ran out and Jordanou doubles up once again to over 200,000 chips.

David Steicke - 695,000
Tony Bloom - 585,000
JC Tran - 410,000
Dan Shak - 315,000
John Juanda - 187,000
Bill Jordanou - 115,000

The players are back and the cards are once again in the air.

The players are now taking a ten-minute break (which apparently is going to occur after every level today), while the rest of the Crown Poker Room is happily watching the end of an exciting cricket match on the big screens.

Bill Jordanou opened with a raise to 25,000 from under the gun. The action folded to JC Tran in the cutoff, who asked to see how much Jordanou had behind before popping it up to 60,000. The blinds folded and Jordanou committed his last 44,000. Tran made the call.

Tran:
Jordanou:

The flop landed and Jordanou had flopped the Broadway straight! Tran would need running help and it didn't arrive with the on the turn and the on the river.

Jordanou doubles up to over 140,000 as Tran's day goes from bad to worse. He's down to under 300,000 chips.

JC Tran raised to 25,000 from the cutoff and Tony Bloom made the call in the big blind.

The flop was and Bloom checked to Tran who fired 30,000. Bloom, now with chips to spare, check-raised to 90,000. Tran made the call.

The turn was the and Bloom fired out 130,000. Tran quickly gave it up and accidentally revealed as the cards hit the muck. Bloom is now our new chip leader with over 600,000 chips.

Well it's taken over 30 minutes of play to see our first significant pot of this final table, and it was an intriguing one.

John Juanda, who has been the most active at the table, opened with a raise to 26,000. Tony Bloom flat-called in the cutoff and JC Tran also came along in the big blind.

The flop was and Tran checked to Juanda, who bet out 52,000. Bloom, who is currently enjoying a nice massage, made the call, as did Tran as a huge pot was developing.

The turn was the and Tran checked again to Juanda who slid out 100,000, but maintained his hand on the stack similar to a chess player holding his pawn, as he tossed out another 13,000 to make the bet 113,000 in total.

Bloom then moved all in, for an amount that was determined to be an additional 35,000 more. Tran folded, and with the pot laying Juanda incredible odds, he thought for a moment before folding his hand!

Bloom more than doubles up without contest!