2012 Aussie Millions

Aussie Millions Main Event
Day: 1c
Event Info

2012 Aussie Millions

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
1,600,000 AUD
Event Info
Buy-in
10,000 AUD
Prize Pool
6,590,000 AUD
Entries
659
Level Info
Level
26
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000

More Chippies

... and a new notable. Joe Hachem has joined our field this level.

Player Chips Progress
Phil Ivey us
Phil Ivey
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
151,000 22,500
Michael Pedley au
Michael Pedley
104,000 8,000
James Obst
James Obst
61,000 31,000
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier
52,000 5,000
Jeff Hakim
Jeff Hakim
49,000 19,000
Joseph Cheong us
Joseph Cheong
WSOP 1X Winner
46,000 16,000
Melanie Weisner
Melanie Weisner
43,000 -1,000
David Gorr
David Gorr
38,000 22,000
Brandon Adams us
Brandon Adams
37,000 7,000
Daniel Negreanu ca
Daniel Negreanu
36,000 22,800
Joe Hachem au
Joe Hachem
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
34,000
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
33,000 3,000
Jay Kinkaide
Jay Kinkaide
32,000
JC Tran
JC Tran
28,000 -1,000
Dan Smith
Dan Smith
16,000 -1,000
Ty Reiman
Ty Reiman
15,000 -15,000
Nam Le us
Nam Le
WPT 1X Winner
14,000 -7,000
Nacho Barbero ar
Nacho Barbero
WSOP 1X Winner
14,000 -12,000
Mike Sowers
Mike Sowers
10,000 -20,000

Warne Winning

For the outside world it's not Phil Ivey but Shane Warne who is the biggest star playing in todays field. Warne is widely considered as one of the best cricket players to have ever played the game, and poker is also going pretty well at the moment.

We just saw a {K-Clubs}{5-Clubs}{7-Hearts}{6-Clubs}{A-Diamonds} board and Warne checked to Azusa Maeda who bet 6,600 into the 15,000 pot. Warne snap-called and turned over {9-Clubs}{8-Diamonds} and that was enough to beat the {A-Spades}{a-Clubs} Azusa showed. Both players are still doing very well even though Warne seems the be in the better swing at the moment.

Player Chips Progress
Shane Warne au
Shane Warne
48,000 18,000
Azusa Maeda
Azusa Maeda
45,000 -15,000

Tags: Shane WarneAzusa Maeda

No More Ramdin

Victor Ramdin
Victor Ramdin

Victor Ramdin has just been eliminated. He came over and told us he lost with pocket kings versus pocket queens. A queen hit the flop and Ramdin couldn't improve as his final 14,000 chips went in the wrong direction.

Player Chips Progress
Victor Ramdin us
Victor Ramdin
Busted

Tags: Victor Ramdin

No Freeroll For Weisner

Level 4 : 150/300, 25 ante
Melanie Weisner
Melanie Weisner

Well, it was a good effort. With black-and-blue shins and her tail slightly between her legs, Melanie Weisner has returned to the tournament to play her stack. She's in on her own dime.

After about 36 hours of practicing, Weisner wasn't quite able to fulfill Tony G's requirements for a freeroll, though she gave it a pretty admirable effort. As a consolation prize, Tony G has offered to repay her unicycle lessons from the circus nuts, and he's also on the hook for a very expensive dinner in Los Angeles the next time they're both on the West Coast.

As we walked over to check on her, Weisner was involved in a pot. She opened with a raise of two purple chips, though she may have announced a smaller amount than the 1,000 she had out there. Regardless, the gentleman in the small blind three-bet to 2,500, and Weisner called for a flop. It brought {4-Spades} {Q-Clubs} {9-Clubs} and another bet of 2,500 from the small blind, and Weisner matched it again. She couldn't call a turn bet, though, folding to 7,500 on the {7-Hearts} to drop down around 44,000 and change.

Thanks to our pal Arthur Crowson for this photo of the action upstairs (Weisner far left, Tony G far right):

Tags: Melanie Weisner

More For Peds

We picked up the action on a {Q-Clubs} {7-Diamonds} {8-Spades} {9-Spades} turn in a heads-up pot between Michael Pedley (small blind) and the player on the button. Pedley was leading the betting with 4,300, and his opponent flicked in an oversized chip to call and see the river. It was the {J-Diamonds}, and Pedley fired right out with another 7,700.

That bet sent his opponent deep into the tank, and Pedley began chatting with him. "I think you were drawing," he said at one point. "Is ace-queen good enough? I think it is." When his opponent reached for chips, though, Pedley quieted right down.

After maybe 90 seconds or so, Mr. Opponent finally dropped the call into the pot, and Pedley tabled {K-Diamonds} {10-Diamonds} for the nuts. The opponent later said he had been the one with ace-queen, but he was unable to get away from it, and Pedley has chipped his way up close to the century mark with that pot.

Player Chips Progress
Michael Pedley au
Michael Pedley
96,000 14,000

Tags: Michael Pedley

It Ain't Personal

Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey

A 15-minute hand went down right before the last break over at Phil Ivey's table involving Ivey and a bit of controversy. Hopefully we can paint a correct picture to describe exactly what happened.

We picked up the action on the board of {K-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}{9-Clubs}{8-Diamonds} and Ivey had reached for chips. He picked up eight purple T500 chips and moved them forward with his hand. Ivey quickly dropped four of the chips and then the other four right next to the first, almost in one motion but with a slight hitch in between. The bet was for 4,000, but the dealer at the table called a string bet on Ivey. Ivey didn't seem to believe what he did was a string bet and either did a couple of others at the table, but some of the players, including his opponent, deemed this a string bet. The dealer attempted to explain that it was going to be ruled a string bet, but Ivey requested a floor ruling. The floor was summoned and the explanation of what happened began.

The dealer picked up some chips from her rack and began to show the floor what Ivey did, except she wasn't exactly doing the motion like Ivey did. Instead of a nearly fluent movement of the two drops of the chips, the dealer had cocked her hand back much more when firing the second batch and there was also a bit more time in between the two drops. This isn't what Ivey did and he tried to show the floor himself what his motion was. Still, the floor ruled that the motion was a string bet and Ivey could only bet 2,000.

At the time, the player in Seat 8, but not Ivey's opponent in this hand, was very adamant that the action was a string bet. He even commented, "In America they allow that, but in Australia it's a string bet."

Then, Ivey's opponent raised to 6,000. At this time, the floor that made the ruling of a string bet went to find another, more senior floor member. The new floor came and, while Ivey was in the tank facing the raise to 6,000, explained that it must stand as a bet of 2,000. Then, the floor walked away. Little did he know, he'd be back again shortly for another ruling in the same hand.

Ivey tanked for a bit and then put in a reraise to 13,100. His opponent stuck all of his chips in, the two players tabled their hands — {K-Diamonds}{9-Spades} for Ivey and {Q-Clubs}{J-Clubs} for his opponent — and the dealer ran out the {5-Diamonds} for the river card. Then, the dealer counted Ivey's opponent's stack, which came out to be 16,100 — 3,000 more than what Ivey had raised to.

Ivey hadn't said anything when his opponent pushed his chips into the pot following Ivey's raise. He didn't say call, he didn't say fold. He said nothing. Both Ivey and his opponent tabled their hands and the dealer ran out the board.

Now, the dealer explained that Ivey owed 3,000 more, but he had only raised to 13,100 and didn't believe he should just have to pay it straight away. Once again, the floor staff was summoned and the situation was explained. The floor seemed to believe that Ivey's intention was to put his opponent all in. Ivey was kind enough to admit that his intentions were to raise the player all in, but he had simply counted out the wrong amount of chips. The floor was then trying to rule that because of Ivey's intentions, he should pay the extra 3,000. This brought things back to the first time the floor was called about the string bet because, then, Ivey's "intentions" were to bet 4,000 and not 2,000.

The floor stepped away from the table for a brief few moments and then came back to rule that Ivey was not obligated to pay the extra 3,000. Instead, the amount of 13,100 would stand and that's all the player was awarded.

This entire situation took about 15 minutes or so and drained a lot of playing time for the players during that level. No penalties were given.

After the hand, PokerNews sought out one of the senior tournament directors and asked about the rulings that were given. It was stated that Ivey's first motion shouldn't have been called a string raise and the second ruling was correct in that Ivey shouldn't be forced into paying the extra 3,000. The tournament director also stated that all of this controversy that happens so often with poker players and their betting/raising amounts could simply be cleared up if players verbalized their actions.

Player Chips Progress
Phil Ivey us
Phil Ivey
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
128,500 -6,500

Tags: Phil Ivey

Bjerkmann vs The Rest

If you are looking for some action table 15 would be a good choice. Marcel 'p3rc4' Bjerkmann, Isaac 'WestmenloAA' Baron, JC Tran and Nam Le are all at the same table and putting on a show.

Bjerkmann clashed with Tran and Le on numerous occasions and the young Norwegian is constantly trying to get inside the heads of his opponents. Early on we saw a {3-Spades}{7-Hearts}{A-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}{3-Diamonds} board and Bjerkmann lead out for 11,250 in a much smaller pot. He called the clock on his opponent, JC Tran, right away who seemed flustered by the situation. As the floor was talking to the dealer Tran mucked, but didn't look happy as Bjerkmann flashed him one of his cards.

Just now we caught a three way flop with Bjerkmann and Tran involved once again. The flop was {A-Diamonds}{5-Clubs}{3-Hearts} and Bjerkmann was the only player who called the 2,200 bet from, who seemed to be the initial raiser. The turn was the {2-Spades} and it got checked to Bjerkmann who picked up the pot with a 4,250 bet. While smilig he showed the {5-Diamonds} followed by the {8-Diamonds}. Bjerkmann came to play, but with these dangerous players at his table it could be a very tough day.

Player Chips Progress
Isaac Baron
Isaac Baron
60,000 -14,000
JC Tran
JC Tran
29,000 -1,000
Marcel Bjerkmann
Marcel Bjerkmann
23,000 -18,000
Nam Le us
Nam Le
WPT 1X Winner
21,000 7,000

Tags: Marcel Bjerkmann