According to Daniel Neilson and his fellow countrymen, Fosters is NOT Australian for beer. He also fills Kristy in on a few Australian terms during a break of the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event.
After the under-the-gun player limped, Erik Seidel raised to 1,625. Jai Kemp then three-bet to 4,500 from the small blind, the limper folded, and Seidel called to see a flop of 
. Kemp was first to act and bet 5,500, which was enough to drive Seidel from the hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
75,500 | -4,500 |
|
35,000 | 5,000 |
Both Erik Seidel and Antonio Esfandiari are playing in Day 1b of the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event. Despite being at two different tables in the event, Esfandiari has done some reaching out to Seidel in an attempt to take their friendship to the next level. A couple of hours ago, Esfandiari tweeted the following:
After 9 years of begging and pleading I finally got @erik_seidel to have dinner w me #IhaveFinallyArrived #HardTicketToGetFollow @MagicAntonio
It turns out, Seidel is quite the hard man to get some face time with, but Esfandiari has finally pulled it off and will be having dinner with the eight-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner tomorrow night. That is, if Mr. Seidel doesn't have "something come up."
Esfandiari was no doubt excited about landing a dinner with Seidel, but he also seemed a bit nervous. "I feel like this is a date!" he joked.
While we unfortunately won't be attending the dinner with the two, we can only imagine that it will be full of fun and lots of great food.
By today’s standards, the maiden Aussie Millions was quite small. Aside from the Main Event, the largest buy-in of the series’ 10 events was AUD$5,000, modest compared to the AUD$250,000 tournament that has become an annual tradition. That first year was comprised mainly of players from the South Pacific, as well as a smattering of pros from the United Kingdom including Harry Demetriou, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers, and Lucy Rokach. In addition, a few Americans traveled to Melbourne including Erik Seidel, who has since become a regular at the Aussie Millions.
| Event | Winner |
|---|---|
| $360 Pot-Limit Hold’em | Luke Chezick (NZ) |
| $360 Limit Hold’em | Carlo Citrone (U.K.) |
| $1,500 Limit Hold’em | Michael Tomeny (USA) |
| $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | Sherkhan Fernood (Afghanistan) |
| $5,000 Heads-up No Limit Hold’em | George Mamacas (Australia) |
| $200 NLHE Pioneers Event | Paul Pedersen (NZ) |
| $1,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em | Sherkhan Fernood (Afghanistan) |
| $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo | Mel Judah (Australia) |
| $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | Lucy Rokach (U.K.) |
| $10,500 NLHE Main Event | Peter Costa (U.K.) |
The first Aussie Millions Main Event attracted 122 players and created a prize pool of AUD$1,220,000. The final table ended up being a battle between Australia and the U.K., with the former having five runners in contention against the latter’s four. Appropriately, Leo Boxell of Australia squared off against the U.K.’s Peter Costa in a heads-up match considered one of the best in Aussie Millions history. It contained 14 all-in bets and in the end, the Englishman, nicknamed “Silver Fox,” took down the AUD$394,870 prize and became the first Aussie Millions champion.
Costa, who was known by many through his appearances on Late Night Poker, was certainly the big story from that first year, but it is also worth noting that two of the Hendon Mob’s four members (Ram Vaswani and Joe Beevers) made the final table, and another member, Barny Boatman, bubbled in 10th place.
Unfortunately Costa, who now resides in Las Vegas, was unable to make it to this year's Aussie Million. For more on Costa, check out the Where Are They Now interview he did with PokerNews a couple years back.
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $10,500 | 122 | $1,220,000 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Peter Costa (U.K.) | $394,870 |
| 2nd | Leo Boxell (Australia) | $225,640 |
| 3rd | Harry Demetriou (U.K.) | $124,640 |
| 4th | Sam Khouiss (Australia) | $101,538 |
| 5th | Joe Cabret (Australia) | $78,974 |
| 6th | Ram Vaswani (U.K.) | $67,696 |
| 7th | Martin Comer (Australia) | $56,410 |
| 8th | Erich Kollmann (Austria) | $45,128 |
| 9th | Joe Beevers (U.K.) | $33,846 |
A player in early position opened for 1,600 and was met by a three-bet to 5,200 from Jackson Zheng in the big blind. The original raiser then four-bet all in and Zheng snap-called.
Zheng: 
Opponent: 
Much to the disappointment of both players, they discovered the other also held pocket kings. The 
flop gave Zheng's opponent a freeroll to running clubs, but the turn took away any chance of that happening. The meaningless 
was put out on the river for good measure and then the two players chopped the pot.
Liam O'Rourke and Gareth Dwyer were heads up on a flop of 
moments ago. O'Rourke check-called a bet of 3,000, and both players knuckled after the 
turned. A repeat nine - the 
- completed the board, the two checked again, and Dwyer showed for nines and eights.
O'Rourke revealed 
for a pair of aces, and was awarded the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
148,000 | -2,000 |
|
72,000 | 2,000 |
Jonathan Duhamel opened for 800 from the hijack and "Crazy" Marco Johnson defended his big blind, which led to a flop of 
. After it went check-check, the dealer burned and turned the . Johnson checked for a second time, but Duhamel refused to do the same and bet 1,200. Johnson made the call and then both players returned to checking after the completed the board on the river.
Duhamel tabled the 
for a missed flush, which meant Johnson's 
was good enough to win the modest pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
53,000 | 22,000 |
|
38,000 | -500 |
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
150,000 | -5,000 |
|
|
115,000 | 37,000 |
|
|
74,000 | -15,000 |
|
70,000 | 5,000 |
|
67,000 | 23,000 |
|
65,000 | -5,000 |
|
64,000 | 6,000 |
|
61,000 | 12,000 |
|
60,000 | 5,000 |
|
58,000 | 1,000 |
|
54,000 | 31,000 |
|
52,000 | -12,000 |
|
49,500 | 2,000 |
|
47,000 | -5,000 |
|
42,000 | 15,000 |
|
33,000 | 3,000 |
|
32,000 | |
|
32,000 | -2,500 |
|
30,000 | 1,500 |
|
28,000 | -5,000 |
|
25,000 | 500 |
|
23,000 | |
|
18,000 | -8,000 |
|
17,500 | -18,500 |
|
13,000 | -12,000 |
We picked up the action on a board reading 
when Jai Kemp checked to Lee Nelson, who you no doubt recall as the 2006 winner of this very event. Nelson fired out 7,800 and was met by an all-in check-raise for just 1,525 more.
It wasn't much more to Nelson, but he must not have had much as he opted to save the 1,525 and fold his hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
23,000 | -19,000 |
