Aussie Millions Wrap Up

By Grant Levy
03 February 2010

It has been an exhausting couple of weeks, having just completed the Aussie Million schedule down in Melbourne. I played a much lighter schedule this year, only playing a total of 5 events, including the main event, and managed to have some degree of success.

My series started with the $1100 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, which I felt I played very well in throughout. Unfortunately it ended late on the first day, just shy of the bubble.

Next cab off the rank was the $1,650 feature (bounty) event. This is one of my favourite tournaments on the schedule as it plays normal freeze out tournament format for the first 75% of the tournament, before reverting to 4 shootout tables, playing down to two players who go through to the final table. In this same tournament two years back I bubbled the final table, so I was very keen to go at least one better this year. Fortunately I ran well early on, busting at least six players over the course of five hours on my initial starting table, and managed to run up a nice stack. By the time we reached the money, and the shootout format of the event, I was just above average stack and confident of making a run at the final table the next day.

Day 2 started and I received a pretty horrible table draw, with the very tough and unpredictable David Steicke to my immediate left, as well as the ony other really competent player with decent chip stack to his immediate left. Fortunately for me, David was able to bust him pretty early on, as well as busting a couple of others, and before too long we were down to four players. I managed to knock out 4th place when my KJ held against his K7, despite him flopping a flush draw. When three handed I copped a bit of a beat against the short stack, which would have ultimately sent me through to the final table with around 400,000 chips. Shortly thereafter, the shorty busted to David and I was sent through to the final table sitting 7th of 8 players with 203,000.

The final table was a tough one, with online sensation and good friend Jonathan "Monster_Dong" Karamalikis, American Steve Friedlander (who later FT'd the main event) and David Steicke. I managed an early double up when my KQ held against Dong's J9dd on a flop of Q82 with two diamonds. For the next few hours I was completely card dead and tried to stay alive and make some moves, but Dong played outstandingly well and made it very hard for me to get myself back in the game. I was able to double again with five left when my AA held against Steve's 55 all in pre flop, with him flopping a 5 and me rivering the Ace. Despite this I ended up shortly thereafter finding KK and running into Dong's AK, with him turning an Ace and knocking me out in 5th place, for a $32k payday. Although disappointed with how it ended I was ecstatic with how I played for the most part and happy to start the year off on the right foot.

After making the dash home for a couple of days to enjoy my daughter's 5th birthday, I returned to Melbourne for the Main Event. I was lucky enough to draw a pretty soft table on Day 1, up under the TV lights in Crown's studio 3. Hopefully, I'll find myself on the TV coverage when it airs later in the year. Despite a relatively good table draw, things really didn't go my way all day and I spent 98% of the torunament below my starting stack. In fact, I was dealt AK the first three hands of the tournament, losing all three hands and 5,000 chips in the process. For the rest of my tournament I only spent a total of three hands above my 20k starting stack. I managed to hang on to my shortish stack pretty much all day, before busting in the final hour of Day 1. I was able to double my short stack on at least 5 occasions throughout the day, once with quads, but I just could not get anything going once I managed a double up. It was a very frustrating day, but I gave it my all, and was not overly disappointed in the end.

The rest of the Aussie Millions schedule didn't go particularly well. I played pretty poorly in the Heads Up, losing 2-0 to the eventual runner-up in round 1. I played some of my best poker for a while in the six handed tournament to run up a really decent stack at the dinner break. Unfortunately, just after the dinner break I got it in as a big favourite with KQ vs Aces on a flop of KQ7. The turn and river were both sevens, giving my opponent the hand and a massive chunk of my chips. Two hands later I got it in with TT on a board of 7928 against JT and was out. I was bitterly disappointed about this result, and is my one major regret of the series.

All in all, it was a successful series for me as I made a bit of money and felt that I played pretty well throughout. Once again the online crew dominated the series, with Jonathan "Monster_Dong" Karamalikis, Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad, Kristian "Bada Bing" Lunardi, Tyron "teek_00" Krost and Mike "Sir Watts" Watson winning big events.

Next up for me is the first stop on the PokerStars ANZPT, Adelaide. I really hope to run well and crush in this year's ANZPT after a horror performance on that tour last year. If the start of the year is anything to go by, with a win in the Star City Big Game Wednesday tournament and an Aussie Millions final table, I can look forward to it with some confidence. I guess time will tell.