Michael Binger(credit: Physics Central)
The Aussie Millions is going strong at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Event #4 was an $1100 Limit Hold’em contest. It took a full day to get down to the final eight. Then, it was a mere three hours for Jamie Pickering of Queensland to win the title and the 39,358 Aussie dollars that went along with it. Pickering began the day second in chips to James Potter. Potter played a quiet game at the final table.
The two made it all the way to heads-up play. On the very last hand, Potter raised preflop. Pickering called. The flop yielded two clubs (Jack and 4) and a spade (7). Pickering bet. Potter raised and was called by Pickering. The turn was a king of spades. Pickering check-raised to Potter’s bet. The raising continued ‘til Potter was all-in. The queen of diamonds hit the river, which was no help to either player. Pickering won with top two pair.
Here are the final results:
1) Jamie Pickering $ (AUD) 39,358
2) James Potter -$(AUD) 23,370
3) Simon Morris - $ (AUD) 13,530
4) Ivan Sop - $ (AUD) 9,840
5) David Lacchia - $ (AUD) 7,380
6) Jim Sachidinis - $ (AUD) 6,150
7) Ben Edwards - $ (AUD) 4,920
8) Michael Lipari - $ (AUD) 3,690
Event #5 at the 2008 Aussie Millions Championship was a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Tournament with rebuys. The fast-paced action drew in a crowd of younger players such as Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Anna Wroblewski. Wroblewski used all the rebuys she could after losing four times with A,Q and twice with A,K in the hole. Ouch!
Those rebuys paid off for the Poker Pixie as she made it to Day Two and the final table. The lovely lady played aggressively and wound up the seventh place finisher, earning $ (AUD) 21,040 for her efforts. At the end of the day, Michael Pedley went all-in on the first hand of heads-up play against Robert Wang. Luckily for Pedley, a Perth resident, he hit two pair to take down the title.
These are the standings:
1) Michael Pedley - $ (AUD) 168,320
2) Robert Wang - $ (AUD) 99,940
3) Larry Karambis - $ (AUD) 57,860
4) Rayan Nathan - $ (AUD) 42,080
5) Julian Powell - $ (AUD) 31,580
6) David Steicke - $ (AUD) 26,300
7) Anna Wroblewski - $ (AUD) 21,040
8) David Bach – $ (AUD) 15,780
9) Dane Lomas - $(AUD) 10,520
The sixth tournament at the 2008 Aussie Millions was a turbo bounty event. In the early rounds, players had 20 seconds to make their decisions AND each table had one player with a $1,000 ‘bounty’ on his or her head. Bounty players included pros such as Jeffrey Lisandro, Jennifer Tilly and Thomas Bihl.
Later on, the tournament shifted to a normal NLHE freezeout until the final 32 were decided upon. At that point, the tournament was a shootout ‘til the final table. The final two players at each of the four remaining tables moved to the final table, which was played as usual.
Michael Binger walked into the final table with a commanding chip leader. The part-time poker pro with a Ph.D from Stanford University faced local low-stakes player Marlon Goonawardana in a heads-up matchup. A self-proclaimed donk, Goonawardana defeated Binger after more than an hour winning more than 150,000 Aussie Dollars including Binger’s bounty.
Here are the final results:
1) Marlon Goonawardana - $ (AUD) 155,400
2) Michael Binger - $ (AUD) 88,060
3) Steve Leonard - $ (AUD) 51,800
4) David Kruger - $ (AUD) 41,440
5) Ramy Tadros - $ (AUD) 31,080
6) Josh Egan - $ (AUD) 23,310
7) Jeppe Neilson – $ (AUD) 17,094
8) Kim Peart - $ (AUD) 11,396