Martin Drewe Wins Aussie Millions Opening Event

The 2011 Aussie Millions kicked off with the traditional $1,100 Opening Event to launch Australia’s biggest tournament series in emphatic fashion. This event now has a personality all of its own, with the re-repechage format once again proving to be a huge hit as 1,000 entries produced a massive one million dollar prize pool.

After three opening flights, and several players firing multiple bullets, just 143 made it through to Day 2 action in the Crown Poker Room this afternoon with Martin Drewe, Tolly Sakellariou and Jon Overbeek leading the way at the start of the day.

Only the top 90 players would finish in the money, which is less than the traditional 10% of prize winners. Due to the re-repechage format there were in fact only 762 unique entries, so a number between the unique and total entries was chosen by Crown to distribute the prize pool. The minimum cash was $2,020 with first place set to collect a very healthy $200,020 pay day.

Full Tilt Pros Jonathan Karamalikis and Simon Watt were early casualties, along with Andy Hinrichsen, however John Corr had the hard-luck story of the day as he picked up the dreaded title of “bubble boy”. Although shattered by the loss, Crown Casino healed the wounds somewhat as Corr received a double gold pass to the Australian Open. Not a bad consolation prize!

PokerNetwork’s own Paul Birman snuck into the cash in 86^th place, as did Ben Gilholme (82^nd), Terry Tserdanis (81^st), Dave Morton (80^th) and Dale Townsend (75^th).

Mike Spilkin fell in 71^st while Jackie Glazier departed in 70^th place after a massive four-way all in clash that saw Isaac Lau’s ace-king make a flush to eliminate three players as he claimed the tournament chip lead.

As the eliminations continued, 2010 PokerNetwork Player of the Year Daniel Neilson found himself on the rail when he ran his king-queen into a dominant ace-king. Neilson spiked a queen on the flop but his opponent made a flush on the turn to send Neilson home in 57^th place.

As Jessica Dawley (56^th), Tim Balaban (55^th) and Graeme Putt (50^th) all soon headed to the cashier, it was Full Tilt Pro Scott Montgomery who was motoring at the other end of the chip count leaderboard. Montgomery claimed the lead when his pocket queens held against the ace-king of John Overbeek as around four tables remained.

2010 Adelaide Championships winner Sean Dunwoodie kicked off the year with another deep run, but departed in 29^th place as he ran his pocket jacks into the pocket aces of Montgomery who continued to dominate.

Yann Pauchon fell in 26^th and was soon followed by Kristian Lunardi when his pocket kings were cracked to see him depart in 25^th place, as just 20 players survived to reach the dinner break.

The action continued deep into the night, as it was decided to play right through until a winner was crowned. ANZPT Melbourne champ Martin Kozlov fell in 12^th place before Ryan Hong’s departure in 11^th place left us with our final table lineup.

Justin Cohen was out in front, closely followed by Isaac Lau, but it would be Lau who would become the first casualty of the final table. It took several hours for Lau to be ground down to the short stack before his were cracked by Cohen’s when an ace spiked on the flop.

Day 1 chip leader Martin Drewe then reassumed his place on top of the chip count leaderboard when his pocket nines held against Jonathan Palmer’s pocket eights to eliminate Palmer in 9^th place. Next to go was Full Tilt Pro Scott Montgomery. He moved his last chips in with [ad][qc] and once again it was Drewe who was responsible holding [5h][5d]. The board bricked out and the 2008 November Niner was out in 8^th place.

Nik Lackovic flushed out Gabriel Xiourouppa in 7^th place in a battle of the blinds as South African Darren Kramer started to surge after several big clashes with Justin Cohen. Meanwhile Antoine Bechara was playing pretty snug on the final table but he eventually lost his battle with his short stack in 6^th place when he ran his dominated into Martin Drewe’s . He was soon followed by Vito Dalessandri in 5^th place in a clash with Justin Cohen on a flop of . Dalessandri had the king but Cohen had the seven as the turn and river bricked out.

Nik Lackovic was next to go when he pushed from the button with but ran smack into Martin Drewe’s in the big blind. No help for Lackovic as he headed to the cashier in 4^th place with Drewe extending his chip lead. Three-handed and Justin Cohen mis-stepped when he overbet shoved his pocket sixes straight into the pocket queens of Darren Kramer. Cohen was crippled and eliminated soon after in 3^rd place as by 6:30am we were finally heads-up for the title!

Darren Kramer held a narrow chip lead over Martin Drewe, as the South African was looking to match the efforts of roommate Jarred Solomon who collected the Aussie Millions gold ring in Event #2: $550 PokerPro Shootout. However a cooler of a hand saw Kramer run his pocket jacks into the pocket aces of Drewe to give the Australian the advantage, and he didn’t take long to wrap it up.

Again Drewe found himself with a big pair, this time as Kramer pushed with his .  The board ran out and after a gruelling 19-hour day, Martin Drewe was crowned champion taking home $200,020 in prize money!

Final Table Results:

1^st Martin Drewe - $200,020
2^nd Darren Kramer - $128,220
3^rd Justin Cohen - $85,220
4^th Nik Lackovic - $65,220
5^th Vito Dalessandri - $52,220
6^th Antoine Bechara - $42,220
7^th Gabriel Xiourouppa - $32,220
8^th Scott Montgomery - $22,220
9^th Jonathan Palmer - $15,020
10^th Isaac Lau - $11,520

Meanwhile it appears set that Crown will play host to one of the biggest buy-in events ever seen in the world in a hastily-scheduled $250,000 buy-in, 8-player sit and go. Crown Director of Poker, Jonno Pittock confirmed interest in the PokerNetwork forums and indicated that the event will be held on Thursday January 27^th at 4pm. Who will take part? Well Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan will both be in town, and Tony G is well-known for his love of the big buy-in events. A rich Russian and a travelling Asian businessmen and we have ourselves one hell of a poker game!

Stay tuned to PokerNetwork for all the latest news and updates from the 2011 Aussie Millions!