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The 2010 Aussie Millions Poker Championship television coverage is underway and PokerNetwork will be front and centre to bring you all the action from start to finish. So, whether you want to relive all the highlights, or need to catch up after missing an episode, be sure to watch out for our recap every week!
$100,000 buy-in. 24 players. 30 seconds to act on each hand. Pot-limit preflop, no-limit post-flop. The 2010 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge at Crown Casino in Melbourne is the ultimate test of speed and skill and now, only four remain.
Billy Jordanou is flying the flag for Australia, Tony Bloom is looking to add another Aussie Millions title to his resume, Dan Shak is looking for some spare change and Phil Ivey is looking to break the Crown curse. To add further pressure, Ivey requires at least a runner-up finish to become the highest earning tournament player of all time. Can he do it? Let's find out!
THE PLAYERS
Billy Jordanou (Australia) – 390,000
Dan Shak (USA) – 610,000
Phil Ivey (USA) – 680,000
Tony Bloom (UK) – 720,000
*The chip counts listed are from the start of this episode
THE RUN-DOWN
Last week's episode saw the formation of the final table of eight players, with the short stack of Howard Lederer wiped out in eighth place before Aussie online phenom Jonathan xMONSTERxDONGx Karamalikis fell on the sword of his own aggression to bow out in seventh. Barry Greenstein signed off another book and burst the bubble in sixth before Tony G pedalled out of Studio 3 and downstairs to the cage to get a refund of his $100,000 buy-in when he finished fifth.
THE BIG STORY: Love Shak, Baby!
Pennsylvainian hedge-fund manager Dan Shak had grinded through his Day 1 flight of the Main Event the night before, and he backed up with a powerhouse display of poker play to take down the $1.2 million payday and the 2010 $100,000 Challenge title.
Shak was second in chips coming into tonight's episode and never looked frazzled, but it was Billy Jordanou who collected most of the chips early on, scoring a crucial double-up through Tony Bloom. In the first hand of the episode, Bloom raised from the button before the flop with 
before Jordanou called from the big blind holding 
to see a flop of 
.
Jordanou led out for 35,000, Bloom made it 200,000 to go, Jordanou snap-shoved and Bloom called, thinking that he was good but Jordanou had him crushed with two pair. The turn and river blanked out 
, 
and Jordanou doubled through.
Jordanou managed to score another big pot from Phil Ivey in the next hand, but in the fifth hand of the episode, Bloom found himself all-in on a flop that read 
after a check-raise from Ivey. Despite tabling 
for top pair, Ivey had him outkicked with 
. There was no change with the 
on the turn, but the river 
gave Ivey the straight, booting Bloom out in fourth place, good for $200,000.
Jordanou managed to double up again through Ivey when he moved all-in preflop with 
, which held all the way down the board of 
against Ivey's 
. However, Jordanou still had a lot of work to do as the short stack with 450,000 with Ivey holding 1.1 million in chips and Shak with 850,000.
Eventually, Jordanou surrendered the last of his chips to Ivey when he moved all-in after flopping two pair with 
on a board of 
. Ivey called with his overpair of and hit his set on the turn of the 
. To add insult to injury, he made his flush on the river with the 
, but Jordanou still had 300,000 reasons to smile after his third-finish.
The heads-up chip counts were quite close going into the heads-up battle, with Shak drawing first blood and the second hand of the duel chopped, before Shak took another two pivotal pots off Ivey. In the last hand of the episode, Ivey raised from the button before the flop with , before Shak reraised all-in with .
Ivey called, but Shak struck gold on the flop of 
. The turn and the river came running 
, 
, giving Shak two pair and the title, while Ivey settled for second place and $600,000, good enough to pass Daniel Negreanu on the all-time money list. And that, as they say, was that.
2010 AUSSIE MILLIONS TV SCHEDULE (ESPN)
|
Date
|
Time (AEDST) |
|
Tuesday, December 7
|
9.30pm
|
|
Tuesday, December 14
|
9.30pm
|
|
Tuesday, December 21
|
9.30pm
|
|
Tuesday, December 28
|
9.30pm
|
Don’t forget that satellites to the 2011 Aussie Millions are running right now – download Full Tilt Poker and win your seat today!
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