However, the ending to the Aussie Millions wasn’t all positive. A young poker player from Oklahoma got robbed early Monday morning in Australia. Jason Potter, 22, was robbed at knifepoint for $30,000. Potter made a deep run in the Aussie Millions, finishing 31st. Due to the fact that the robbery occurred close to the Crown Casino, there is a chance a surveillance video might have been able to pick up what transpired.

On the better side of things, the Aussie Millions Main Event just wrapped up this past weekend. Going into the final table of 7, there was only one notable pro: [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url]. An extremely wily and experienced veteran, Seidel has won 8 bracelets, good for a tied fourth on the all time list. Down from 780 original runners, here’s what the final table and payouts looked like.

Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 6,806,000
Antonio Casale - 1,995,000
Nino Marotta - 1,649,000
[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] - 1,491,000
Alexander Kostritsyn - 1,439,000
Peter Mobbs - 1,357,000
Peter Ling - 877,000

Final Table Payouts:
1st: $1,650,000 AUD
2nd: $1,000,000 AUD
3rd: $700,000 AUD
4th: $500,000 AUD
5th: $400,000 AUD
6th: $300,000 AUD
7th: $225,000 AUD

Even with the massive chip lead, Michael Chrisanthopoulos had to have [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] on his mind. The kind of experience he possessed over the table was amazing. However, time would tell whether this veteran’s experience was enough to work through the final table and the massive chip leader.

Just thirteen hands in, the final table lost its first player. Alexander Kostritsyn knocked out Peter Mobbs when Kostritsyn’s AK held up against Mobbs’ AJ. Mobbs exited in 7th place, winning $225,000.

Kostritsyn was also responsible for the final table’s second bustout. In a pot that was worth roughly 1/3 of the chips in play – 5 million, Alexander knocked out Antonio Casale, when his aces held up against Casale’s jacks. Casale took home $300,000 for his efforts. Here’s what the chip counts looked like after that huge hand.

Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 6,535,000
Alexander Kostritsyn - 5,545,000
[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] - 1,430,000
Peter Ling - 1,295,000
Nino Marotta - 805,000

With his two bustouts, Kostritsyn was surging. Chrisanthopoulos was still the chip leader, though not by nearly as wide of a margin as before. Seidel was looming in 3rd, with Ling and Marotta as the short stacks.

Just three hands later, Kostritsyn would claim his third victim. Nino Marotta busted out in 5th place when his QT couldn’t suck out against Kostritsyn’s AJ on a JT3 flop. He claimed $400,000.

After the first 35 hands of the final table, here’s how the table was shaping up.

Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 6,435,000
Alexander Kostritsyn - 6,280,000
Peter Ling - 1,445,000
[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] - 1,385,000

35 hands later, Peter Ling sang his swan song. After calling a pre flop raise with A5, he check raised Michael Chrisanthopoulos’s bet on an AKT flop, and was dismayed to see Chrisanthopoulos’s AK. Drawing to runners, Ling didn’t get there, and was sent home in 4th place. He won $500,000.

Chrisanthopoulos and Kostritsyn had been running away with the final table, with Seidel handcuffed and cold decked. This changed at hand #80…

Seidel got it in with 22 vs. Michael’s AJ for a 3 million dollar pre flop. Michael flopped a Jack to take the lead, however…the river was a deuce, bringing Seidel back into the tournament. From this point on, Michael began to bleed off chips, and doubling up, continuing this trend until hand #112…

After Seidel had made his standard button raise, Chrisanthopoulos called from the small blind, Kostritsyn reraised, Seidel folded, and Chrisanthopoulos went all in. Unfortunately for Michael, he had made an ill-timed squeeze play with his A6 suited, as he had run into Kostritsyn’s tens. No aces or clubs came for Chrisanthopoulos and the former chipleader busted in 3rd place, earning $700,000.

The Russian unknown vs. The American pro. This would likely be Kostritsyn’s last day as an unknown, and if he could pull off this huge win heads up vs. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url], that would cement it. Starting heads up, he had nearly 4 million more than Seidel, with the stacks at 9,925,000 for Kostritsyn, and 5,585,000 for Seidel. However, after over 50 hands and hours of heads up poker, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] finally succumbed to Alexander Kostritsyn. Down 12.3 million to 3.3 million, Seidel was in trouble. After making a raise preflop, he got pot stuck on a J87 flop with AQ vs. Kostritsyn’s J9. Unfortunately for him, no help arrived and he finished in 2nd place for a solid $1 million dollar payday. However, the glory belonged to Kostritsyn. After a long, winding week of poker, he had the bragging rights, and $1,650,000 on top of it. Not a bad week of poker for the young Russian.

Back to Tunica, the WSOP circuit event is coming to an end tomorrow, with the Main Event final table set. Such notables as Tom Schneider, and Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich will fight for the over $428 K first place prize. Notable bustouts leading up to the final table included, “Captain” Tom Franklin, Jeremiah “Believer82” Vinsant, and Josh Arieh. The final table starts at 12 PM CST tomorrow.

Both the WSOP Circuit event and the WPT World Poker Open suffered from the Aussie Millions, and being right next to one another. Only 257 have shown up for the WPT event, with 144 heading into Day 2, from Day 1A and 1B. Day 2 starts tomorrow, and notables such as Dutch Boyd, Nam Le, David Pham, Kido Pham, Humberto Brenes, Chad Brown, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url], T.J. Cloutier, and Brett “Gank” Jungblutt have lots of chips to work with going into Day 2. At the end of the road lies an $892 K first place prize.

That’s all for this week, good luck to everyone at the tables in the coming week!

Event 10 took place over two days, featuring a rotation of Pot Limit Holdem, Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo. The event attracted 114 entrants for a buy-in of 2,200 AUD each, creating a prize pool of 228,000 AUD. Day one ended with only 13 players remaining, Dag Martin Mekkelsen with the chiplead. Josh “JJProdigy” Field, well known to followers of online poker, finished day one with a healthy 4th place stack, but he couldn’t take it down on day two and ended up in 5th place. Mekkelsen couldn’t hold on to his chiplead and fell to a 3rd place finish, and ‘young gun’ Miachel Pesek triumphed over David “Gunslinger” Bach heads-up to win first prize. Pesek took home 79,800 AUD and Bach received his consolation prize of 45,000 AUD.

Event #10 results:
1) Michael Pesek (79,800 AUD)
2) David Bach (45,600 AUD)
3) Dag Martin Mikkelsen (27,360 AUD)
4) Roy Winston (22,800 AUD)
5) Josh “JJProdigy” Field (18,240 AUD)
6) JJ Hazan (13,680 AUD)
7) Jamie Pickering (9,120 AUD)
8 ) Jeff Brown (6,840 AUD)
9) Mick “The Hoon” Stanton (4,560 AUD)

Next one the list was Event 11, the 1,050 AUD PokerPro No Limit Holdem tournament. This unique event had no dealer and no chips. Instead, players sat a tables of 10, each having their own touch screen computer. A large screen in the middle of the table showed everyone’s stacks, the pot size, and community cards. When it was a particular player’s turn to act, he used his personal computer screen to perform his action. It’s like playing poker on your computer, but your opponents are right at the table with you in the flesh! Something that I find humorous about this event is the fact you still must hide your hole cards when you are taking a look at them, even though they are on a computer screen. It may feel like you’re playing online, but your opponents are right beside you and can look over and peek if you are not careful!

This year’s PokerPro event attracted 97 players, a significant increase from the mere 31 last year. Notable players such as Joe Hachem, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Andy-Bloch.html]Andy Bloch[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Clonie-Gowen.php]Clonie Gowen[/url], Phil Laak, and Jennifer Tilly came out for this strange event, but none of them were able to place in the money. However, online notable Mike “Timex” McDonald triumphed over Martin Cardno heads-up and won first place for 33,950 AUD. He even won a [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Online-Poker-Room-Links.html]Bonus[/url] prize from PokerPro, a brand new 9,000 AUD Heads-Up Machine.

Event #11 results:
1) Mike “Timex” McDonald (33,950 AUD)
2) Martin Cardno (19,400 AUD)
3) Ramy Tadros (11,640 AUD)
4) Andrew Demetriou (9,700 AUD)
5) Greg “DuckU” Hobson (7,760 AUD)
6) Heng Zhang (5,820 AUD)
7) Nick Binger (3,880 AUD)
8 ) David Lee (2,910 AUD)
9) Lei He (1,940 AUD)

The highly anticipated Main Event was next, featuring a 10,500 AUD buy-in, 780 participants, and a first prize of 1,650,000 AUD. This event was scheduled to take place over an entire week, with ‘Day One’ being spread out over 3 days to accomodate so many entrants. The final table is playing as I write this, with five players remaining. Michael Chrisanthopoulos barely has the chiplead with just over 6.4 million chips, and well-known Eric Seidel is in third place with just over 1.4 million. Three players have busted since the final day of this main event started.

Current Event #12 final table chip counts (as of 10:30 PM EST):
1) Michael Chrisanthopoulos (6,470,000 chips)
2) Alexander Kostritsyn (6,395,000 chips)
3) [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] (1,380,000 chips)
4) Peter Ling (1,300,000 chips)

Event thirteen featured a heads-up championship, a 5,300 AUD buy-in event featuring a total prize pool of 320,000. It took place over 3 days, two days scheduled for ‘day one’ and then a day two for the final four. Each heads-up match was a best of three, and the winner progressed to the next round. Many notable players cashed this event, with Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza taking the 100,000 AUD first prize. He played a total of 17 heads-up matches, and in many of them he had to mount comebacks to win.

Event #13 results:
1) Jeff Garza (100,000 AUD)
2) Masaaki Kagawa (60,000 AUD)
3) Roy “The Oracle” Winston (40,000 AUD)
4) Xuan Nguyen (40,000 AUD)
5) Lee “Final Table” Nelson (20,000 AUD)
6) Mike “Timex” McDonald (20,000 AUD)
7) David Sonelin (20,000 AUD)
8 ) Alexey Popov (20,000 AUD)

That’s it for my report today, but be sure to return to the [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/]FTR Blogs[/url] for news about the remaining events and the Main Event’s final table!

The format for the event was unique, as it was Pot Limit preflop, and no limit from there on after. Lederer was at his calculated best, remaining patient, and picking the right spots to make moves as the play got short-handed.

At the start of the final table, Lindgren began as the chip leader where it looked like he could repeat last year’s success in the same event. However, it wasn’t to be and he didn’t even finish in the money, where only the top 5 were paid. In the end, Nickolaus Jedlicka came 5th for $100,000 AUD, Jeffrey Lisandro came 4th for $150,000 AUD, Michael Sampoerna came 3rd for $350,000 AUD and Mark Teltscher came 2nd taking home $650,000 AUD.

The events started with a 1,100 AUD No Limit Holdem tournament which was played over two days and had total prize pool of 537,000 AUD. V‌incent Wan, a Melbourne native, battled Michael “Timex” McDonald heads up and emerged victorious, winning a handsome 142,302 AUD first prize. McDonald received 85,920 for his second place finish. The heads up match was in no way easy to win; it lasted for over 60 hands and the lead was traded back and forth a number of times before things were said and done. Wan eventually won with JJ after managing to get McDonald’s stack in the middle with A8o.

Event #1 results:
1) Vincent Wan (142,302 AUD)
2) Mike “Timex” McDonald (85,920 AUD)
3) Peter Pratis (56,385 AUD)
4) Justin Gendle (40,275 AUD)
5) Jovan Scekic (29,535 AUD)
6) Yevgeniy Timoshenko (21,480 AUD)
7) Alex Luck (16,110 AUD)
8 ) John Georges (12,888 AUD)
9) Con Cotsomitis (10,203 AUD)
10) Kalan Shuttlewood (7,787 AUD)

Event two was a 1,100 AUD Pot Limit Holdem tournament, attracting a 189 field and also played over two days. Chris Chronis, an Australian fashion designer, made a late run on Day 1 and went from 6,000 chips to 195,500 chips, which was good for the Day 1 chip lead. He finished in a fairy-tale like fashion, making it to the final table where he dominated and eventually took home a 60,398 AUD first prize.

Event #2 results:
1) Chris Chronis (60,398 AUD)
2) David Gorr (35,910 AUD)
3) Sam Youssef (20,790 AUD)
4) Anna Wroblewski (15,120 AUD)
5) Harris Pavlou (11,340 AUD)
6) Richard Sera (9,450 AUD)
7) Jonathan Karamalikis (7,560 AUD)
8 ) Manny Stavropoulos (5,670 AUD)
9) Alex Keating (3,780 AUD)
10) Paul Taylor (2,363 AUD)

Event three featured Limit 7C Stud, 7C Stud Hi-Lo, and Razz, which attracted 96 partipants for 550 AUD each. This unique tournament rotated between the three stud games, allowing 40 minutes for one before switching to another. Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, a familiar name to the Aussie Millions, took the chip lead with three tables left, dominated the final table, and ended up winning the 16,800 AUD first prize.

Event #3 results:
1) Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (16,800 AUD)
2) Graeme Putt (16,800 AUD)
3) Emmanuel Sideridis (5,760 AUD)
4) Jared Bottroff (4,800 AUD)
5) Rich Holmes (3,840 AUD)
6) Jethro Horowitz (2,880 AUD)
7) Trung Tran (2,400 AUD)
8 ) Sean McKenzie (1,920 AUD)

A two day Limit Holdem event was scheduled next, featuring a 1,100 AUD buy-in and a total prize pool of 123,000 AUD. James “Welcome Back” Potter ended Day 1 as the chipleader with almost one third of the total chips in his stack at the final table, but he couldn’t seal the deal. Jamie Pickering started Day 2 second in chips and ended up heads up with Potter, eventually emerging as the victor and winning 39,360 AUD. Potter still took received a nice 23,370 AUD for his second place effort.

Event #4 results:
1) Jamie Pickering (39,360 AUD)
2) James Potter (23,370 AUD)
3) Simon Morris (13,530 AUD)
4) Ivan Sop (9,840 AUD)
5) David Lacchia (7,380 AUD)
6) Jim Sachinidis (6,150 AUD)
7) Ben Edwards (4,920 AUD)
8 ) Michael Lipari (3,690 AUD)
9) Martin Cardno (2,460 AUD)
10) Marc Goodwin (1,538 AUD)

The championship’s first rebuy tournament was scheduled for event five, a 1,150 AUD buy-in with 1,000 AUD rebuys. 150 participants generated a prize pool of 536,000 AUD, the largest so far in the tournament, and many well-known pros battled it out during this two day event. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst ended Day 1 with the chiplead, but he was unable to take it all the way and ended up busting out in 10th place. A popular local player, Michael Pedley, took home first prize, capturing the event and 168,320 AUD while surrounded by friends and family.

Event #5 results:
1) Michael Pedley (168,320)
2) Robert Wang (99,940 AUD)
3) Larry Karambis (57,860 AUD)
4) Rayan Nathan (42,080 AUD)
5) Julian Powell (31,560 AUD)
6) David Steicke (26,300 AUD)
7) Anna Wroblewski (21,040 AUD)
8 ) David Bach (15,780 AUD)
9) Dane Lomas (10,520 AUD)
10) Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (6,575 AUD)

Event six was the unique bounty tournament. What is that you ask? Each starting table had one bounty player, and busting that player earned you 1,000 AUD cash. Once 32 players remained, the tournament became a shootout, advancing two players from each of the four remaining tables to create an 8 player final table. This bounty tournament had a 1,650 buy-in, 370 entrants, and a nice first prize of 155,400 which was won by a popular local player, Marlon Goonawardne. He had a big stack going into his heads up match versus Michael Binger, and he said after he won, “I did this for all the $2-5 donks out there!”

Event #6 results:
1) Marlon Goonawardne (155,400 AUD)
2) Michael Binger (88,060 AUD)
3) Steve Leonard (51,800 AUD)
4) David Kruger (41,440 AUD)
5) Ramy Tadros (31,080 AUD)
6) Josh Egan (23,310 AUD)
7) Jeppe Nielsen (17,094 AUD)
8 ) Kim Peart (11,396 AUD)
9) Greg Tomas (7,511 AUD)
10) Grant Levy (7,511 AUD)

Next up was another rebuy tournament, the 3,250 AUD Pot Limit Omaha with 3,000 AUD rebuys. It attracted 65 entrants and generated an impressive 516,000 AUD prize pool, awarding 180,600 to first place. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Lee-Watkinson.php]Lee Watkinson[/url], an Aussie Millions newcomer, won the event, bringing his career earnings playing Omaha to over $1 million dollars. He was victorious heads up versus Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, a familiar name to those who follow online poker. Dwan was dominant at the final table, but it wasn’t enough and he ended up taking second prize instead, which was still a nice 103,200 AUD.

Event #7 results:
1) [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Lee-Watkinson.php]Lee Watkinson[/url] (180,600 AUD)
2) Tom “Durrrr” Dwan (103,200 AUD)
3) Van Marcus (61,920 AUD)
4) Mike Sexton (51,600 AUD)
5) Mark Kassis (41,280 AUD)
6) Michael “Sticky” Guttman (30,960 AUD)
7) Lenny Barshack (20,640 AUD)
8 ) Jamie Pickering (15,480 AUD)
9) Max Pescatori (10,320 AUD)

Event eight was a 3,250 AUD buy-in for 2 Card Manila, which attracted only 10 people, much lower than the 32 people that entered last year. Atonis Kambouroglou won a tight heads up match versus Warwick Mirzikinian and took home 16,200 AUD for his efforts.

Event #8 results:
1) Atonis Kambouroglou (27,000 AUD)
2) Warwick Mirzikinian (16,200 AUD)
3) Yevgeniy Timoshenko (10,800 AUD)

The highly anticipated 100,000 AUD Holdem tournament was featured in event 9, attracting 25 players and generating a giant 2,500,000 AUD prize pool. This tournament was unique because the betting was Pot Limit before the flop and No Limit after the flop (except for heads up where it was No Limit preflop as well as postflop). [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Howard-Lederer.html]Howard Lederer[/url] ended up winning, earning 1,250,000 AUD and outlasting several online and B&M pros. He really did ‘outlast’ them too; he had a short stack for most of the tournament and utilized a lot of patience before making a run for the win.

Event #9 results:
1) [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Howard-Lederer.html]Howard Lederer[/url] (1,250,000 AUD)
2) Mark Teltscher (650,000 AUD)
3) Michael Sampoerna (350,000 AUD)
4) Jeff Lisandro (150,000 AUD)
5) Nikolaus Jedlicka (100,000 AUD)

Event 10, the 2,200 AUD PLH/Omaha/Omaha Hi-Lo tournament, is underway as I write this. The Main Event is still to come, so check the [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/]FTR Blogs[/url] for more updates as the Aussie Millions continues and the prize pools get even larger!