2009 Aussie Millions

$1 Million Cash Game
Day: 1
Event Info

2009 Aussie Millions

Event Info
Buy-in
1,000,000 AUD

Break Time

The players are on a thirty-minute break so that the television crew can grab a bite to eat. I'm told that Andrew Robl strolled up to the door right at the break with $550,000 in a case. He put the case down by the door, then walked off with Dwan and Antonius.

Shaking Things Up

They're back in PLO now. The first couple of hands have been folded, prompting the two players to start jabbering again. They're talking poker, of course. If you spend 80% of your life doing one thing, what else are you going to talk about?

We are most likely going to be adding players to the game soon (after a break for the television crew). The table talk will hopefully increase with the addition of new players. The rumor floating around the room is that Alec Torelli, Chino Rheem and Andrew Robl are all looking for a game. Masa Kagawa may also be in the mix.

Chop, Chop

The biggest pots today have come in PLO. We finally had a significant pot develop in hold'em but it was a chop. Antonius led the betting the whole way, with Dwan check-calling bets of $12,000, $26,000 and $61,000 on a board of {4-Spades} {8-Hearts} {7-Spades} {6-Spades} {3-Diamonds}. Dwan tabled {6-Hearts} {5-Clubs}, having flopped the straight; Antonius showed {5-Hearts} {8-Diamonds}, having turned it with a gutterball six.

Incredibly unlucky card for Dwan. He just can't seem to catch any breaks today.

Deja Vu?

The table talk has once again evaporated. The reason why? Another monster PLO pot that went to Antonius. It started out innocently enough with a preflop raise and call. Dwan check-called a bet of $12,000 with the flop showing {5-Hearts} {6-Diamonds} {J-Hearts}. He checked again on the turn {8-Clubs} and then called Antonius' bet of $32,000.

The river paired the board {6-Clubs}. Dwan tanked for more than a minute, then bet $73,000. Finally we had some movement from Antonius. He put his hand on a stack of AU$25,000 flags and ever so slightly started tapping them with his pointer finger. After a minute he pushed them into the middle, a raise to $175,000.

For the second time in a big PLO pot, Dwan didn't want to go to showdown. He mucked his hand after thirty seconds, his stack $123,000 shorter.

Updated Chip Counts

Patrik Antonius brought AU$1,500,000 to today's game; Tom Dwan brought AU$2,000,000 to the game but put only half of that on the table to start play. Currently, Antonius has AU$1,866,500 in his stack. Dwan is at AU$633,500.

That makes Dwan a AU$366,500 loser over the first 100 hands of this match. Of course, that's "only" $239,000 in American dollars.

Break Time

Dwan needs to use the little boy's room, so the production staff have decided to take a ten-minute break. On one of the last hands before the break, Dwan made a Broadway straght -- the nuts -- on the river with {A-?} {10-?}. He checked to Antonius, who checked behind. Dwan showed a disappointed smile as he tabled his hand.

Counts coming.

Huge Pot to Antonius

The game switched back to PLO a few hands ago. Like every other pot so far, the action was raised preflop. Dwan and Antonius checked through the {2-Hearts} {K-Clubs} {A-Hearts} flop. On the turn {6-Spades}, Antonius led out for $10,000. Dwan, his head bobbing like a hula-dancer toy on the dashboard of a New York City taxi, raised to $37,000.

Action was back to Antonius, and as I mentioned before, he was stock still. It's no surprise to anyone who's ever seen Antonius play on television, but it's really amazing to see it live. His foot wasn't even twitching. The only parts of his body that were moving were his eyelids, and I have to imagine that if Antonius could figure out a way to not blink without drying out his eyeballs, he'd do just that.

After some more thought, Antonius re-raised to $118,000. Dwan considered, then considered some more, and finally called to the river {3-Spades}. Antonius led out for $146,000 and took down the pot when Dwan flipped his cards into the muck.

That one will definitely make the broadcast. Speculation as to their hands begins in the Shout Box in three... two... one...

The Offer is Out!

The two players have worked out the details of their offer. They've asked Crown management to go down to the baccarat room and offer players $25,000 to come play. Anyone who is interested must sit down with at least $250,000 and must play 100 hands in order to qualify for the $25,000 inducement.