Dominykas Karmazinas Leads Stacked Final Table

After just nine levels of play the final table is set for the $25,000 Semi-Shootout event. Tomorrow at 14:00 AEST Lithuanian Dominykas Karmazinas will start the final six with a big chip lead over his opponents. A total of 20 players showed up for this event, but unfortunately the payout hasn't been released yet.

Play started on a delay as many players didn't register but just wandered around the poker room to see who would. Just past 3pm we finally kicked things off with three short-handed tables. In the second level, after around 50 minutes of play, we already lost our first player. Jason Koon, who went deep in the Main Event finishing 27th for A$35,00, clashed with Roberto Romanello in a huge pot where they both made a flush. This hand was a symbol for one of the most fast paced tournaments at this year's Aussie Millions.

Players started busting left and right as we quickly lost Shawn Buchanan,Joe Hachem and Vitaly Lunkin. Randy Dorfman was the next to go as he tried pulling off a massive bluff against Romanello. Play started with only 20 players and when Tobias Reinkemeier busted in 13th place we entered the shootout stage.

After the dinner break 12 players returned on two six-handed tables. From each table the top three would advance to the final table, and on Table 32 this only took 80 minutes. Jonathan Karamalikis ran his ace-jack into Dan Kelly's pocket kings quickly followed out the dorr by Matt Jarvis who couldn't dodge Mike Watson's flush draw. Watson seemed to be in control, but running into pocket aces never helps. Watson bubbled the final table as his final chips went to Daniel Alaei who had a nice rush towards the end.

Table 32 was already done when Table 29 hadn't lost a single player. Chips were being moved around, but no massive pots were created. After a very quiet level, the players seemed to be switching gears as we saw three bust outs in the next 40 minutes. Local player Billy Jordanou was the first to go as he ran his short stack into two big hands. On this hand Romanello lost a big portion of his stack doubling up Elliot Smith who woke up with pocket kings. Moments later it was Igor Kurganov who four-bet all-in from the small blind into Karmazinas who also had pocket kings. Kurganov didn't improve his queen-jack into a winning hand. Romanello couldn't recover from his loss against Smith as he also doubled up Tony G. The G moved up to over 40 big blinds while Romanello was knocked down even further. A couple of hands later he busted when his top pair couldn't hold up against Smith who rivered a set.

The final table draw is not known as the remaining six players will draw for a seat upon their return. These are the final table chip counts.