While the Main Event is the cornerstone of the Aussie Millions, there are still a slew of preliminary events being played on the side. One wrapped up late last night and saw another gold ring awarded to one lucky player.
Event #13 $5,300 Heads-Up Championship began on Monday and featured four starting flights over four days, bringing the total number of players up to 32 and creating a prize pool of $160,000. Some of the players who entered but failed to cash were Randy Dorfman, Daniel Neilson, Michael Marvanek, Tom Rafferty, Jonas Kronwitter, Nam Le, and Kristian Lunardi, just to name a few.
In the final match, Sorel Mizzi, of Canada, took on South African Gregory Ronaldson, and after a back-and-forth match, the latter emerged victorious. As Mizzi said on Twitter:
“2nd ughhhhh. They brought out the champagne and ring and I choked!! Jk.. But well done and well played to Greg.”
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Bjorn Li doubles through Oliver Speidel
A raised pot saw Oliver Speidel and Bjorn Li take to a flop. Speidel was first to act and decided to check. Li then bet 70,000 and Speidel thought for almost a minute before announcing an all in. Li snap-called and the two turned their hands over.
Speidel:
Li:
Li was in front but needed to fade Speidel's opened-ended straight draw. The on the turn changed nothing and the river was safe for Li as he took down the double and put a dent in Speidel's stack.
Lee Nelson has had quite the results in the Aussie Millions Main Event over the years. Not only did he win the event back in 2007, but he's had two other very deep runs, one of which resulted in a fourth-place finish at the final table.
Back before it was called the Aussie Millions, this series was named the Australasian Poker Championships. In 2002, Nelson made the final table in the A$5,000 Main Event that attracted 66 players and took fourth for A$24,500. In 2006, he won the Aussie Millions Main Event after beating out a field of 418 players to win A$1,295,800. Then in 2007, he took 36th out of 747 runners for A$27,500. In 2006 and 2007, the buy-in to the event was A$10,000 each.
Nelson is already guaranteed A$100,000 and is just a few spots away from a third Aussie Millions Main Event final table. If Nelson were to go on and win this event for a second time, it'd easily be considered one of the greatest feats by any poker player in tournament poker history.
In total, Nelson boasts career tournament winnings of $2,404,182 and is in the top 300 on the all-time money list. He's also number one on the New Zealand all-time money list by over $1,500,000 and holds the most cashes of any New Zealander with 73. He has double-digit tournament victories that include his Aussie Millions Main Event title, a win in the A$20,000 Australasian-Only Pot-Limit/No-Limit Speed Poker event at the 2005 Crown Australian Poker Championships for A$120,000, a win at the PartyPoker World Open in Maidstone for $400,000 and a victory at the ANZPT III Melbourne Main Event for A$156,550.
Under the gun, Lee Nelson came in with a raise to 55,000, and Daniel Idema defended his big blind to go heads up to the flop.
It rolled out , and both players checked through to the turn. Now Nelson made his continuation bet of 80,000, and Idema check-called to see the put a four-flush on board on fifth street. Idema knocked the table again, and Nelson took his cue to fire a big bet of 300,000 into the pot of 302,000. The check-raise came quickly though, and Idema clicked it back to 600,000 total. Nelson spent a few minutes soaking in the tank, but he eventually uncapped his cards and slid them into the muck with a flick of the finger.
We regret that we missed the action up until the river, because this was a great call by Nelson. The board was showing and Bjorn Li was first to act, with Lee Nelson on the button. There was over 500,000 in the pot at this point and Li led out for 300,000. Nelson thought for quite a while before making the call.
When Nelson turned over , it was enough to take down the pot of over 1,000,000 chips. Li now slips to sit with the least chips in the Main Event.
During the first partial level of Day 5, we bid farewell to Phil Ivey and Karim Jomeen, shrinking our field to the final ten.
Ivey was the victim of a bit of a cooler in a battle of the blinds when he raise-called with ace-queen. Yann Dion had him dominated with ace-king, and a board full of blanks sent Ivey off with a A$100,000 consolation prize.
Jomeen got most of his money in good with a chance at a knockout, flopping top pair with jack-eight. Oliver Speidel got himself at-risk with just two overcards, and he managed to bink a better pair on the river to cripple Jomeen. He was eliminated a few hands later when Lee Nelson's jack-ten bested his ace-nine to send him to the rail in eleventh place.
That's how we've gotten from twelve to ten, and our finalists are off for a 20-minute break.
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Karim Jomeen may be having nightmares about the , with that card being the sole reason for his demise.
Jomeen was in the big blind on his last hand of the tournament and he moved all in after Lee Nelson opened the pot to 48,000 from the button.
Nelson took his time to make the call, but eventually put out enough chips and tabled his cards.
Jomeen:
Nelson:
By the time the board ran out , Jomeen was looking good to take the double-up. That was until the hit the river. If you recall, this is the very same card which left Jomeen crippled in his battle with Oliver Speidel.
For his effort, Jomeen goes home in 11th place and picks up A$100,000.
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flop. Speidel was first to act and decided to check. Li then bet 70,000 and Speidel thought for almost a minute before announcing an all in. Li snap-called and the two turned their hands over.
on the turn changed nothing and the 
river was safe for Li as he took down the double and put a dent in Speidel's stack.
turn. Now Nelson made his continuation bet of 80,000, and Idema check-called to see the 
put a four-flush on board on fifth street. Idema knocked the table again, and Nelson took his cue to fire a big bet of 300,000 into the pot of 302,000. The check-raise came quickly though, and Idema clicked it back to 600,000 total. Nelson spent a few minutes soaking in the tank, but he eventually uncapped his cards and slid them into the muck with a flick of the finger.
, it was enough to take down the pot of over 1,000,000 chips. Li now slips to sit with the least chips in the Main Event.
, with that card being the sole reason for his demise.
, Jomeen was looking good to take the double-up. That was until the 
