It looks as though there were 65 entries generated this year in the AU$25,000 Challenge, although the official numbers have yet to be given. There currently are 51 players remaining.
2014 Aussie Millions
Kristy speaks to Premiership Winning Captain of Hawthorn, Luke Hodge just after he announced the "shuffle up and deal" for the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event. He talks about poker, his kids and explains what a "specky" is in Australian Rules Football.
Igor Kurganov, last year's champion of this event, has been eliminated. What makes things a tiny bit worse are that the waitress was refusing to serve Kurganov a hot green tea because he was no longer playing in the tournament. The man Kurganov beat, Philipp Gruissem, has also been eliminated.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Justin Bonomo |
160,000
34,000
|
34,000 |
|
||
Fabian Quoss |
150,000
92,000
|
92,000 |
Yevgeniy Timoshenko |
90,000
22,000
|
22,000 |
|
||
Antonio Esfandiari |
76,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
|
||
Dan Shak |
71,000
21,000
|
21,000 |
Max Lehmanski
|
61,000 | |
Joe Hachem |
55,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
||
Shane Warne |
45,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
David Steicke |
45,000
-3,000
|
-3,000 |
Paul Newey |
44,000
-6,000
|
-6,000 |
Sam Greenwood |
40,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
|
||
Rachid Ben Cherif |
35,000
-15,000
|
-15,000 |
Jonathan Duhamel |
27,000
-23,000
|
-23,000 |
Igor Kurganov | Busted | |
|
||
Philipp Gruissem | Busted | |
|
The tournament staff have just released the officials numbers for the $25,000 Challenge. Today's tournament has attracted 65 entries which created a prize pool of AU$1.56 million. That will be distributed to the top eight players as follows:
Place | Prize (AUD) |
---|---|
1st | $460,000 |
2nd | $340,000 |
3rd | $240,000 |
4th | $170,000 |
5th | $125,000 |
6th | $100,000 |
7th | $70,000 |
8th | $55,000 |
After some raising back and forth, Antonio Esfandiari had moved all in against his opponent Dan Shak. Shak made the call to put himself at risk for 70,900 holding the . Esfandiari had the and only 2,400 chips more than Shak.
The flop, turn, and river ran out , and Shak's two pair of kings and jacks won him the hand. Esfandiari was left with just 2,400.
"It's the Dan Shak playbook," commented Joe Hachem with a smile from across the table.
"If I think I'm gonna win, I go with it," responded Shak as he stacked up his chips.
"That's in my playbook, too," said Justin Bonomo. "If I think I'll win, I play."
Shak moved to over 140,000 in chips, and Esfandiari was eliminated shortly thereafter.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dan Shak |
145,000
74,000
|
74,000 |
Antonio Esfandiari | Busted | |
|
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Barry Woods |
95,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
Benny Spindler |
80,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Jeff Rossiter |
67,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
Zachary Clark |
65,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
Scott Seiver |
65,000
65,000
|
65,000 |
|
||
Isaac Haxton |
16,000
-34,000
|
-34,000 |
Level: 8
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 200
The players are now in Level 8, which will be the final level for the day. With 49 players still left in the field, it wouldn't be out of the question for over 30 of them to advance to Day 2. That means tomorrow could be a very, very long day to play down to a winner.
Ognjen Sekularac just won a massive, massive hand to move to 345,000 in chips. When we arrived at the table, Sekularac was all in with Doug Polk and a third player. Sekularac had the , Polk had the , and the third player had the . Fortunately for Sekularac, the board ran out .
Sekularac finished with a set of queens and the winning hand. With more chips than both of his opponents, Sekularac collected the entire pot, busted the players, and moved into the chip lead in a big way.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Ognjen Sekularac |
345,000
295,000
|
295,000 |
Doug Polk | Busted | |
|