2014 Aussie Millions Schedule announced
Australia’s premier poker tournament is set to run at the Crown Casino, Melbourne, from Thursday 23 January through to Monday 10 February. The announcement has been greeted with excitement across the poker world as the tournament will not only follow the Australian Open tennis finals but it will, for the first ever time, not clash with PCA Poker Tournament, allowing players the chance to play in both.
The 2014 Aussie Millions schedule kicks-off with the AU$1,100 NLH and will go on to feature a further 20 events culminating in the ‘Big Dance’, the prestigious AU$10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event. The Main Event will take place from Sunday 2 February featuring three Day 1 flights finishing-up on Sunday 9 February.
The Crown Poker Room will be running plenty of satellites in the build-up to the tournament which will offer players the opportunity to take part in what is fast becoming one of the biggest poker tournaments of the year.
2014 Aussie Millions Schedule:
Date Time Event
Thurs 23 Jan 6:15pm NLH Day 1a
Fri 24 Jan 12:15pm NLH Day 1b
Sat 25 Jan 12:15pm NLH Day 1c
Sun 26 Jan 12:15pm NLH Day 2
2:15pm NLH/Pot Limit Omaha
Mon 27 Jan 12:15pm NLH Shootout
Tues 28 Jan 12:15pm NLH Six Max
Wed 29 Jan 12:15pm Pot Limit Omaha
Thurs 30 Jan 12:15pm NLH Accumulator Day 1a
Fri 31 Jan 12:15pm NLH Accumulator Day 1b
Sat 1 Feb 12:15pm NLH Accumulator Day 2
Sun 2 Feb 12:15pm NLH Bounty
2:15pm Main Event Day 1a
6:15pm AU$25,000 Challenge Day 1
Mon 3 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 1b
2:15pm NLH Mix Max
2:15pm AU$25,000 Challenge Day 2
Tues 4 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 1c
2:15pm Terminator NLH
Wed 5 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 2
2:15pm The Mervin Chan Classic NLH
6:15pm 8-Game Mixed
Thurs 6 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 3
12:30pm Pot-Limit Omaha
Fri 7 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 4
12:30pm Shot Clock NLH Six Max
2:15pm AU$100,000 Challenge Day 1
6:15pm H.O.R.S.E
Sat 8 Feb 12:15pm Australian Poker Hall of Fame Classic
2:15pm AU$100,000 Challenge Day 2
6:15pm NLH Six Max
Sun 9 Feb 12:15pm Main Event Day 5 (Final Day)
2:30pm AU$250,000 Challenge Day 1
Mon 10 Feb 2:30pm AU$250,000 Challenge Day 2
For more details on the Aussie Millions visit online or stay glued to FTR for more updates.
Joel Williams becomes Crown Poker Tournament DIrector
Following on from the Aussie Millions announcement the Crown Poker Room, hosts for the Aussie Millions tournament, have unveiled their new tournament director, Joel Williams.
Williams has been part of the Crown Poker Room since 2000 earning experience in a wide variety of poker room management roles. Following work with Draw Poker, 5-card Stud and Manilia Williams worked as Poker Room Seating Co-ordinator, quickly moving on to daily cash games, tournament organization and staff training. His most recent role was that of Assistant Casino Manager – Poker, a role in which he excelled.
Williams said following the announcement “I feel extremely fortunate and honored. I was seconded to the Tournament Director position during the most recent Aussie Millions and WSOP APAC and spend most of the time soaking in all the information I could handle. Experiencing such major events first hand helped me realize that this was the director I wanted to take. The chance to both grow our own Aussie Millions and host such global phenomenon’s as the World Series of Poker was just too good to pass up.”
As the home of Australian Poker the Crown Poker Room and Joel Williams know there will be plenty of challenges ahead to maintain its status but both are well equipped to contend with whatever is dealt their way.
“Player acquisition and player retention are always our biggest challenges. We need to focus on attracting new players to both our Room and our Tournaments while still providing our regulars with the first class environment they expect and deserve. There are countless ways to play poker these days and we need to strive to ensure that we remain Australia’s home of poker.”
Crown Casino’s Director of Poker Jim Preston was also equally as excited for this new era in the Crown Poker Room.
“We had a huge response from people from all over the globe. This is due to two things; the role to start, I mean who wouldn’t want to run the Aussie Millions and have an opportunity to put their own stamp on such an amazing event, and secondly Melbourne is a great place to live. Joel has over 16 years working in the Poker Room at Crown. He has worked in every role from a dealer, seating coordinator to room manager in this time. His immense experience and attention to detail along with a passion for the game holds us in good stead for the future of Poker at Crown. I am genuinely excited to be working alongside Joel and look forward to the next exciting chapter of crown Poker.”
Congratulations to Joel, for more details on events at the Crown Poker Room visit Crown Casino. For details on the 2014 Aussie Millions either stay close to FTR or visit Aussie Millions.
Daniel Laidlaw win 2013 Sydney Poker Champs Main Event
The Star Hotel and Casino, Sydney played host to the 2013 Sydney Poker Champs which culminated in the AU$3,000 Main Event won by Daniel Laidlaw.
The tournament kicked-off with the AU$300 opening event attracting an impressive 914 entrants which inflated the prize pool to AU$272,200. The eventual winner, Tom Bilby, defeated Michael Dunmani in the heads-up battle to collect AU$60,000 for his troubles. Michael Myer won the Pot-Limit Omaha Re-entry earning AU$12,838, Philip Dingle and James Wu won the AU$440 Teams Event taking home AU$11,400, Ben Thurlow collected AU$8,060 after winning the AU$440 Pot-Limit Omaha/NLHE, Donald Civic won the AU$550 Semi-Shootout earning him AU$7,000 while Peter Aposolou came through a tough field and final table to win the AU$1,000 Special for a AU$26,978 win.
Beginning on Thursday with a total of 227 players taking part over two Day 1 flights creating a prize pool of AU$635,600. Following his recent second place finish in the APPT Queenstown Main Event Daniel Laidlaw wasted no time in racing out to becoming chip leader, dominating the tables and getting the better of poker stars such as Aaron Benton, Michael Kanaan and Tony Kambouroglou along the way.
As the final table got underway it didn’t take long for the players to start making their way to the rail as Michael Weiss (9th) was the first to fall quickly followed by Robert Spano (8th). Michael Doodson (7th) and Brad Fowler (6th) were next to make their way to the rail with Kwong Phung (5th) and Aaron Benton (4th) not long after them.
Following Benton’s elimination the three remaining players made a deal to finished up, split the money between themselves and have a blind flip to see who would win the title. The details of the deal are yet to be published but Laidlaw tweeted not long after the finish to suggest what exactly happened.
@Choparno – “Did 3-way ICM deal, I got – 120k, flipped blind for the trophy and I shipped it. Sydney Champs winner!”
Below are the official payouts but they do not include the deal struck between the top three.
2013 Sydney Champs Main Event – Result.
1 – Daniel Laidlaw – AU$165,256
2 – Tony Kambouroglou – AU$104,875
3 – Michael Kanaan – AU$59,110
4 – Aaron Benton – AU$47,670
5 – Kwong Phung – AU$39,370
6 – Brad Fowler – AU$33,370
7 – Michael Doodson – AU$27,013
8 – Robert Spano – AU$20,657
9 – Michael Weiss – AU$15,980
For more details on the Star Hotel and Casino or the 2013 Sydney Champs Tournament visit online of stay glued to FTR.
Celina Lin claims Macau Poker Cup opening event
The eagerly awaited Macau Poker Cup series has begun, kicking off with the “Queen of Asia” and Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin claiming victory in the HK$2,000 Deepstack No Limit Hold’em Event.
PokerStars Live Poker Room at the City of Dreams Hotel and Casino, Macau, is hosting the tournament series which saw a field of 205 players taking their seats in the opening event. In the end it came down to two women with Lin taking on Hazel Chui in the heads-up battle for the title. Lin overcame a three-to-one chip differential to find some good fortune and claim the title, picking up HK$85,800 for her victory.
Lin not only picked-up a huge victory but what was even more impressive was that this result left Lin as the only player in history to make 20 official Asia Player of the Year final tables. Following the announcement Lin said “ The milestone is nice and its always very gratifying to win a tournament but everyone comes to Macau Poker Cup for one reason and thats to win the Red Dragon. I want to continue to play well and take that momentum heading into the Main Event.”
The Macau Poker Cup Main Event kicks off Wednesday 14 August with all details listed at ACR Poker.
Stay close to FTR for all the MPC Main Event news and results.