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Monday 21st January 2008
Russian Prodigy Defeats Poker Icon to Win Aussie Millions
The final table showed us what makes poker the game it is today. Seven players, ranging from a former car salesman to an icon of the game and who came so close to being World Champion. All of them had a chance to win $1.65m and the Aussie Millions title – the stuff that poker dreams are made from.
The man who harboured the greatest hopes must have been Michael Chrisanthopoulos, starting the day with nearly half of the chips in play. Standing in his way were six others striving to win themselves, one of those being none other than Eric Seidel.
The chip stacks at the start of the final table were as follows:
Seat 1: Alexander Kostritsyn - 1,439,000
Seat 2: Peter Mobbs - 1,357,000
Seat 3: Antonio Casale - 1,995,000
Seat 4: Erik Seidel - 1,491,000
Seat 5: Nino Marotta - 1,649,000
Seat 6: Michael Chrisanthopoulos - 6,806,000
Seat 7: Peter Ling - 877,000
With so many even stacks (bar Chrisanthopoulos), you might have expected the early pace to come from the chip leader himself, but the early move came from Peter Mobbs. Opening the pot with As-Js and then re-raising Kostritsyn before all the chips made their way to the middle, Mobbs would have felt like he overplayed his hand a little when he saw his opponent’s Ad-Ks. Spiking a Jack on the flop soon changed hi mood though, before a King on the turn sent him spiralling to the rail.
Local favourite Casale was next out, running pocket jacks into Kostritsyn’s pocket aces. No jack for the Crown Casino regular, and he was out in sixth. Marotta was next out in fifth, before the action finally slowed.
Four handed play was tough, with two hours passing before a major pot brewed. Ling and Chrisanthopoulos got all the chips in the middle on a Ac-Kc-Th, but Ling’s A-5 was dominated by Chrisanthopoulos flopped top two pair. No improvement saw Ling pack up and leave Australia $500,000 richer.
Chrisanthopoulos then fell in third, leaving Seidel and Kostritsyn to battle it out heads-up. The final hand came after a couple of hours play between the two, with Seidel check raised all in on a flop of Jd-8s-7s. Seidel made the call with As-Qc against Kostritsyn’s Jh-9h. Seidel’s hand didn’t improve, leaving Kostritsyn as the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event champion.
Source:OnlineCasinoNews
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