After the PokerStars Championship Bahamas was completed on Saturday, poker eyes are now directed toward Melbourne, Australia to follow what is happening at this year’s edition of the Aussie Millions Poker Championship – one of the biggest, if not the biggest, poker festivals to be annually taking place in the Asia-Pacific region.
Three events on the 2017 schedule have been completed over the past several days, granting hundreds of thousands of dollars to players from around the world. The Aussie Millions kicked off on January 11 and is set to run through January 30.
The A$1,150 Opening Event was the first one to start within the festival. The tournament featured four starting flights and two more days of play. It attracted a field of 1,565 runners, up from the 1,320 players who entered it last year.
Local player Robert Raymond (pictured) took down the event to scoop the first-place prize (and his career best cash) of A$320,830. Raymond emerged from the short stack at the time there were only four players left to the event’s champion. Apart from the prize money, the winner also won an Aussie Millions championship ring.
As already mentioned, 1,565 players entered the Opening Event to generate a prize pool of A$1,604,125. The top 153 places got paid, min-cash totaling A$2,885.
Event #2 on the 2017 Aussie Millions schedule was a A$2,500 H.O.R.S.E. one. That tournament, too, saw a significant increase in the number of entries from last year. As many as 49 players comprised this year’s field, compared to 39 in 2016.
James Chen, known to be one of Taiwan’s most profitable live poker players, bested the field for A$39,700 in prize money and a ring.
The third event to have been completed so far was the A$1,150 No-Limit Hold’em Shot Clock Shootout. That tournament saw 153 entries seated at 17 shootout tables when cards were thrown in the air. In comparison, the event attracted 126 players last year. The Shootout began on Sunday. Each of the winners of the 17 initial tables were guaranteed a minimum payout of A$2,075. They moved into Day 2 to play down to a champion.
Austrian player Thomas Muehloecker emerged victorious over the likes of 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Ari Engel, popular online poker player Stefan Jedlicka, and Ryan Van Sanford, who last year won the PokerNews Cup at Atlantic City’s Borgata. Muehloecker is a a poker celebrity in his home country as he is heading Austria’s all-time money list with live tournament earnings of more than $2.9 million.
The player collected A$40,125 for his first-place finish in the Aussie Millions A$1,150 Shootout and a championship ring.
