Welcome to Aussie MillionsPoker World Descends On Melbourne For Richest Poker Tournament In Southern Hemisphere |
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To fully appreciate the uniqueness of the Aussie Millions tournament all you need do is consider the travel. Leaving from the West Coast, as I did, you fly 16-plus hours, lose a day or two, and arrive in the opposite season from the one you just left. Factor in the counterclockwise toilet flushing and the whole experience becomes mind-boggling.
I left Los Angeles International Airport on January 8 and landed in Melbourne on the 10th. In between the LA start and the Melbourne finish, I: caught up with high-stakes limit specialist Jean Gluck while we both waited for our 8:15 p.m. departure; had a classic you-know-you're-not-in-the-States-anymore moment when a bank advertisement in New Zealand's airport read "We move faster than if you had a snake in your bed"; and slept through almost about everything else.
The excitement and anticipation surrounding the Aussie Millions tournament - hence my reason for being shipped to Melbourne in the first place - became fairly obvious to me the moment we landed. While I picked up my luggage and exited the airport in peace, the Full Tilt pros who arrived with me (and those who arrived shortly after on the 11:20 p.m. direct flight) received rock star/Hollywood treatment from the international media.
Film crews and photographers (poker paparazzi) swarmed players, following them from the airport exits to the waiting buses and limousines, provided by FullTilt to transport pros and online qualifiers to the tournament site, the Crown Hotel and Casino. Think, to a lesser extent The Beatles, only their names are Phil, Erick, Huck, and "The Mouth."
The buses - mine held mostly wide-eyed amateurs with a few pro qualifiers like Shane Schleger, Alex Jacob, and David "Chino" Rheem mixed in - brought us through Melbourne (a beautiful city that resembles San Diego), dropping us off at the massive Crown Casino.
With two hours to kill before check-in, I wandered around the complex, which features two hotels, something like 40 shops, and an Epcot Center-like array of restaurants. When I found the poker room, located in the casino's bottom floor, I was lucky enough to walk into two Aussie Millions preliminary events in progress.
Event No. 6 the $3,200 pot-limit Omaha with rebuys, featured a number of pros, some of them having just landed in Australia. Among the notables were Andrew Black, Kristy Gazes, Scott Fischman, Steve Zolotow, Ram Vaswani, Lee Watkinson, Jesse Jones, and 2006 Aussie Millions main event champion Lee "Final Table" Nelson.
The other tournament, event No. 5, utilized the new Poker Pro technology. The machines look identical to traditional poker tables expect for the top, which, instead of felt, is a computer screen. The game plays like online action, with the Poker Pro displaying chip counts and bets, calculating pots, and dealing computer-generated holecards.
While the 31 players looked a bit like people at ATM machines, the Poker Pro provided fast, and efficient action.
By early Thursday, the Aussie Millions crowned three preliminary events champions, with Adam Weiss taking first at the Poker Pro tables ($12,400), renowned Australian player Gary Benson winning the $1,150 no-limit hold'em event No. 4 ($148,480), and Jesse Jones outlasting the high profile pot-limit Omaha field ($176,000).
For a complete list of tournament results please click here.
The day also included the Aussie Millions media and celebrity event, which put yours truly in the company of Australian soccer stars, models and Andy Roddick (in town for the Australian Open). I reached the final table, before being eliminated by actress Shannon Elizabeth. Harvey Silver, who defeated Elizabeth heads up, gave his first-place prize, a $2,000 charitable donation, to the Ardoch Youth Foundation.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for more from the 2006 Aussie Millions.
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