2015 Aussie Millions: Day 19 - 2nd February 2015

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The 2015 Aussie Millions Main Event has crowned a new champion with local hero Manny Stavropoulos claiming the most prestigious poker prize in the Asia-Pacific region.
Stavropoulos overcame a field of 648 and a gruelling final table to win a top prize of $1,385,000 after he and heads-up opponent, Lennert Uphoff, agreed to a deal.

The final seven players were led into the final table by British player James Rann with two Australians still in contention to keep the trophy on home soil.

It would take some time to lose the first player from the final table, with the short stacks doubling up early as Lennert Uphoff rose up into the chip lead. Uphoff had a little luck go his way when his pocket sixes spiked a set to crack the pocket aces of Richard Lyndaker to break the deadlock and eliminate the American pro in seventh place.
New Caledonian Joel Douaglin won a crucial coin flip against Anthony Legg to stay alive, leaving Legg the one under pressure. The young Aussie couldn't wait long to make a move, and when his Kc-9h failed to better Douaglin's Ac-Jh, when a couple of jacks and four clubs fell on board, Legg would have to be content with sixth place.

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Brian Rast was the short stack and next to fall when his flush draw failed to connect against Lennart Uphoff's pocket aces, and he was followed to the rail by overnight chip leader James Rann. Uphoff continued to find cards at the right time, and when Rann shoved with pocket deuces, Uphoff woke up with pocket jacks to hold a big lead entering three-handed play.
The wild ride of Douaglin came unstuck in third place when he overcommitted in a battle of the blinds with 8h-2d for middle pair on a 7c-Th-8d flop as Uphoff made the call with Ks-Ts for top pair. A king on the turn gave Uphoff two pair and when the river bricked we were heads-up for the title.

It was a two-to-one chip lead for Lennert Uphoff against the local hope in Manny Stavropoulos who had managed to stay out of trouble to reach the final contest.
Stavropoulos chipped away at the deficit and was able to take over the chip lead before the two struck a deal, leaving $100,000 in the middle to play for.

The chips continued to swing back and forth before Stavropoulos made a key call with third pair to the board to pick off Uphoff's busted flush draw and gain control before the final hand was dealt.

The pot was relatively modest on the board of 8d-Ad-9s-7h-8h until the river where Stavropoulos made a bet of 850,000 before Uphoff declared himself all in. Stavropoulos called and tabled Jd-Ts for the jack-high straight in what turned out to be a bit of a cooler against Uphoff's Td-6d for the ten-high straight.

With that the local crowd roared in delight as Manny Stavropoulos was crowned the 2015 Aussie Millions champion! Congratulations Manny!

2015 Aussie Millions Main Event Final Table Results
1st Manny Stavropoulos (Australia) - $1,385,000*
2nd Lennert Uphoff (Germany) - $1,214,500*
3rd Joel Douaglin (New Caledonia) - $630,000
4th James Rann (United Kingdom) - $430,000
5th Brian Rast (United States) - $315,000
6th Anthony Legg (Australia) - $235,000
7th Richard Lyndaker (United States) - $160,000
* denotes heads-up deal
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Arguably, the most eagerly-anticipated event of the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship also got under way on Sunday, and it was also the largest buy-in event of the series - the LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge.

All of the world's best players were here and the rail was three-deep in the Crown Poker Room throughout the day to catch a glimpse of their poker heroes.

While a quarter million dollar buy-in spins most of our minds, it didn't stop some players from reaching deep for a re-entry if things didn't go to plan. In fact, Scott Seiver rebought not once, but twice to inject a jaw-dropping $750,000 into the prize pool.

It enabled Seiver to work his way to the fourth largest stack when bags were tagged after nine levels of play with just ten players remaining. Jason Mo and Doug Polk are placed above him, but the player with the heaviest bag is none other than the great Phil Ivey.

Ivey's record in this event is staggering. He's won it twice before, and now with the chip lead entering the final day of play, he's in good shape to make it LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge title number three.

LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge - Day 1 Chip Counts
Phil Ivey - 958,000
Doug Polk - 863,000
Jason Mo - 784,000
Scott Seiver - 632,000
Igor Kurganov - 549,000
Mike McDonald - 519,000
Richard Yong - 458,000
Dan Smith - 453,000
Erik Seidel - 381,000
Ole Schemion - 157,000

Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 on Monday, so there is likely to be a couple of late registrations and/or re-entries to add to the total field of 23 entrants. The prize pool information will be released after registration closes.

Poker Asia Pacific will once again be providing live updates of the LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge throughout the day until a champion is crowned.

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Event #19 of the series was the $5,000 No Limit Holdem Six-Max Event with a super-tough field of 87 entrants reduced to 23 for the start of Day 2.

The likes of Liv Boeree, Jarred Graham, Yvgeniy Timoshenko and Jason Pritchard would all fall short of the money before WSOP APAC bracelet winner Rory Young was the unlucky bubble boy in eighth place as the final table was set.

The final table was also of exceptional quality featuring UK sensation Simon Deadman, two-time Aussie Millions gold ring winner Mustapha Kanit and the defending champion in this very event, Jack Salter.

Salter would reach the heads-up stage against ACOP High Rollers winner Senh Ung but would fall narrowly short in his title defence. Ung was a powerhouse throughout the final table, and especially heads-up, before a coin flip went his way to seal an impressive victory.

$5,000 No Limit Holdem 6-Max Final Table Results
1st Senh Ung - $135,000
2nd Jack Salter - $85,850
3rd Simon Deadman - $57,250
4th Huidong Gu - $45,000
5th Mustapha Kanit - $32,700
6th Bjorn Li - $28,500
7th Calvin Ho - $24,600
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Two other events reached their final tables on Sunday evening.

A field of 107 players took their seats in the $1,150 No Limit Holdem Hall of Fame Event, including one member of the Australian Poker Hall of Fame who won a sit and go amongst the HOF members to earn a free ride to the final table. That player was Graeme "Kiwi G" Putt who will take an average chip stack straight through to the final table.
The final ten players will return at 1:00pm on Monday to play for the final gold ring of the series and a top prize of $32,000.

The $1,500 Deep Freeze Event also reached a final table. This three-day event attracted a field of 343 players who enjoyed the deep stacks and quality structure on offer. 88 players progressed to Day 2 before playing towards a final table by the end of Sunday evening. The final table players will return at 12:30pm on Monday to compete for the top prize of $112,600.

The final day of the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship
It's been an incredible journey but the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship is drawing to a close with the final day of the series on Monday.

The series will wrap up with three huge final tables.
In the main poker room we'll see the conclusion of the $1,500 NLHE Deep Freeze Event as well as the $1,150 No Limit Holdem Hall of Fame Event, while the atmosphere in the TV studio will be electric when the best players in the world come together to play it out in the LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge.

We'll have live updates of all three events for you right here on Poker Asia Pacific.

Monday February 2nd 2015
12:30pm: $1,500 No Limit Holdem Deep Freeze Event - Final Table
1:00pm: $1,150 No Limit Holdem Hall of Fame Event - Final Table
2:30pm: LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge - Final Day

(Aussie Millions)