Aussie Millions AU$ 2 million first place prize stays at home for the first time

Stewart Scott, a former chef from Adelaide, achieved what no other Aussie player had in the history of the Aussie Millions: he brought the title home. At the end of a 5 day effort, which saw him best a starting field of 681, the Australian player stood alone tossing part of the prize-money into the air in celebration.
Hailed as one of the most player-friendly live poker events in the world, both as far as the game structure and the general atmosphere is concerned, the Aussie Millions took place in the notorious Crown Casino in Melbourne.

The last day of the Main Event saw the 8 remaining players belly up to the tables, among them Barny Boatman, the Hendon Mobster who had to tackle the setback of having the shortest stack at the final table.

Even though he did manage to pick a few chips up early on, Boatman couldn’t avoid being the first to be eliminated from the final table. He first dropped a huge pot against eventual winner Stewart Scott, who hit a full house on the river to pretty much seal the Mobster’s fate. Left with only a few chips, Boatman shoved all-in for his tournament life a few hands later. His A,2 got called by Zach Gruneberg’s A,Q, and it was all downhill for him from there. His 8th place earned him a $100,000 prize though, and marked his second appearance at the event’s final table.

After Boatman’s departure, it didn’t take long for the game to go from 7-handed to 6-handed. Richard Ashby became the next victim when his A,Q succumbed to the combined forces of Rajkumar Ramakrishnan and Elliot Smith who checked down the board and eventually shoved a big slick into his face to add injury to insult.

That hand went to Ramakrishnan but Elliot Smith was certainly not the guy to settle for such an outcome. He hit a flush on the turn of a big hand against Ramakrishnan and relieved him of some chips, only to later relieve him of many more when he hit a miracle two-outer in a hand in which his J,J had suffered a crippling setback at the hands of Raj’s A,J as the latter hit another A on the flop.
6-handed play continued on for a while, and it wasn’t till after the dinner break that the next player headed to the payout booth. Zach Gruneberg shoved all-in full of optimism on a flop which hit him for top pair, only to be blown to smithereens by Rajkumar Ramakrishnan’s flopped quads.

Sam Capra, the player who had eliminated Scotty Nguyen earlier in the event was the next to go, having bumped his 10,10 into Peter Rho’s A,A.

Rajkumar Ramakrishnan limped along on pocket rockets to trap Peter Rho all-in on pocket Ks. As it so often happens though, a third King showed up on the flop sending Raj home in 4th place. The hand gave Rho a huge boost, and thus he caught up with chip leader Stewart Scott for the first time at the final table. Scott was fast to reclaim his overwhelming lead though. He first rivered a Broadway straight against Rho to cut back on his momentum, then went on to bully both Rho and Smith around for a while till his chip lead became a monstrous one again.

Scott got trapped on a hand by Elliot Smith and it looked like the Canadian was going to bounce right back into contention, but Lady Luck had other ideas and decided to expel Smith from the game in 3rd instead.
The heads-up stage was a mere formality. Such was the extent of Scott’s chip-advantage over Peter Rho that the end couldn’t even be delayed by the Californian. The final hand saw his A,J square off against Scott’s A,A with easily predictable results.