Home / Poker News January 2009 / 2009 Aussie Millions kicks off at the Crown Casino in Melbourne
2009 Aussie Millions kicks off at the Crown Casino in Melbourne
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-01-11 13:07
342 players bellied up to the tables of the Crown Casino in Melbourne, for the opening event of the 2009 Aussie Millions, the $1,100 NL Holdem event. Day 1A saw some great names in attendance: Jamie Pickering, Tony Hachem, Graeme Putt, Billy Argyros and Michael Chrisanthopoulos. Annette Obrestad was also present.
Day 1A saw some rather furiously paced action, and players were dropping out at such an alarming rate, that tournament directors decided to call the day one level earlier in order to keep Day 1A from moving out of sync with Day 1B. Only 54 players remained to go on to Day 2.
Julian Powell was one of the first players to get closely acquainted with the rail. His K,K got cracked and he never got the opportunity to recover from the hit. ‘The Croc’, Billy Argyros didn’t last long either as he never managed to take off to begin with. Tony Dunst was also on the list of early casualties, as was Annette Obrestad, who got knocked out by David Saab who managed to hammer home his 8,8 against her A,6.
Graeme Putt had a great start, but he ran out of momentum and soon found himself in the un-enviable position of the short stack. He didn’t end the day on that note though as he managed to chip up nicely in one of the last few hands of the day. He managed to almost triple up on a hand in which he shoved with K,K against an opponent’s Q,Q and another guy’s A,J.
David Griffiths finished the day in the chip lead though, as he got off to a flying start and kept on playing strong all the way through Day 1A. The hand that set him on his way early on was one in which he took down a monster pot from Antonio Fazziolari and Tony Paino.
He drew close to the 100K mark when he hammered home his A,A against Dan Mulgraw in the closing stages of Day 1A play.
Christian Heich finished second on the chip leader board, followed by Rodney Snider in 3rd and Rob Price in 4th.
