Aussie Millions and Borgata Winter Open Tourneys

The 2009 Aussie Millions preliminary events are underway and top pros are already making their mark. Mel Judah won event #3, the $1,100 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, pocketing over $30,000. The main event of the Aussie Millions begins on Sunday, January 18th. The tournament is held at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Players have to put up $10,500 (AUD) to enter the main event.

First prize is guaranteed to be at least $2 Million (AUD). There are a total of 16 events including the main event. Fans can watch the Aussie Millions main event on FSN.

The Aussie Millions is the sixth largest poker tournament in the world. In addition to the poker tournament there will be a cash game where players buy-in for $1 million (AUD) each. The Aussie Millions was first held in 1998. Last year there were a total of 780 players that entered the main event and first place paid $1.65 million.

A total of 102 players entered the Omaha Hi/Lo event which made for a very tough field. Judah was able to win the title over a field that included last year’s Aussie Millions main event champion, Alexander Kostritsyn, last year’s WSOP main event runner-up Ivan Demidov, Tony G, Annette Obrestad and Harry Demetriou. The battle eventually came down to Judah vs. Rainier Quel and it took more than two hours to determine the winner.

The second tournament in the Aussie Millions was the $1,050 No-Limit tourney which was played on computerized poker tables. Mitchell Carle had a big lead when it came to heads-up play against Daniel Nielson and Carle eventually prevailed winning the $25,000 first place prize.

The first event of the 2009 Aussie Millions attracted a record 731 entrants who put up the $1,100 entry fee for the No-Limit Holdem event. Christian Heich took the first place prize of $150,000.

In other poker news, the Borgata Winter Open is underway. It is a 17-day poker series that will culminate with the main event on Sunday, January 25th.
The prize pool for the main event will be a guaranteed $2 million. The buy-in for the main event is $3,200. A total of 46 events will make up the Borgata Winter Open including various varieties including Holdem, Omaha and Pot Limit.