Aussie Millions Champion is crowned
21 year old Russian Alexander Kostritsyn has been crowned the 2008 Aussie Millions Champion. The tournament was held at Crown Casino in Melbourne. Alexander's victory is even more sweet, as he had to beat one of the toughest No-Limit Hold'em players in the world – Eric Seidel.
Kostritsyn, the youngest player and the only European at the final table, outlasted a record field of 780 players to take home the coveted title as well as cool AUD $ 1,65 million – the largest prize ever awarded in a live poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.
Here is how it went down:
Poker pro and eight time WSOP bracelet winner, Eric Seidel had the button. He raised to 300,000 and Kostritsyn called.
The flop:
J Diamonds, 8 Spades and 7 Spades.
Kostritsyn checked and Seidel fired out a bet of 550,000, upon wich Alexander went all-in and Seidel called.
Cards were flipped on their backs:
Seidel – Ace Spades and Q Clubs
Kostritsyn – J Hearts and 9 Hearts
The turn:
3 Hearts – and no help for Seidel
The river:
K Hearts – sealing the deal for Kostritsyn.
Seidel pocketed AUD $ 1 million for his runner-up finish.
Peter Mim, Executive General Manager of Table Games at Crown said: “We congratulate Alexander Kostritsyn on his tremendous accomplishment. He played superb poker over a prolonged period against a record field that included virtually every top professional and hundreds of talented amateurs from Australia and around the world.”
Hailing from “Hachem territory” in the Melbourne suburbs was third place finisher Michael Chrisanthopoulos, who pocketed AUD $ 700,000 for his efforts.
The remaining players at the final table were:
4th place: Peter Ling- $500,000
5th place: Nino Marotta- $400,000
6th place: Antonio Casale- $300,000
7th place: Peter Mobbs- $225,000
