Phil Ivey has once again won the A$250,000 Challenge after claiming the title both in 2012 and in 2014. He defeated Mike "timex" McDonald in heads-up to win the $A2.205.000 first prize.
The Aussie Millions Super High Roller, the A$250,000 Challenge started on January 31, there were a total of 25 entries which created a A$6.105.000 prizepool. Day 2 started on Sunday with 12 players, 2012 and 2014 winner Phil Ivey was the chipleader with 958,000 chips.
The first one to bust was Ole Schemion, he was soon followed by Igor Kurganov and Brian Rast, and the official final table was set with the bustout of Jason Mo.
Seat 1. Scott Seiver – 1.107.000
Seat 2. Isaac Haxton – 430.000
Seat 3. Doug Polk – 1.904.000
Seat 4. Dan Smith – 286.000
Seat 5. Erik Seidel – 330.000
Seat 6. Richard Yong – 325.000
Seat 7. Mike McDonald – 329.000
Seat 8. Phil Ivey – 1.541.000
Dan Smith busted in 8th place after running 4-4 into Ivey’s K-K. Ivey eliminated Yong not much later after his Q-J hit a Queen against the Malaysian businessmans A-2.
Erik Seidel finished in 6th, he jammed roughly 11 big blinds from UTG with A-3, Polk called with K-K and held.
Ivey picked off Polk’s bluff and increased his chiplead even further and went on break with a massive lead.
Phil Ivey – 3.640.000
Doug Polk – 1.857.000
Scott Seiver – 453.000
Mike McDonald – 300.000
McDonald won a preflop all-in against Ivey after the break (A-5 vs K-9) and then went on to eliminate Scott Seiver. McDonald opened the button to 60,000 (Level 12, 15,000-30,000-4,000 ante) and Seiver called in the big blind. On the flop of A-7-6 with two spades, Seiver check/raised all-in for 206,000 after McDonald bet 50,000.
McDonald called with K-8 of spades for the nut flush draw while Seiver had 7-4 for second pair. A five of spades on the turn left Seiver drawing dead and he was eliminated in fourth.
The three remaining players battled it out until Level 14 (25,000-50,000-5,000 ante), but right after the dinner break, Polk bit the dust.
Ivey raised to 110,000 on the button, Polk shoved with A-5 of clubs and McDonald called with A-Q. Even though Polk hit a monster flop, Q-8-5 with two clubs, he couldn’t get there on the turn or river and was eliminated in third place.
Heads-up started with the following stacks:
Phil Ivey – 3.610.000
Mike McDonald – 2.640.000
The duo tangled for about 40 minutes, in the last hand of the tournament McDonald raised to 100,000, Ivey shoved and McDonald called all-in for 1.3 million.
Ivey had K-Q of clubs and was dominated by McDonald’s A-Q, but Ivey managed to flop top pair and hold on the K-T-T-8-9 board.
With that, Phil Ivey has won three of the last four Aussie Millions Super High Rollers, in 2012 he won $2.058.948 in 2014 he won $3.582.753 and this year’s score earned him $A2.205.000 (~$1.716.778), which puts him up more than $6.6 million lifetime at these events.
Final table results:
1. Phil Ivey – A$2.205.000
2. Mike McDonald – A$1.592.500
3. Doug Polk – A$1.041.500
4. Scott Seiver – A$735.000
5. Erik Seidel – A$551.000