After his victory in 2012, Phil Ivey took down the Aussie Millions A$250,000 Challenge once again, for A$4 million. He defeated Isaac Haxton heads-up.
On 9 February, the Aussie Millions LK Boutique A$250,000 Challenge, or the super high roller event of the festival kicked off. On Day 1, 37 buy-ins were paid out by the players with some of them re-entering the event, like Daniel Negreanu, Philipp Gruissem and Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald. Eventually, 18 of them qualified, a field worthy of a super high roller tournament. The top 5 was as follows:
Erik Seidel – 944,000
Tom Dwan – 815,000
Isaac Haxton – 800,000
Jason Mercier – 767,000
Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 705,000
Registration was still open at the beginning of Day 2 and the number of entries rose to 46 in total, for a prize pool of A$11,270,000. The final nine players sat down to a final table, yet only the top six finishes were in the money. The seat draw was as seen below:
Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 995,000
Seat 2: Mike McDonald – 1,413,000
Seat 3: Tony Bloom – 591,000
Seat 4: Isaac Haxton – 3,594,000
Seat 5: Erik Seidel – 1,229,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu – 1,054,000
Seat 7: Max Altergott – 345,000
Seat 8: Tom Dwan – 1,296,000
Seat 9: Fabian Quoss – 981,000
Tony Bloom, Max Altergott and Erik Seidel got eliminated, bubbling the tournament. In 6th position, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan was railed for A$500,000, his pocket eights cracked by Haxton’s suited K-J hand, which improved to two pair.
The eights also meant the end for Fabian Quoss: Ivey’s K-Q improved to two pair against them. On Level 18 (10,000/60,000/120,000), Negreanu was out, too, shoving with A-2 from short stack and Ivey calling with A-K. While Negreanu flopped a 2, a king arrived on the river.
A couple of hands later, McDonald moved all-in with 1,750,000 in chips and Haxton called from a much larger stack.
McDonald: T:d 8:s
Haxton: A:s K:d
Board: 6:c 2:d 2:s 6:d 3:h
Haxton won with an ace kicker.
Isaac Haxton – 6,150,000
Phil Ivey – 5,350,000
The Ivey v Haxton clash turned out to be a real treat for poker enthusiasts, bringing about a major fight for the victory. First, Haxton managed to increase his stack to 9,300,000 but Ivey came back doubling up: the nine times WSOP champion shoved with 5-4 on the 5-4-2 board. Haxton had 7-6 for a straight draw; although a 3 did arrive on the river, the 5 on the turn already gave Ivey a full house.
A couple of hands later, Ivey came close to doubling up again, shoving on the J-5-8-4 board with 6-7 for a straight. Haxton showed T-7 for a double gutshot but the 6 on the river saved him as they split the pot.
On Level 19 (20,000/80,000/160,000) they played from about equal stacks until Ivey took a monster pot: he opened to 350,000, Haxton called and the flop came 8:h 5:d 5:s. They both checked and then Haxton opened to 700,000 on the K:c turn, Ivey called and the 6:s arrived on the river. Haxton bet 2,100,000, Ivey tanked a bit and moved all-in. Haxton snap-folded.
Phil Ivey – 8,750,000
Isaac Haxton – 2,750,000
Following the hand, Haxton was unable to come back anymore; in the last hand, he moved all-in on Ivey’s limp and the latter called.
Haxton: 8:s 7:d
Ivey: A:h 6:c
Board: A:d K:h 9:c 7:s 3:s
Ivey flopped a pair of aces and won.
Following his victory in 2012, Phil Ivey took down the Aussie Millions A$250,000 Challenge once more, this time for A$4,000,000.
The end results are as follows:
1st: Phil Ivey – A$4,000,000
2nd: Isaac Haxton – A$2,820,000
3rd: Mike McDonald – A$1,900,000
4th: Daniel Negreanu – A$1,250,000
5th: Fabian Quoss – A$800,000
6th: Tom Dwan – A$500,000
