The $100,000 Challenge at the 2012 Aussie Millions attracted a field of 22 players, amongst them some of the very best poker players in the world, but they were all left in the wake of a talented yet somewhat unknown quantity by the name of Dan Smith who walked away with the lion’s share of the prize pool, a bankroll boosting $1,012,000.
Although the tournament attracted 16 fewer players than the corresponding event last year it was still packed with some of the biggest names in the game. The likes of Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Phil Ivey all paid the $100,000 entry fee but failed to progress through to the second day’s play.
In total eight players made it through Day 1 but with only four spots being paid half of those left the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia extremely disappointed indeed. None more so that “The Great Dane” Gus Hansen who busted out in fifth place, the exact bubble, missing out on a $242,000 payday! An angry Hansen was sent to the rail when a preflop raising war with Mikhail Smirnov resulted in him being all in and at risk of elimination holding AsJc to Smirnov’s ThTd and when the board ran out 9s-8c-7s-2d-5c the bubble had burst and Hansen left the tournament area muttering a whole host of expletives to himself. Not to worry though because Hansen has reportedly been killing the ultra-high stakes cash games in Macau over the past couple of weeks where he won more than $4,000,000.
He was not left on the sidelines alone for long though because the infamous Tony G’s ace-six could not suck out on the ace-queen of Smirnov and the Lithuanian-born Australian became the fourth place finisher. Tony G now has almost $4,700,000 in live tournament cashes but not a single seven-figure score amongst them.
Third place went to local player and former World Series of Poker Main Event winner Joe Hachem. He headed to the cashier’s cage to pick up $330,000 when he shoved Ac9c into the dominating As10s of Smith, but that is only half of the story. Hachem spiked a nine on the 9h-Js-7d flop and another when the 9s landed on the turn but the river was the 3s which gifted Smith a runner-runner flush to send Hachem home for an early bath.
Going into heads up Smirnov held an almost three-to-one chip advantage over Smith but when the latter’s jacks held against the tens of the Russian he was right back in contention. The chip lead then exchanged hands at least half a dozen times over the next three hours before two hands in quick succession ended the tournament as a contest. First Smith’s red sixes held against AcQd of Smirnov when the board ran out ten-high then almost immediately afterwards Smirno pushed his remaining 180,000 chips (six big blinds) into the middle with queen-six of hearts and Smith made the call with deuces. The fie community cards ran out Kd-5h-Ac-Jc-8c to give the American the title and the $1,012,000 first place prize.
Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge Results (AUD)
1st: Dan Smith: $1,012,000
2nd: Mikhail Smirnov: $616,000
3rd: Joe Hachem: $330,000
4th: Tony G: $242,000
