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January 16th 2007
Erick Lindgren wins $1,000,000 in Aussie Millions preliminary
The $100,000(Aus) buy-in prelminary event to the Aussie Millions tournament is consistently one of the most exciting tournaments of the year. With a buy-in equating to just under $80,000 USD this is not a game for the faint hearted, and once again it proved too rich for even many of the world's top pros.
What that meant was a tiny field of the higest possible calibre fighting for just three paying places, with first place paying $1,000,000, second paying $550,000 and third paying $250,000. Just 18 players coughed up the $100,000 buy-in, and it was no surprise to see Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey heading a star-billing including last year's champion John Juanda, as well as Gus Hansen, Erick Seidel, Roland de Wolfe, Jeff Lisandro, John D'Agostino, David Benyamine, Tony G and Tony Bloom amongst others.
But one of the stars of the show turned out to be the little known Masaski Kagawaw, a businessman and high stakes gambler from Japan, who stunned the pro's with his unpredicatable play, eventually ousting Tony G to finish third, collecting $250,000 along with a huge chunk of respect from the pros.
It was no surprise to see Phil Ivey competing in the upper quarter of the field, but he eventually lost out to Kagawa to finish in fifth, one spot behind the Australian Airbag. With three players left the experience of multiple WSOP bracelet winner Eric Seidel and WPT star Eric Lindgren proved too much for Kagawa whose remarkable run came to an end at the hands of Eric Seidel when the WSOP legends pocket sixes held up against Kagawa's A-7.
That left Seidel with a reasonable chip lead over Eric Lindgren but Lindgren set about restoring parity from the word go. Lindgren eventually took the lead when both players caught big pocket pairs and moved their chips in preflop, with Lindgren's kings holding up against Seidel's jacks.
On the 47th hand of heads-up play Lindgren dealt the final blow, moving all-in with Ac-7c and getting a call from Seidel who held Kh-Jh. The flop gave Lindgren and ace but also handed Seidel four cards to the flush, ensuring the tension continued to the very last. Fortunately for Lingren Seidel missed his outs and Lindgren had completed a seven figure payday (in Australian dollars that is). That equated to roughly $782,183 USD.
Submitted: 16/01/2007 17:28:21
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