Aussie Millions 2013 Update; NBC Heads-Up Round One Draw

Sekiya’s Victory Down Under

This year’s Aussie Millions continued its international flavour thanks to Japan’s Yosuke Sekiya taking down the fourth event of the festival.

Asia’s top rated player managed to overcome a 206 player field of locals and pros to take home his first Aussie Millions title.

The No Limit Hold’em/ Pot Limit Omaha event was one arguably the most interesting of the series so far, with players having to switch styles throughout in order to make the most profitable plays.

This dexterity caused a number of players to hit the rail during Day 1 and by the time Day 2 rolled around it was Sam Higgs who held the chip lead at the final table.

With the blinds representing a significant portion of many player’s stacks, the final action was intense. Indeed, while Higgs slipped from the top of the pile, Sekiya gradually bolstered his stack and once heads-up he eventually scored a slice of luck to seal the deal.

With Higgs short of chips, Sekiya moved all-in pre-flop with [Qd] [Js]. Higgs had more than enough to call with in [Ac] [Jh], but as the board ran out: [8s] [8d] [3h] [9s] [10d], his fate was sealed.

With that Higgs pocketed $28,840, while Sekiya increased his lifetime earnings by $41,200.

NBC Heads-Up First Round

Last Saturday we brought you the full list of runners (plus their respective GPI rankings) for this year’s NBC Heads-Up Championship and today we can reveal which players will be facing off in the first round.

In an exclusive ceremony last night, the 64 names went into a hat and drawn at random.

Amongst the most interesting matches drawn were: Viktor Blom vs. Andrew Litchtenberger, Phil Hellmuth vs. Mike Sexton and Erik Seidel vs. Tom Dwan.

One player who won’t be taking part in today’s first round action is Daniel Negreanu. As we reported earlier, Daniel withdrew from the event and was replaced by David Sands who will now face Robert Salaburu.

After today’s opening matches the surviving players will have a day to rest before commencing their battle tomorrow. For any that make it through tomorrow’s matches the final will take place on January 26^th.

Round One Match-Ups and Player Brackets:

Clubs Bracket: Esfandiari/Tilly, Duhamel/Glantz, Salsberg/Cates, Rousso/Timoshenko, Deeb/Frankenberger, Bloch/Julius & Failla/Seiver, Moorman/Mortensen

Diamonds Bracket: Seidel/Dwan, Marchese/Brunson, Hastings/Matros, Schulman/Elezra, Merson/Serock, Charania/Seed, Boeree/Bauman, Smith/Mercier

Hearts Bracket: Cheong/Busquet, Bellande/Bruce Miller (Online qualifier), Ho/Galfond, Katchalov/Jaka, J. Smith/Grospellier, Hellmuth/Sexton, Moneymaker/Somerville, Salaburu/Sands

Spades Bracket: Lamb/Greenstein, Monnette/Raymer, Blom/Lichtenberger, Mizrachi/Matusow, Williams/Hennigan, Simon/Oppenheim, Laak/Ivey, Bonomo/Haxton