Aussie Millions Main Event Update; Robl’s Million Dollar Win

Main Event Begins Down Under

The jewel in the Crown Casino’s annual Aussie Millions festival kicked off on Sunday with 154 players buying into the $10,000 Main Event.

A mixture of qualifiers and pros sat down for one of the year’s biggest tournaments, but at the end of the day it was local grinder Brian Payne who led the way with 299,900 chips.

Also still in contention for the top prize at the end of the day was: James Obst, Richard Ashby and Toby Lewis.

However, one player who won’t be defending his title is Olivier Speidel. The Australian pro banked $1,647,158 after defeating 658 players last year, but his dreams of back-to-back titles were ended midway through his opening session this time around.

Today’s second opening flight kicked off earlier and already the rail has been littered with talent in the form of Vanessa Selbst, Tobias Reinkemeier and Philipp Gruissem.

Robl Wins an Aussie Million

While another cohort of eager players began their quest for Aussie Millions fame in the $10,000 Main Event, Andrew Robl was busy making the most of his $200,000 investment in the Super High Roller event.

Having anted-up $100,000 alongside 21 of the world’s toughest players (and richest amateurs), Robl found himself needing to exercise his rebuy option after becoming the first player to be eliminated.

Being the only player to buy back into the event, Robl had more to lose than anyone and he certainly used that fact to motivate himself.

Playing with a new sense of determination, Robl ploughed through the field and by the time just three players remained he proved an insurmountable obstacle for Masa Kagawa.

After taking the Japanese businessman’s stack, the American pro stayed ahead of Igor Kurganov before edging out the Russian.

The tournament came to an inevitable conclusion when Kurganov made a desperate all-in call with [4d] [3s]. Despite making two pair on the turn, Robl’s [As] [5c] managed to make a straight on the [9c] [4c] [2h] [3d] [Qs] board to hand him the $1,000,000 first place prize.