Sam Trickett Wins the $250,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions
The writing was on the wall as soon as the one-on-one encounter started, as Trickett held a 3.72 million to 780,000 chip advantage over Reinkemeier and with blinds of 25,000/50,000/5,000a that was a massive gap.
Sam Trickett has got 2013 off to a flying start by winning the $250,000 Challenge at the 2013 Aussie Millions. The Retford-born super star won AU$2,000,000 for this latest victory.
$250,000 Challenge Final Table Seat Draw
Seat 1: Richard Yong - 580,000 chips
Seat 2: Sam Trickett - 494,000
Seat 3: Fabian Quoss - 764,000
Seat 4: Tobias Reinkemeier - 1,237,000
Seat 5: Winifred Yu - 387,000
Seat 6: Igor Kurganov - 854,000
Seat 7: Erik Seidel - 184,000
The first casualty of the day was Richard Yong, his Ad-Qh running into the dominating Ah-Kc of Igor Kurganov. The five community cards fell 9h-7c-4c-5s-Kh and Yong was sent to the rail in seventh place.
The winner of this event in 2011, Erik Seidel, was the sixth place finisher. Seidel started the day as the short stack and never managed to get out of second gear. He committed his short stack with As-5c and found a caller in the shape of Fabian Quoss and his Ad-Qc. Neither player improved by the river and Quoss' queen-kicker was enough to end Seidel's tournament.
Next to head out of the tournament area was Winfred Yu and again it was Kurganov who was responsible for the final table losing another player. Yu moved all-in from the small blind with As-4s and Kurganov called with the Ac-7d. Kuragnov extended his lead on a Kc-7s-10d flop and his sevens held to bust Yu and burst the money bubble.
Despite leading the final table for some time, Kuganov was the next player to be despatched to the rail - and in cruel circumstances. All the chips went piling into the middle on a 9d-3s-2s-4s board, Kurganov turning over Js-7s but drawing completely dead to Trickett who had turned a straight flush with 6s-5s! Kurganov picked up AU$500,000 for his effort but he will be bitterly disappointed with not going all the way in this event.
Quoss became the third place finisher when his attempts to turn around a he chip deficit were thwarted by Trickett. Quoss got his stack into the centre of the table with 7s-6s and was in bad shape against the As-10s of Trickett. The Kd-Jd-4s flop was no help to Quoss and the Qs turn certainly was not as it condemned him to a third place finish. The talented German picked up AU$750,000 for his efforts.
That last exit left Trickett and Tobias Reinkemeier to battle it out heads up for the title and the not-so-small matter of AU$2,000,000. The writing was on the wall as soon as the one-on-one encounter started, as Trickett held a 3.72 million to 780,000 chip advantage over Reinkemeier and with blinds of 25,000/50,000/5,000a that was a massive gap.
The final hand saw Reinkemeier shove with Kh-2c and Trickett call with As-5h. By the river the five community cards read Jd-8s-7d-Qs-8d and with that, Trickett had won the $250,000 Challenge.
2013 Aussie Millions $250,000 Challenge Results
1st: Sam Trickett - AU$2,000,000
2nd: Tobias Reinkemeier - AU$1,250,000
3rd: Fabian Quoss - AU$750,000
4th: Igor Kurganov - AU$500,000
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
