Yosuke Sekiya Wins Event #4 of the Aussie Millions for $41,200
Sekiya is the current Asia Player of the Year and his form in this tournament went some way to showing why such an accolade has been bestowed on him.
Yosuke Sekiya has won the fourth event of the 2013 Aussie Millions, taking home $41,200 and a much sought-after custom-made gold ring.
Sekiya is the current Asia Player of the Year and his form in this tournament went some way to showing why such an accolade has been bestowed on him. Event #4 was the $1,100 No Limit Hold'em / Pot Limit Omaha mixed event, where the games alternated each level.
2013 Aussie Millions Event #4 Final Table
Seat 1: Yosuke Sekiya - 320,000 chips
Seat 2: Mike Ivin - 180,500
Seat 3: Nicholad Nicolaou - 117,000
Seat 4: Sam Higgs - 585,000
Seat 5: Joseph Cristallo - 320,000
Seat 6: George McDonald - 337,000
Seat 7: Seanglee Ang - 80,500
Seat 8: Justin Bradshaw - 65,500
Seat 9: Bernard Samuel - 109,000
A total of 206 players bought in but they were whittled down to the final table of nine, which you can see above. The first level of the final table was played to pot limit Omaha and the blinds were 6,000/12,000 meaning some of the players were very short stacked.
The first elimination happened just a few moments after the restart. Bernard Samuel and Joseph Cristallo entered a preflop raising war that results in Samuel being all-in with Ad-9d-8h-7h against the Ac-As-6h-2s of Cristallo. A final board reading 8s-9s-Ah-5c-6s kept Cristallo's hand in front and relegated Bernard to the sidelines.
The first Omaha round of the day would go on to claim a further two victims, the first being Nick Nicolaou, the other being Seanglee Ang. It has been quite the week for Nicolaou, who you may recall reached the final table of the $1,100 Pot Limit Omaha event earlier in the festival.
Shortly after Ang's demise, the blinds were increased to 8,000/16,000/2,000a and the game switched to no limit Hold'em. Almost straight after this occurred, George McDonald found his Kh-10s in extremely bad shape against the Ks-Kc of Sekiya. McDonald received no help at all from the community cards and he became the sixth place finisher.
He and the other players who had been knocked out were joined first by Justin Bradshaw (sixes versus Sekiya's jacks), Mike Ivin (kings cracked by Jd-10d) and finally the aforementioned Cristallo.
Cristallo's exit left just Sekiya and Sam Higgs to battle it out for the title and the $41,200 first place prize. Sekiya, started with a 1.28 million to 785,000 chip advantage when heads-up began, and within a few hands he had extended his lead by around 200,000 chips. Higgs never gave up, and started to mount a comeback. A straight flush and a full house during an Omaha round almost levelled things up, but the Hold'em round went Sekiya's way.
By the time the final hand came around Higgs was down to less than ten big blinds and in need of a double-up. This looked to be on the cards as Sekiya open-shoved with Qd-Js and Higgs instantly called with a dominating Ac-Jh. The 8s-8d-3h flop kept Higgs in front, but when the 9s turn was followed by the 10d river, Sekiya had hit a runner-runner straight and a dejected Higgs became the second place finisher.
2013 Aussie Millions Event #4 Final Table Results
1st: Yosuke Sekiya - $41,200
2nd: Sam Higgs - $28,840
3rd: Joe Cristallo - $20,600
4th: Mike Ivin - $17,510
5th: Justin Bradshaw - $15,450
6th: George McDonald - $13,390
7th: Seanglee Ang - $11,330
8th: Nick Nicolaou - $9,270
9th: Bernard Samuel - $7,210
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
