A couple things were similar this year at the final table of the Aussie Millions compared to last. First, there would not be an Australian who wins and second the final heads up battle would be between American pro player Eric Seidel and a relative new name Alexander Kostritsyn.

Last year though the poker pro was Gus Hansen and the relative unknown was Jimmy Fricke and it was the poker pro that came out the winner as Hansen took the title. This year however it was the unknown that came away the winner.

Alexander Kostritsyn started fast eliminating Peter Mobbs, Antonio Casale and Nino Marotta back to back to back. After that play resumed for almost two hours without any big hands.
The next elimination was Peter Ling at the hands of Michael Chrisanthopoulos then it was Kostritsyn turn again eliminating Chrisanthopoulos.

This left Alexander Kostritsyn and Eric Seidel heads up for the title. Even though Alexander had a sizable chip lead of 9,925,000 to Seidel’s 5,685,000 it took almost two hours of play for Kostritsyn to send Eric home in second.

The Final Results were:

1st Alexander Kostritsyn $1,650,000
2nd Erik Seidel $1,000,000
3rd Michael Chrisanthopoulos $700,000
4th Peter Ling $500,000
5th Nino Marotta $400,000
6th Antonio Casale $300,000
7th Peter Mobbs $225,000


- 2008-01-22