The Australian Poker League and 888Poker League sent a record breaking seventy five players to compete at this year’s World Series of Poker in the Millionaire Maker event.
On Wednesday, June 3rd the team made the massive journey from Sydney to Vegas via LA. Things got started with an exclusive $5,000 Freeroll at The Orleans Casino, where the qualifiers got the chance to get in the right frame of mind for the Millionaire Maker. Ehsan “Smokey” Chedid, of Greystanes, NSW, took out the Freeroll, scoring a nice US$1,000 in spending money.
By Friday, June 5th the qualifiers were taking to the felt for the Millionaire Maker. It was a memorable opening day with some tough bad beat stories and a few sightings of the biggest names in poker.
By Day 2 we had five players in the cash and with the NBA finals playing on the big screens the atmosphere was electric. At different stages Queenland’s Milos Kolar was seated on the same table as legends Antonio Esfandiari, Olivier Busquet and Brian Rast.
In the end it was five of our players who made the cash. They were:
Paul O’Connor of Brisbane South in 649th for US$3,044
Edgar Santamaria of East Sydney in 607th for US$3,044
Mathew Blandford of Newcastle in 488th for US$3,929
Amy Cassim of Outer West in 174th for US$6,972
Milos Kolar of the Gold Coast in 92nd for US$9,624
Amy and Milos had finished third and fourth, respectively, in the Freeroll event for $800 and $700, so this has been a particularly successful few days for the two of them.
Milos displayed true skill to make it to day three but ran out of luck when he was short stacked and went all in with Ace Queen and his opponent showed Ace King. The 9,K,A on the flop gave his opponent two pair and Milos ended his fantastic campaign in 92nd out of 7,252 players. He had been short stacked for most of the tournament but was able to grind his way to the top 100!
Tomorrow the team heads off on an exciting tour to check out the beautiful Grand Canyon, before winding up their trip with their last night in Vegas; no doubt a few drinks and a bit of poker is on the table!
The entire APL and 888PL team would like to congratulate our players for their efforts and their sportsmanship and wish everyone trying to qualify for Team WSOP 2016 all the best! |
