Immediately after the Aussie Millions Main Event came to an end and Ami Barer was crowned winner, the AU$100,000 challenge began. Despite the prohibitive buy-in, more than 60 players found it worthwhile to participate and some of them even bought in several times. Isaac and Haxton and Daniel Negreanu are two worthy examples, with both of them spending a total of AU$500,000.
They were under tremendous pressure of making a deep run just to offset these losses, but only the Canadian achieved his goal. Haxton was eliminated early in the day and didn’t even make the final table, which was comprised of seven players. The chip leader didn’t have a significant advantage over the pack, which ensured the fact that the final stage of the competition will be balanced and take longer than usual.
Martin Jacobson and David Steicke were eliminated in a relatively quick succession and won a combined amount of AU$800,000. Since neither of them suffered an untimely elimination and had no reason to rebuy, the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge was a highly lucrative event. Daniel Negreanu didn’t succumb to pressure and despite the fact that he was compelled to finish fifth or higher, he played like he was aiming the first place.
He failed to make three handed play but he still finished above the profitability line, with a payout of AU$550,000. He was somewhat unlikely to be eliminated in the fifth place, but overall his performance at the AU$100,000 challenge was a success. Two of the four remaining players were struggling to stay alive, hoping that their closest rival will be eliminated ahead of them.
Patrick Antonius and Erik Seidel had a snowflake’s chance in hell of making the heads-up, with a dwindling stack and facing a lot of adversity. Seidel extracted the maximum from his unfortunate situation and outlasted Antonius, to collect AU$860,000, 160k more than his rival. They had too few chips in front of them to make a difference, so despite the fact that Yevgeniy Timoshenko caused the elimination of both of them, he only started with a narrow advantage over Mike McDonald.
Those who expected the heads up to end swiftly were surprised by the fighting spirit of both competitors, who suffer ample downswings but recovered each time. Both of them had 75% of the chips at one time, but in the end it was Yevgeniy Timoshenko won the decisive hand and the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge. He collected AU$2 million, almost double than MacDonald:
- Yevgeniy Timoshenko – AU$2,000,000
- Mike McDonald – AU$1,076,000
- Erik Seidel – AU$860,000
- Patrik Antonius – AU$700,000
- Daniel Negreanu – AU$550,000
- David Steicke – AU$450,000
- Martin Jacobson – AU$350,000