2011 January 29, Elaine Chaivarlis, Elissa Harwood

The 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event has crowned a winner. David Gorr bested the 721 player field, taking home the title, and AUD$2,000,000.

At the start of the day on Saturday, eight players sat down with the hopes of walking away with the title, AUD$2 million first-place prize, and the trophy. Randy Dorfman went into the day as the chip leader, but didn’t hold on to it to finish the day. First to depart from the final table was Team Full Tilt’s Patrik Antonius. His kings were no match against David Gorr’s flopped two pair with queen-ten. Fourteen hands later, Chris Moorman moved all in after a flop of . He was up against David Gorr, who made the call, saying, “I won’t waste your time, I call.” Gorr had flopped trips. Moorman’s flush draw didn’t make it on the turn or the river and he was sent to the payout desk to collect seventh place prize money of AUD$175,000.

In sixth place, Sam Razavi was eliminated, taking home AUD$225,000. His ace-seven couldn’t improve against James Keys’ pocket sevens. Just six hands later, Gorr dispatched start-of-the-day chip leader Randy Dorfman. Dorfman led with his pocket tens the through the flop and the turn, but the river was what did him in, when an ace fell, pairing Gorr’s ace-nine.

On hand #142, after a five-bet shove from Jeff Rossiter, Michael Ryan made the call for his tournament life. Ryan tabled pocket nines against the ace-king of Rossiter, but much like in Dorfman’s elimination hand, the river was the cruel street, as Ryan was ahead and looking to double until the fell on the river to send him on his way. It took 60 hands to reach heads-up play. Jeff Rossiter was eliminated on the 202nd hand of final table play. All the chips went in the middle on a board reading . Gorr tabled for the nut flush and was credited with the elimination of Rossiter.

Gorr held just over a five-to-one chip lead over James Keys at the beginning of heads-up play. Just 153 hands into heads-up play, Keys had chipped away at Gorr’s stack and the two were just about even. Two hands later, Keys doubled after the two got it in on a board reading . Keys had flopped two pair with and Gorr held top pair with . The river brought the and all but 1.2 million of Gorr’s chips slid to the other side of the table in front of Keys. Though he was at nearly a twelve-to-one chip disadvantage, Gorr never relented and some how fought back and took the lead after 53 hands. Just four hands later, all the chips were on Gorr’s side of the table after he rivered a higher two pair, eliminating James Keys in second place.

Congratulations to David Gorr, 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event Champion!

2011 Aussie Millions Main Event Results

1. David Gorr – AUD$2,000,000
2. James Keys – AUD$1,035,000
3. Jeff Rossiter – AUD$700,000
4. Michael Ryan – AUD$450,000
5. Randy Dorfman – AUD$325,000
6. Samad Razavi – AUD$225,000
7. Chris Moorman – AUD$175,000
8. Patrik Antonius – AUD$130,000

Event #13: Australia Heads Up Championship

After four days and more twists and turns than a bestselling novel, the $10,500 Australia Heads-Up Championship has crowned a champion, one accustomed to seeing “First” by his name. Carlos Mortensen, yes that Carlos Mortensen, defeated fellow Full Tilt Red Pro Melanie Weisner, Terrence Chan, and Alexander Kostritsyn to make it through to the round-robin finals. Americans Dan “KingDan” Smith and Barry Woods also won three matches apiece to earn spots in the finals. All three returned this afternoon for a very unusual final day.

The top three played a round robin tournament format. The first player to win two best-of-three matches in a row would win the title. Mortensen beat Smith in the first match 2:1. Woods beat Mortensen in the first game of the second match and had a lead in the second. Then Woods flopped two pair and Mortensen turned a flush to double up and take all of the momentum from Woods. After that, Mortensen was unstoppable. He went on a tear to win the second and third games in record time and lock up the Championship title and AUD$130,000. Woods, who finished as runner-up last year, then beat Smith in a playoff to finish second once again, earning AUD$70,000. Smith took home AUD$40,000 for his efforts.

Event #17: $2,200 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max

On Friday, 225 players entered Event #17 at the 2011 Aussie Millions, and by the end of the day, there were 18 players left, including Tony Dunst, Ben Delaney, Billy “The Croc” Argyros, and Leo Boxell. After close to 12 hours of play, a winner was crowned. Leo Boxell bested Simon Charette heads up for the title and the AUD$108,000 first-place prize.

Event #19: $1,650 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Bounties

The 19th event of the 2011 Aussie Millions attracted a field of 235, including Full Tilt Poker Red Pros, Matthew Jarvis, Nikolay Evdakov, Roberto Romanello, Simon Watt, and last year’s winner, Jonathan Karamalikis. Play started 10 handed at the tables, and when the final 32 players were reached, it turned into a four-table shootout, with the final 24 players making the money. Each bounty, there were 24 total, was worth AUD$1,000.

Martin Kozlov will take the most chips Sunday’s final table play, bagging 445,000 at the end of the night. Just behind him is Lindy Thornton, Jai Kemp, Jarred Soloman, and Milan Gurung, rounding out the top five. Gerasimos Deves, Shao Liu, and Mel Judah are also still in the hunt for the title. They will all come back Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time to play down to a winner, to see who will take home the AUD$80,500 first-place prize.

If you want to check out any of the updates from Saturday’s action at the 2011 Aussie Millions, then you should head on over to the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog.

Remember to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

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2011 January 31, Martin Harris

It’s the last day of January, one of the more action-packed months of poker in recent memory. And the month was punctuated by a busy weekend, too, that saw Main Event titles won in Australia and France, big online scores in the Sunday Majors, increased buzz over online poker in Florida, new Hendon Mob rankings, big Super Bowl bets, and more. Here’s your Nightly Turbo collecting the month’s final headlines.

In Case You Missed It

Melbourne’s own David Gorr, a 68-year-old grandfather, took down the 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event, besting a field of 721 to claim the AUD$2,000,000 first prize. Here’s a recap of Gorr’s triumph plus other results from down under

It was another big weekend for online tourneys, with several top pros making deep runs in the Sunday majors. Mickey Doft was on the virtual rail yesterday, where he saw impressive performances by Aaron Been, Justin Bonomo, Anthony Bruno, Ryan Daut, John Dolan, Anthony Gregg, Chris Moorman, and Vanessa Selbst. See who finished where in the Sunday Briefing.

In more online news from yesterday, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom took on his third opponent in the ongoing PokerStars SuperStar Showdown series of heads-up matches, this time battling red-hot Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates. After 2,500 furiously-paced hands of hold’em, Blom ended the match $51,196 in the black, thereby securing his second straight Showdown victory. Here’s a blow-by-blow rundown of Blom’s win.

The possibility of intrastate poker in California continues to be debated. Patrick Dorinson, who once represented the Morongo tribe’s California Online Poker Association in its efforts to promote an intrastate online poker bill, has now been enlisted by the Poker Voters of America as its executive director, a group that has a bill of its own to advance. Dorinson hopes to draw on his experience with both groups to facilitate a consensus and thus perhaps progress toward a bill becoming law. Matthew Kredell explains.

In other news, the online poker site Lock Poker has hired longtime grinder and respected pro Eric “Rizen” Lynch as its new poker room manager. See what sort of ideas Lynch has in mind for the site.

Intrastate Online Poker… Is Florida Next?

Back in December, Florida state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo refiled a bill which would establish a system for intrastate online poker in Florida, but the legislative session ended before his bill could be advanced.

Now, though, the idea has been revived once more as state Senator Miguel Diaz has drafted a Senate companion bill, thereby putting the idea of intrastate online poker back on the legislative table.

Rep. Abruzzo’s bill had outlined a plan to allow Florida’s brick-and-mortar rooms to become affiliates of newly-created online sites. As has been the case with similar discussions in other states, play would be limited to Florida residents only.

Scott Long offers more on the current status of online poker in Florida at Ante Up! Magazine.

The Hendon Mob Adds Adjusted Rankings

There has been quite a bit of conversation about that “All Time Money List” in poker here lately. “Super High-Roller” events in the Caribbean and Australia with huge, multi-million dollar first prizes have drawn renewed attention to the rankings. The recently announced professional poker league to be headed up by Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack has also inspired a lot of debate over how best to compare players to one another. (See Annie Duke’s two-part interview with PokerNews on the new league here and here.)

The Hendon Mob has kept a thorough, detailed database of tournament results for many years, becoming an important authority in the industry for its record-keeping.

The site has long provided an “All-Time Money List” showing players’ total tourney earnings, but has now added a few other sets of rankings with new criteria, including an “open events only” list, a list covering only events with buy-ins of $50,000 or less, and another including only open events with $50K or less buy-ins.

See the Mob’s explanation of the new lists here.

Big Bets on the Big Game

Super Bowl XLV is less than a week away, with most sportsbooks favoring the NFC champion Green Bay Packers by a field goal (or less) over the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Kind of an amazing turn of events, given that the Packers were the lowest-seeded NFC team entering the playoffs!

As happens every year, much of the talk during these final days leading up to the big game has revolved around the number and amount of bets being placed. Matt Youmans of the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported that “word on the Strip” has been that MGM Resorts has accepted a $1 million bet on the Packers, although Jay Rood, the MGM’s sports book director, did not confirm whether the wager had indeed been accepted.

Rumor of the big bet has led some — remembering stories of big bets from past Super Bowls — to speculate that Phil Ivey could in fact be the Packer backer, though again nothing has been confirmed.

See the LVRJ for more on the action before the action as the Super Bowl draws near.

Lucien Cohen wins EPT Deauville

Finally, wrapping up a busy January, the PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour has just crowned a new champion – Lucien Cohen of Paris.

Just hours ago, Cohen outlasted a tough final table that included Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert, Alex Wice, and eventual runner-up Martin Jacobson to claim the €880,000 first prize, much to the delight of his many fans on the rail.

PokerNews’ Sarah Grant caught up with Cohen shortly after his victory:

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