Poker Action Downunder

Aussie Millions gets underway, and a big win for Shak

In the land Downunder, the Aussie Millions main event is in progress with an entry field so far of 476 players, many of them top names in the game, and more expected to register Tuesday.

Names famous in both live and online poker games were among the entries, including Erick Lindgren, Tom Dwan, Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Feldman, Barry Greenstein, Jarred Graham, Phil Ivey, John Tabatabai, Mike 'SirWatts' Watson, Annette Obrestad, Jeffrey Lisandro, Andy Lichtenberger, Van Marcus, Leo Margets, reigning Aussie Millions champ Stewart Scott, Grant Levy, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, and Tony Dunst. Many have already fallen by the wayside.

Most of the excitement this week surrounded the A$100 000 Challenge at the championships, however, which was won by Dan Shak - a very nice A$ 1.2 million payday.

Shak had his work cut out to beat a formidable final table that included Phil Ivey, TonyG Guoga, Tony Bloom, Jonathan Karamalikis and Billy Jordannou.

In an exciting heads up against Phil Ivey, Shak started play with the lower of the two chip stacks, normally fatal against the likes of Ivey, but battled on to overtake his opponent and take the main prize and considerable respect. Ivey's second placing was worth A$600 000. Jordanou finished third and collected A$ 300 000 from the cashier.