Ami Barer Leads Aussie Millions Main Event Final Table

Ami Barer enjoyed a late, late run to build a substantial final table chip advantage with just seven players remaining in the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event.

Day 4 of the Aussie Millions Main Event saw Ami Barer emerge unscathed from his opening “table of death” to run amok during the latter stages of the action and build a massive stack of 6,570,000 chips, which towers over those of the six opponents he will face at the final table on Sunday.

Barer started the day with an unenviable table draw against Jason Mercier, Liv Boeree, John Juanda, Jonathan Duhamel and Jeff Rossiter but, as players started to be eliminated from the tournament and his table was broken, harangued and harassed his opponents into surrender to claim top position on the leaderboard with just six players now standing between him and the AU$1,600,000 first prize.

Brisk Start to Aussie Millions Penultimate Day

Thirty-six players returned to the Crown Poker Rooms in Melbourne for the penultimate day of the 2014 Aussie Millions Main Event, and the decision was made that play would continue until just seven players remained. Initially it appeared that it was going to be a very short day as players exited the tournament in quick succession but, as the stacks got deeper, Day 4 turned into a marathon session.

The day started with less than twenty minutes remaining in Level 19 (blinds 5,000/10,000 – ante 1,000) and that was enough time to see Rhys Jones sent to the rail after running his Q♣ 10♦ into Andrew Phaedonas´ A♣ A♦, and Phaedonas temporarily heading the tournament after overnight chip leader Salvatore Fazzino doubled-up Jim Mourafas A♦ K♥ > A♥ J♥.

Team PokerStars Pros Caught Up in the Fall-Out

Moving into Level 20 (blinds 6,000/12,000 – 2,000) the pace of eliminations continued. Day 1 chip leader Martin Rowe was bust in thirty-fifth place when his A♣ J♣ failed to improve past Vincent Rubianes´ 10♠ 10♣, and Rowe was shortly followed on the rail by Jae Kyung “Simba” Sim, Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu and Florian Bussman, who got all-in against Sorel Mizzi with J♠ 10♠ on a flop of 10♥ J♥ Q♣. Mizzi had K♦ Q♥ for an open-ended straight draw and connected with the 9♦ on the Turn to bust Bussman in thirty-first place.

More eliminations followed – including Liv Boeree at the hands of Patrick Crivell J♥ J♣ > 8♥ 8♠ and Team PokerStars colleague Jonathan Duhamel K♦ J♥ against the A♣ Q♠ of Jeff Rossiter – with Andreas Lodemel particularly unfortunate to be bust in twenty-second place after getting his chips in with A♦ K♦ against Eoghan O´Dea´s A♠ J♦, and looking good for a double-up on the Nine-high board, until the J♠ spiked on the River.

Barer Starts to Charge Up the Leaderboard

At the start of Level 22 (blinds 10,000/20,000 – ante 3,000), Ami Barer was sitting behind a comparatively meagre stack of 600,000 having just doubled-up Vincent Rubianes (K♥ 10♦ > A♠ 6♦); but the elimination of Craig McCorkell A♣ Q♠ > J♣ J♠ increased his stack to beyond one million chips and thereafter there was no looking back.

Barer busted out the last team PokerStars Pro standing Jason Mercier 9♣ 9♥ > 7♥ 7♣, Jie Gao A♠ 10♣ > A♥ 7♣ and Jeff Rossiter K♣ Q♦ > 6♣ 6♠ to move over two million chips; before launching an all-out attack on Eric Seidel which saw Barer take two valuable pots from Seidel before eliminating him in tenth place A♠ K♦ > K♥ 3♠ to improve his chip stack to over four million chips.

Barer had not finished yet however, and in the last level of play forced Jake Balsiger out of a half-million chip pot, and Scott Seiver out of two pots in consecutive hands with a net gain of more than a million chips to bag and tag 6,570,000 chips at the close of play.

Behind Barer, Six Others Jostle for Position

When Sunday´s final table gets underway, Vincent Rubianes will be Ami Barer´s closest opponent (literally as well as in the chip counts). Rubianes finished Day 4 of the Aussie Millions Main Event with 3,865,000 chips after taking a stack of chips from Darren Rabinowitz A♥ Q♣ > K♥ 8♥ and forcing Andrew Phaedonas out of a substantial pot before the close of play, but Barer will have position on Rubianes after the final table seat draw sat them next to each other.

Rabinowitz and Phaedonas managed to survive to the final table with vastly inferior chip stacks, and a bigger threat is likely to emerge from Sorel Mizzi or Jake Balsiger – Mizzi busting Danny Lewis in ninth place A♠ K♠ > K♥ Q♠ before Jake Balsiger brought the day´s proceedings to a close by eliminating Eoghan O´Dea in eighth position 8♦ 8♣ > A♥ K♠. Scott Seiver makes up the seventh player on the final table of the Aussie Millions Main Event, and he will be in the unenviable position of acting immediately before Vincent Rubianes and Ami Barer.

Looking Ahead to the Aussie Millions Final Table

The seven remaining players get to have Saturday off in order that the super-high rollers can have their moment of glory, and they re-convene at the Crown Poker Rooms in Melbourne on Sunday when they will be half-way through Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 and a 5,000 chip ante.

The next player to leave the event will pocket a healthy AU$170,000, but the top two players will each receive more than AU$1 million for their efforts – prompting 888Poker´s Jake Balsiger to tweet:

Finally got my first six figure score as long as I don’t mess it up by getting first or second!