Melbourne Local, Robert Raymond Wins Event #1: Opening Event for AUD$320,830
Melbourne, Australia. Tuesday 17 January 2017. The first event of the 2017 Aussie Millions was a whopper which saw Robert Raymond successfully navigate the massive field to earn the Event 1 title and AUD$320,830. Raymond, a Melbourne local, bested a field which included 1,565 total entries up from the 1,320 entries the same event saw in 2016.
The final day of the kick-off event got underway with 16 players remaining, all of which had locked up a minimum of $11,230. The first player eliminated on the day was Espen Solaas from Norway, who was eliminated in 16th place. Players continued to drop through the evening with each elimination getting us closer to a final table. When Sam Higgs, another player from Melbourne, busted in 8th place the final seven were set.
With play four-handed, the table seemed stacked against the eventual winner. Raymond only had 1.64 million in chips, leaving him as the short stack against Qiang Fu (3.7 million), Alex Lynskey (4.95 million), and Michael Addamo (5.4 million), who was the chip leader at the time. The two shortest stacks, however, didn’t give up and ended up facing off against one another when play got heads-up with Raymond besting Fu for the lion’s share of the prize-pool and the coveted Aussie Millions championship ring.
The opening event, which featured a $1,150 buy-in generated a total prize pool of AUD$1,604,125. A total of 153 entrants cashed in the event, with the minimum cash being worth AUD$2,885. Some of the notables to notch an early Aussie Millions cash were Gary Benson, James Obst, David Vamplew, Ryan DeAngelo, Jack Salter and Darryll Fish.
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