The January 2020 Aussie Millions edition has come to a close with the local pro Vincent Wan taking down its A$10,600 Main Event. The event drew a total of 820 entries across three starting flights, generating A$8,200,000 in prizepool, which was eventually shared by the top 88 finishers with a min-cash of A$15,580. The lion’s share went to Wan who walked away with A$1,318,000 after a 3-way deal with Ngoc Tai Hoang (2nd for A$1,318,000) and Gareth Pepper (3rd for A$1,000,000).
A regular at the Crown Casino, Wan has won several big titles at the Casino but this victory in the Aussie Millions Main Event happens to be his biggest live score. With this win,he took his total live earnings to a massive $1,164,359 and moved into 41st place in Australia ‘All Time Money list’.
“It’s destiny boys! Destiny! I’m lost for words. I’m just tripping out at the moment. I was just wanting to min-cash at one point so I’m struggling; I’m just delirious at the moment,” Wan said post his win.
He also added, “I can’t believe my luck. Thank you to all the other players. Basically it’s ten years of my life just grinding and working and trying to get here. I can’t believe I did it.”
To claim his victory, Wan outlasted some big names on the final table, including Erik Seidel and Nino Ullmann. He reached heads-up against Ngoc Tai Hoang with a 13,665,000 in chips to Hoang’s 11,045,000. It was a long heads-up lasting for nearly four hours. While Hoang managed to pull ahead of Wan but the latter came strongly to eventually clinch the coveted title. On the final hand, Hoang had A3 against T9 of Wan. The board ran out J-9-6-J-10 to give Wan two pairs to win the title.
Team India
The good news for Indian poker community is that three of Indian challengers scored in the Main Event and they included Rishabh Vekaria, Paawan Bansal, and Rahul Melwani.Headlining the three Indian scores was Vekaria who finished 18th for A$82,000 (INR 39.94 Lac), while Bansal finished 32nd for A$36,080 (INR 17.58 Lac). Melwani exited in 81st place for A$15,580 (INR 7.58 Lac).
Other Notable ITM Finishers
The main event saw plenty of notables and some of them to finish in the money were Nick Pupillo (8th for A$178,080), Bryce Yockey (9th for $178,080), Mike Del Vecchio (10th for A$123,000), Manig Loeser (16th for A$82,000), Pete Chen (34th for A$36,080), Indian-origin player Ashish Gupta (37th for A$31,160), Steve O’Dwyer (38th for A$31,160), Ben Lamb (39th for A$31,160), Sergio Aido (48th for A$25,420), Jack Salter (77th for A$15,580), and Kahle Burns (85th for A$15,580) to name a few.
Final Table Payouts
- Vincent Wan – A$1,318,000*
- Ngoc Tai Hoang – A$1,318,000*
- Gareth Pepper – A$1,000,000*
- Nino Ullmann – A$480,160
- Erik Seidel – A$378,660
- Oliver Weis – A$307,820
- Nicolas Malo – A$240,080