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Although the Aussie Millions is primarily about tournaments, for many the Million Dollar Cash Game is the real salt and pepper of the event. The two days long high stakes game has been taking place in the past two days. The blinds were $500/$1000, the ante was $100 and the game types was NLHE and PLO, switched according to the players’ agreement. The following players sat down on Thursday:

Seat 1: empty
Seat 2: Jason Mercier - $100,000
Seat 3: empty
Seat 4: Winfred Yu - $200,000
Seat 5: Richard Young - $200,000
Seat 6: Gus Hansen - $200,000
Seat 7: Sam Trickett - $200,000
Seat 8: Daniel Negreanu - $200,000

European Poker Awards Player of the Year title winner Trickett won the first major pot against Hansen; his nut flush was worth $170,000. Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates arrives shortly after, taking seat 3, and was soon forced to rebuy for $150,00 after going all-in against Trickett who showed a straight against his mucked hand.


With the arrival of Patrik Antonius and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, the table was set up for the rest of the day. Following a period without much action, three of the pros found themselves all-in: Antonius pushed $80,000, Negreanu had $148,700 in the middle and Mercier had even more. On the total of three boards, Negreanu was the absolute winner with pocket rockets, taking the entire $400,000 pot. Still, the biggest winner of Day 1 was Trickett with $448,000; Mercier could take home $190,000 and Negreanu finished the day with +$160,000.

The following players entered the game on Day 2:

Seat 1: Sam Trcikett - $340,000
Seat 2: Kwan Yong - $280,000
Seat 3: Daniel Negreanu - $187,000
Seat 4: empty
Seat 5: Elton Tsang - $205,000
Seat 6: Patrik Antonius - $185,000
Seat 7: Daniel Cates - $170,000
Seat 8: Jason Mercier - $292,000

Antonius won the first major pot in PLO against Tsang, earning $130,000; the game type did not favour Negreanu, though, who had to reload after losing to Trickett’s nut flush. Later, on the other hand, it was the Canadian who sent Cates home.

After the elimination of Tsang and Yong, Trickett also left to wait for the table to fill up. Negreanu, Antonius and Mercier switched to mixed game but soon joined the rest for a break that turned out to be the end of the session as well as Day 2 of the event. Mercier won $423,100, Negreanu left with $250,000 and Antonius finished with $156,000.