Ivey entered Day 5 last in chips with 699,000 and was eliminated in the first level of play.
In Ivey’s final hand online grinder Yann Dion opened from under the gun and Ivey three-bet 140,000.
Dion decided to ship it with ace-king and Ivey eventually decided to call of his stack with ace-queen.
The board bricked out and suddenly Ivey was out of the tournament after an epic five-day run where he spent much of the time amongst the chip leaders.
Another Loss With A-Q
The 2012 Aussie Millions marked yet another major tournament where Ivey busted in a pot that involved ace-queen.
Darvin Moon busted him out of the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table with ace-queen over Ivey’s ace-king and Chris Moneymaker busted him with ace-queen over Ivey’s pocket nines in the 2003 WSOP Main Event.
Furthermore Ivey has busted out of several notable WPT final tables where it looked like he was primed to double up with ace-queen.
Playing in one of his first major tournaments since Black Friday, Ivey took down $100,000 (AUD) for his 12th place finish. It was his first cash in the Aussie Millions Main Event.
Despite his loss in the Main Event, Ivey immediately left and took a seat in the $250,000 Challenge.
Not far behind Ivey was New Zealander Lee Nelson who was hoping to become the first repeat champion at the Aussie Millions.
Nelson was short and four-bet shoved all-in for 590,000 with ace-king. Australian Oliver Speidel called him down with pocket eights and after a dry board Nelson was out of the tournament in ninth place for $125,000 (AUD).
Upstart Bjorn Li Takes Chip Lead into Final Table
Ivey and Nelson’s departures left the final table relatively devoid of big name players.
Former University of Chicago mathematics student Bjorn Li will take the chip lead into the final table with 4.7 million.
Li pulled off an exceptional turnaround in the final hour of play as he was the shortest stack to enter nine-handed play.
The Chinese-born pro obviously has some skills as he went deep in the WSOP Main Event this summer and won a high roller tournament in Macau.
Right behind Li is Aussie Oliver Speidel who ended the day with 3.4 million chips. Speidel has over $200k in lifetime tournament earnings, which surprisingly makes him statistically one of the most successful players at the final table.
Next up is fellow Aussie Patrick Healy with 2.9 million chips. Healy made some unusual moves in the last two levels but it may have all been a means to an end as he enters the final table third in chips.
Slightly unknown Canadian Kenneth Wong slots into fourth place with 2.31 million chips while online crusher Yann “yadio” Yann is fifth with 2.32 million.
Mike Krstanoski of Perth is the third Australian at the final table and he’s had a few deep runs in Aussie Millions side events over the years. He finished sixth in chips with 2.2 million.
Swede Mohamad Kowssarie is last in chips at the final table with 1.7 million. Kowssarie has a reputation as a successful online player and used to inspire fear as Fast_Freddie on the Prima network and TerrorOfSweden on Full Tilt.
Patrik Antonius even accused Kowssarie of using a trojan virus on MSN to see his hole cards during a session, which the Swede denied in our interview with him yesterday.
The final table is scheduled to begin at the 12:30 p.m. local time tomorrow.
Here are the complete chip counts:
1. Bjorn Li – 4,775,000 2. Oliver Speidel – 3,415,000 3. Patrick Healy – 2,995,000 4. Kenneth Wong – 2,330,000 5. Yann Dion – 2,325,000 6. Mile Krstanoski – 2,295,000 7. Mohamad Kowssarie – 1,750,000
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