The 2012 Aussie Millions $100k buy-in event drew in only 22 players, but it was some of the biggest names in all of poker who participated. We saw the likes of Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel all eliminated before the final table was decided, but even the remaining eight had some power behind it. Our final table included Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Sam Trickett, Sorel Mizzi, and Tony G to round out the “popular” players, but we also had three up and coming players in Dan Smith, Mikhail Smirnov, and Nam Le who were right there in the action as well. The final table was made up of eight players, but only four were going to make the cash when all was said and done. The total prize pool was a very nice one, with first place getting paid out over $1 million for whoever could outlast the other 21 players.
The action started with Hansen and Hachem leading the field with over 535k chips a piece, and after that the closest was Dan Smith was 346,500 chips. After that everyone fell under 270k with Smirnov holding 265k, Mizzi holding 228,500, Tony G with 102k, and Nam Le and Sam Trickett rounding out the field with 79,500 chips and 73k chips respectively.
When we finally made it down to the cash it was Hachem, Tony G, Smith, and Smirnov who were the final four. Dan Smith simply went to work, and eliminated both Tony G (4th place), and Hachem (3rd place) to set up the heads up match between him and Smirnov. Smith’s hot run continued on as he seemed to hit all of the cards he needed and make all the right plays at the right times as well. Smith went on to knock out Smirnov in 2nd place, and take home the win and the $1,012,000 first place prize. Smirnov received a nice consolation prize of $616k as well though.
This was definitely the biggest win of Smith’s live tournament career, but he has had some nice finishes outside of this big score as well. Winning $1 million over a two day span will typically be the highlight of most players’ careers, but before this Smith had won over $600k on the live poker tournament circuit as well.