‘The Professor’ takes home a record winner’s purse

The 2008 Aussie Millions continues to produce exciting poker and big prizes at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, this week producing the second highest ever winner’s prize. The star-studded turnout and major money has heightened anticipation that this year’s Main Event will be one to remember.

Howard “The Professor” Lederer pocketed a cheque for $1.25 million after beating Mark Teltscher in an exciting heads up to Event 9 - a $100,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em contest - that left the latter with the runner-up prize of $650 000.

25 top players entered the competition, taking up three tables that included names like Erick Lindgren, 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Gus Hansen, multiple WSOP bracelet holders Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel, flamboyant poker pro Tony G, Howard Lederer, 2000 World Champion Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Masaaki Kagawa.

Among online qualified stars were Michael ‘Timex’ McDonald, Tom ‘durrr’ Dwan and Jeff ‘ActionJeff’ Garza, altogether creating a $2.5 million prize-pool that made available a first prize that was the second highest in Aussie Millions history.

Disappointingly, Gus Hansen was among the early eliminations in an initially cautious contest as the high stakes players felt their opponents out. Hansen fell to some smart play by Erick Lundgren, who went on to remove TonyG from contention, too.

The final table trimmed down to Erick Lundgren as chip leader on 574 000 Jeff Garza (496 000) Nikolaus Jedlicka (446 000) Tom Dwan (299 000) Howard Lederer (202 000) Jeff Lisandro (192 000) Mark Teltscher (171 000) and Michael Sampoerna (125 000)

The Internet players were the first two eliminations, with Dwan falling to fellow online player Garza, who was in turn bundled out by Teltscher. After starting strongly, Lindgren fell to Sampoerna, leaving the remaining five players in the money bubble, with the number five slot paying out $100 000 and that tantalising $1.25 winner’s prize up for grabs.

Jedlicka went out at number 5, collecting the $100 000 after being sent to the exit by Sampoerna. Teltscher took out the next two players to go - Lisandro on $150 000 for a fourth placing and Sampoerna at third with $350 000, thus setting the scene for a heads up between Lederer and Teltscher, the latter with the chip lead.

In under an hour it was all over, with Teltscher headed to the rail and a second place win of $650 000 and “The Professor” earning $1.25 million for his master class in tournament poker.

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