At 5:35am after a grueling 15 and a half hour day, Kristian Lunardi has been crowned champion. The tournament itself started with 245 runners and took nearly 30 hours in just two days to complete.
The structure was lavish, giving players an extremely long time to find their cards. There is no doubt that Lunardi earned his victory today.
One just needs look at the opponents that he had to overcome on the final table including Tony Dunst, Daniel Neilson, and Leo Margets.
Kristian Lunardi's victory caps off a crammed schedule of events here at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship. In all 20 events were played, as well as countless satellites and side games. The championship and the Crown Poker tournament staff, as well as the players, proved once again why this is one of the world's most popular poker tournaments.
We hope you enjoyed the PokerNews coverage of the series, and that you will join us for the next series of events that we are covering.
Until then good night (good morning, or good afternoon) and thanks for joining us!
The final had came with Mike Stecker raising off the button to almost 100,000 and Kristian Lunardi calling.
Lunardi checked the flop, and Stecker fired out 95,000. Lunardi then check-raised to 215,000.
"Sicko", said Stecker. After counting off the calling amount he made the call. The turn was the and Lunardi instantly announced all in.
This sent Stecker into the tank and after a good while of tanking he looked over to the PokerNews reporters and said, "You guys aren't going to blog this up, if I call will you". He continued to muttered numbers and sums out loud and finally said, "I can't fold, I call".
He tabled for both a flush draw and open-ended straight draw going to the river.
Lunardi had but still had plenty of outs to fade. The river was a great card, because it wasn't one of Stecker's outs.
Congratulations on Kristian Lunardi on his victory.
Kristian Lunardi is pushing even further in front. Preflop, Mike Stecker made it 80,000 to go and Lunardi punched him right back with 185,000. Stecker decided to take a flop.
It came and Stecker opted not to call a 140,000 chip bet from Lunardi.
Kristian Lunardi made it 80,000 to go on the button and Mike Stecker called. They checked the flop. The turn was the and Stecker fired 70,000 which Lunardi called.
The river had both players check. Lunardi turned over for a flopped two pair to take the pot.
Mike Stecker has taken a reasonable size pot back off Kristian Lunardi to steam the one-way tide.
Stecker opened to 85,000 and Lunardi made the call. They checked both the flop and the turn. On the river Lunardi fired 90,000 chips, only to run right into Stecker's full house.
Kristian Lunardi is now edging out towards a 2:1 chip advantage, dominating the heads up play. Lunardi limped in from the button and Mike Stecker called.
The flop came and Stecker check-called a 35,000 chip bet. They both checked the turn , and Stecker check-called a further 65,000 on the river .
It would be a wasted effort, Lunardi rolled for the win.
Kristian Lunardi has extended his heads up advantage.
Preflop, Lunardi raised his button to 60,000 and Mike Stecker called. The flop was and Stecker check-raised to 95,000 over a 35,000 chip bet from Lunardi. Lunardi wasted no time coming back over the top for 175,000 and this forced Stecker to lay his hand down.