By RP, February 10, 2014
Canadian online poker ace Amichai Barer showed that he can compete with the best at the live tournament tables by taking down the 2014 Aussie Millions main event Sunday, besting a quality entry field of 667 players and surviving a 12-hour final table populated by top players to claim the first prize of $1.6 million.
Among those who were busted out before the final table formed were luminaries like Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Eoghan O’Dea, Raymond Wu, Jonathan Duhamel and John Juanda.
Online, where he has mainly racked up career earnings of almost six million dollars, Barer is probably best known under his handle “Uhhmee”.
By Sunday the field was down to seven players on a final table that seated Barer and fellow Internet ace Sorel Mizzi; 2012 WSOP main event third placer Jake Balsiger; Darren Rabinowitz; Vincent Rubianes; Andrew Phaedonos and Scott Seiver.
Balsiger was running well but came short in third place for $650,000, kicking off a heads up battle between Barer and Mizzi in which Barer held a two to one chip advantage that enabled him to dispatch his opponent after a tough fight, ending 12 solid hours of final table action.
Mizzi took home a million dollars for his runner up prize, whilst Barer was clearly delighted with a pay check that completely overshadows his previous biggest live tournament win of about $180,000, achieved in December 2013 at the Euro 1,100 buy-in NLHE EPT Eureka main event in Prague, Czech Republic, where he finished second.
The other final table payments were:
Darren Rabinowitz $450,000
Vincent Rubianes $335,000
Andrew Phaedonos $250,000
Scott Seiver $170,000
The last of the big events at this year’s Aussie Millions is now in progress, with 37 entrants signing up for the $250,000 buy-in Challenge – a new record for the event. When we went to press, the first day’s action had seen half the field eliminated and Erik Seidel in the chip lead.