Week in tournament poker: Deeb wins and Aussie Millions

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Jan 16, 2012 Posted in Tournament News, WSOP News | No Comments »

The past week’s headlines have been dominated by the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) but there were plenty of other tournaments taking place around the globe, including the inaugural stop at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California for the World Series of Poker Circuit Series, as well as the vaunted Aussie Millions tournament series getting underway at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia — amidst a little bit of controversy!

So here is a look at what you may have missed, and what we may have overlooked, as we followed the million-dollar prizes being handed out at the PCA.

Freddy Deeb wins at The Bike

Freddy Deeb has been a fixture at the poker tables for a very long time now, and despite multiple WSOP bracelets including the 2007 Players Championship, a WPT title, and numerous triumphs in side events the poker superstars has never won a tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles… until last week.

Deeb was able to triumph over a 549 player field that included some very tough competition as a number of players stayed in the US to take part in the tournament even though the PokerStars PCA was underway. What makes Deeb’s win all the more impressive was that Freddy decided to enter on Day 2 of the tournament and began with a chip-stack of just 20 Big Blinds!

After weaving his way through Day 2 of the tournament, Deeb went on to dominate Day 3 and was the clear chip-leader by the time the final table participants were decided. Here is a look at the complete final table payouts from the tournament:

1. Freddy Deeb — $171,810

2. Alex Masek — $106,185

3. Leroy Spires — $77,570

4. David Singontiko — $57,505

5. Tong Le — $43,245

6. Brandon Crawford — $32,900

7. Tsung Lu — $25,520

8. Julie Franks — $20,025

9. Vince Cardella — $15,935

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Controversy on Opening Day of the Aussie Millions

So far only one event has taken place at the 2012 Aussie Millions tournament series, but the opening tournament did produce a little controversy as two ethics-deficient players tried to fool their fellow players as well as the Crown Casino staff –who fortunately saw through the pair’s deception.

According to Crown Casino staff, the pair was disqualified from the event after one of the players (who had already been eliminated from the tournament) switched places with the other during a table-break. What was the reason for the subterfuge? The player still alive in the tournament realized he would be unable to participate on Day 2 of the event!

The attempt is the first documented case of live tournament account sharing (although I’m sure it has happened in the past) and hopefully the attention will make it the last! Both unnamed players were not only disqualified from the event, but also received lengthy bans from the Crown Casino.