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The Aussie Millions is the only major global poker event held in Australia. It is hosted by Crown Casino in Melbourne. The poker tournament is held alongside another global sporting event which is the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Event. These two events were combined last year by the pairing of poker professional Gus Hansen and tennis professional Caroline Wozniacki. That affair is now over.

Two of the biggest events of the Aussie Millions are currently in progress. The first is the $10,600 buy in Main Event that will run from January 22 to January 28. One of the notable entries is Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. Dwan was closely associated with Full Tilt Poker. He has maintained a low profile ever since Full Tilt was hauled through the coals after Black Friday. Then Dwan had promised to part with a million dollars of his own money to pay the stranded Full Tilt players, should the online poker room default on its commitments. Full Tilt Poker has not yet paid its players, though it is in the process of striking a deal that would hopefully see the players getting their money. Dwan has therefore stated that he will wait another year to see how the saga unfolds, but has reiterated that his promise stands. On a happier note Dwan is in Australia with his girl friend. They were spotted in tourist hot spots like the Sydney Opera House (see picture). Dwan’s girl friend has apparently been Tweeting the not so personal details about their Australia trip.

Meanwhile the $100,000 Challenge for the high rollers is drawing to a close. At the time of writing five players remain. Gus Hansen is at the number five spot and will need to pull out something special to survive. His ex-girl friend Wozniacki is through to the quarter finals in her sport. Mikhail Smirnov is way ahead of the pack followed by Joe Hachem.

Maria Ho, the poker babe, has also entered the Aussie Millions Main Event. Maria has been the last woman standing in two major poker tournaments, WSOP and WSOPE. Can she repeat that feat in the Aussie Millions Main Event?

This week the final table of the WSOP 2011 Main Event resumes and next week the world will have a new poker champion. The winner will be richer by $8.7 million and will join the big league. But, win or not, one of the November Nine has already made it big by being inducted in the elite Team PokerStars. He is Pius Heinz of Germany. As per chip count Heinz is in seventh position with odds of 9/1 from Bodog and 10/1 from Sportsbook.

The PokerStars press release says that Heinz joins Sandra Naujoks (in picture), Sebastian Ruthenberg and Boris Becker as a Team PokerStars member from Germany. There are several interesting aspects to Heinz’s entry into the November Nine. At the age of 22 he is one of the youngest members of this year’s November Nine and is the first German player ever to make the WSOP Main Event final table. Poker babe Sandra, also known as Black Mamba, said that Heinz has all the qualities needed to be a great poker player, and he has played a tough and intelligent game to get to the WSOP final table. She was happy to see another top player join the ranks of Team PokerStars. The German unit of PokerStars will have double the reason to root for him.

The WSOP Main Event was the second live cash for Heinz. The first won was also in WSOP 2011, when he finished seventh for $83,286 in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event. Heinz has not looked back, taking the first place in a €1,000 Turbo Bounty event at EPT Barcelona in August for another €17,450. After the WSOP Main Event Heinz will play his first event wearing the PokerStars patch at EPT Prague in the first week of December.

Heinz is not flustered by the buzz around him. He says, “I’m pretty relaxed about the game. There are a lot of tough players left but I’m confident I can win it. Joining PokerStars has given me an extra lift, too. I’m looking forward to being part of the team.” The chip leader in the November Nine is Martin Stazko who has been given 4/1 by Bodog and 7/2 by Sportsbook.

Maria Ho has never been placed on the same pedestal for her poker abilities at the top women poker professionals like Vanessa Selbst or Annette Obrestad. She is looked upon more as a poker babe who adds glamour to the game. However, every now and then Maria comes up with a performance that leaves the best of her gender behind. In WSOP 2011 Maria reached the heads up in the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event. Though she lost to Allen Bari, she took home $540,020, which was the largest prize won by a woman in any WSOP event ever. The beach party she threw to celebrate that win is still talked about.

Now, in the currently concluded WSOPE Main Event in Cannes, Maria once again found herself in familiar territory. In the WSOP 2007 Main Event Maria gained fame and prestige as the last woman standing. She repeated the feat in the WSOPE 2011 Main Event. In 2007 Maria had finished 38th and had won $237,865. This time she finished higher up at the 27th spot but won only €32,000. This is because of the smaller field in the European Event.

The next poker babe in the WSOPE Main Event was a relatively unknown Melanie Weisner. Melanie hails from Texas and holds a bachelors degree in music from NYU. She hit the WSOP circuit only last year and has eight cashes to her name. Her 33rd place in the WSOPE Main Event earned her €27,500, her largest win till date. Following these two poker babes was Liv Boeree in the 36th place with a prize of €27,500. Many would say that Liv has the perfect blend of glamour and poker playing abilities. However Liv has never been able to repeat her €1.25 million San Remo EPT win of April 2010.

For the sake of completeness, the WSOPE 2011 Main Event was won by Elio Fox of the United States. His share of the prize pool was €1.4 million. In the heads up Fox beat Chris Moorman of Great Britain. Moorman took home €800,000. Now all eyes in the poker world are on the November Nine. Will Martin Staszko be able to defend his chip lead?

Early in September Caesars, formerly Harrah’s, announced the revival of the Caesars Cup challenge between the Americas and Europe. Phil Hellmuth was made the captain of Team America and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier was the leader of Team Europe. Both captains have now announced the names of the other four members in their teams. The Caesars Cup will be held on October 19 in Cannes.

Elky is from France and he has given his team a pan European look. While announcing his team Elky said, “We will show the Americas that 2009 was not an upset!” Jake Cody from the United Kingdom is a Triple Crown winner in just one year and is the reigning Heads Up champion from the WSOP 2011 $25K event. Gus Hansen from Denmark played in the first Caesars Cup and has lots of experience playing the leading American players. Dario Minieri from Italy was also in the victorious European team in 2009 and, according to Elky, his “unique style is very hard to adapt to”. Maxim Lykov from Russia is the final member in Team Europe.

Phil Hellmuth was at his brattish best while announcing his team. He said, “These idiot Northern Europeans think they know everything about the game of poker. Well, we plan to show them that decades of experience are much more valuable than clicking a mouse while sitting in your pajamas.” Doyle Brunson was picked for his iconic value, though Hellmuth did add that Dolly has been crushing kids for 50 years. Johnny Chan is the other veteran in Team America. Daniel Negreanu from Canada is the only player in Team America from outside the United States. He is among the top players in the all time money winning list. Hellmuth said, “Daniel has worked hard to learn the math in heads-up matches, and his enthusiasm is prized by a Captain like me.” The final Team America member is Huck Seed, who is a Heads Up specialist having won the NBC Heads Up last year.

The Caesars Cup line up has also become a contest between age and experience of Team America and youth and aggressiveness of Team Europe. The average age of Team America is 51 years and they have 39 WSOP bracelets altogether. Hellmuth has won 11 and Brunson and Chan have 10 each. The average age of Team Europe is only 27 years.

Five years ago the United States was the undisputed power center of global poker. Over the last few years the center has shifted eastwards. Today European poker is on equal footing, if not one step ahead of America, especially in view of Black Friday. PokerStars has many more European players on its roster than ever before and it has just said goodbye to three big American names – Dennis Phillips, Tom McEvoy and Bill Chen. In the WSOP 2011 Main Event November Nine only three players are from America and six are from Europe.

The time is ripe for an America versus Europe contest and Caesars is organizing just that during the upcoming WSOPE in October. Caesars Cup, as the event is being called, will be held on October 19 at the Casino Barriere de Cannes. Planned for the television coverage, the Caesars Cup will feature a contest between a European team and an American team. Each team will consist of five top players. The American team will be captained by none other than Phil Hellmuth. Apart from his television brand value Hellmuth is the current WSOP Player of the Year leader. The European team captain has been nominated as the Frenchman Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (see picture), probably because the event is being held in France. Hellmuth and Grospellier will select four additional team members. These names will be announced in due course.

The Caesars Cup will feature poker in the No-Limit Hold’em format. The two teams will participate in a series of unique partner and heads up formats, with points awarded for each victory. The formats have been designed to include alternate betting and other non-traditional elements so as to enhance the interest level for television viewers. The Caesars Cup will be played in a best of five format, with the first team to reach three points being declared the winner.

This is not the inaugural Caesars Cup. The event was played in London during the WSOPE 2009. Then Team Europe, captained by former WSOPE Main Event champion Annette Obrestad, defeated Team Americas, captained by Daniel Negreanu and featuring greats like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey. WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said, “Team Americas has a score to settle after what most considered a colossal upset in London. You see a real rivalry developing as European players continue to win more tournaments around the world.” Hopefully the Caesars Cup will now become an annual event.