Saturday, Jan. 21, 2006

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Kiwi takes first place in Aussie Millions in birthday win

By Lianne Elias

Retired New Zealand doctor, Lee Nelson, celebrated his 63rd birthday by winning the Aussie Millions Poker Championships and its first place prize of AUD $1.43 million, it was recently announced. Moments after championing the largest tournament in the southern hemisphere, the Auckland resident said, "I'm 63 today but I feel like I'm 18."

Nelson outlasted a field of 417 opponents, including poker pros Kenna James, Antonio Esfandiari, Kathy Liebert, Michael Gracz, Asher Derei, Kristy Gazes, Tony Bloom, and 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Joseph Hachem, among others.

The Aussie Millions took place from January 15-19 at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia - home of the largest casino and poker room in the country. The main event boasted a buy-in of USD $7,538 and a prize pool of over USD $3 million. The final table lasted approximately 10 hours and finished at 11:55 p.m. Australia time. Fox Sports Network (FSN) is set to air the tournament in the United States in a 10-part series in March 2006.

Final table results are as follows (all sums are listed in USD):

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Lee Nelson	$972,822
2nd	Robert Neary	$517,792
3rd	Nenad Medic	$282,432
4th	Shannon Shorr	$203,979
5th	Jeff Sealey	$156,907
6th	Russell Davies	$125,525
7th	Wes Bugiera	$94,144
8th	Mark Vos	$62,763
9th	Kenna James	$62,763

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