PL.com awards Aussie Millions seat to U.K. player

In January, one of the places to be for many poker players will be the 2008 Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia. Nick Turnock will be among those players, courtesy of PokerListings.com and Pacific Poker.

Turnock won his seats by participating in a special freeroll for PokerListings.com players at Pacific Poker. His prize package will include the buy-in for the tournament, plus money for travel and accommodations.

The Somerset, U.K., resident is a retired casino manager who plays poker online a few times a week. Most of that time is now spent at Pacific Poker.

"Pacific is now my main site. Everything is nice and simple. Graphics are good, and I've never had connection problems," Turnock said.

"We all need to let off steam sometimes, but it's nice that there's a lot less swearing in the chat box than the site I used to use. Most of the players just want to play poker, not tell everyone else how good they are."

Turnock's success speaks for itself. Previously, his biggest win was $3,200 after going out on a hand of KK versus pocket fives. He's also made the final table four times in the past in eliminators for a place in a live event.

"My philosophy is don't even think about winning until you get heads-up," Turnock said. "But this time I was the chip leader with five players left, and I really felt like this was going to be my time."

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He continued to say that when he finally pulled off the win he reacted with stunned disbelief.

"It's what online players dream of. I play bridge once a week, and it felt so good when someone asked me how the poker was going. Aussie here I come."

He's already formulated a plan to get ready for the live event as well. He's going to take in some live events in the local clubs before he heads Down Under in order to iron out obvious tells.

He's excited about the trip, and certainly excited to be taking on some of the world's most well-known players.

"It would be fantastic to sit down with one of the greats. Phil Ivey is my number one," Turnock said. "My least favorite is Phil Hellmuth, and the dream is making a play on him. There's the added bonus of hearing him howl when he loses."

The 51-year-old may sound a bit like a novice, but he's actually been playing poker since his 20s. He used to play in home games during his younger days, but he more recently got into playing Texas Hold'em after seeing Late Night Poker and Poker Night Live on TV.

He also heads to PokerListings.com each week to study the pursuit and get tips for his game. Turnock said PokerListings.com is a great site with much more information than other similar ones.

"There are other companies offering rake-back. Maybe that's a good thing for the professionals, but for more recreational poker players, what we want is freerolls," he said.

Perhaps the other people who cashed in this freeroll would agree - even though they fell short of winning an Aussie Millions seat. The top 10 players in the tournament were:

This isn't the last good freeroll PokerListings.com players will see at Pacific Poker either. Players have one more week to earn 20 points at Pacific Poker to be included in an exclusive $15,000 freeroll Dec. 15.

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