The player best positioned to take down the 2017 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge is Germany’s Steffen Sontheimer who returns as chip leader.
Sontheimer has already gotten his 2017 off to a great start here in Melbourne, cashing in the AUD$1,150 Six-Max with a 17th place finish for AUD$5,395 (~$4,034) and coming in 39th in the AUD$1,150 Opening Event for AUD$5,135 (~$3,779).
To date, Sontheimer’s biggest cash came in the $25k Aria High Roller 37 back in July 2016 for $131,040.
Should the German pro make the hallowed money spots, he will guarantee himself his largest ever career score. First prize is worth AUD$882,000 (~$667,744) with second paying AUD$529,200 (~$400,646) and third place getting AUD$352,800 (~$266,492).
(Online) poker professional Mike “SirWatts” Watson is coming in as the third shortest stack with a very playable 29.2 big blinds and will be a familiar face to many long-time poker aficionados.
Already in the black for 2017 with a sixth-place finish in the $25,500 2017 PCA Shot Clock event for $73,720, the Canadian player has results going all the way back to 2006 on his poker resume with his breakout coming in the 2008 World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup which he won for a career-topping US$1,673,770.
Watson has not been resting on his laurels since then with several six and seven figure scores in EPT, WSOP, and WSOPE High Roller Events worldwide including a €1 million (US$1,304,648) victory in the 2012 WSOPE Majestic High Roller.
The St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador native is fifth on Canada’s All-Time Money List and has made eight WSOP final tables, narrowly missing out on a coveted WSOP bracelet with a runner-up finish in the 2016 WSOP 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. Watson also holds an EPT title having taken down the 2016 EPT PCA Main Event for $728,325 for live career tournament winnings of over $9.3 million in addition to boasting more than $3.5 million in online tournament winnings.
The second of three WSOP bracelet winners on the 2017 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge final table, Nick Petrangelo comes into this event as the third largest stack.
If you are going on form, then Petrangelo has it in spades, currently topping the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings with two six-figure scores already under his belt for 2017. The first came in the January PCA High Roller where Petrangelo finished runner-up for $740,032. The second came right here in Melbourne with a sixth place finish in the Aussie Millions AUD$25,000 Challenge for an AUD$143,640 ($108,818) payday.
The Massachusetts native has over $6.8 million in live tournament winnings and the last time he started off a year this well, was in 2015 when Petrangelo posted the best results of his career – making $3,423,620 in total including a PCA final table sixth place finish for $301,500.
Petrangelo would go on to win his first WSOP bracelet at the 2015 WSOP, taking down the no limit hold’em Shootout for $201,812, closing out the year with a runner-up finish in the WPT Alpha 8 High Roller for a career high of $1,015,335.
Sam Trickett comes into the 2017 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge fourth in chips and is no stranger to success Down Under having won this event back in 2011, defeating Tony Bloom heads up for an AUD$1.525 million (US$1.5 million) payday.
Trickett subsequently went on to finish runner-up in the AUD$250,000 Super High Roller five days afterward for another AUD$1.4 million (US$1.3 million), narrowly losing out on the title to US pro Erik Seidel. The 30-year-old British pro would later go on to win this title after taking down the 2013 $250,000 Challenge, defeating Germany’s Tobias Reinkemeier to take the AUD$2 million (US$2.1 million) first prize.
However, the result the former plumber from Retford is best known for is his $10.1 million runner-up finish to Antonio Esfandiari in the 2012 $1 million Big One for One Drop.
With US$20.5 million in career tournament winnings, Trickett is the UK’s most successful tournament player and will be looking to add yet another title to his already impressive resume.
As the second shortest stack, David Peters has his work cut out for him should he wish to go the distance. However, you can never count Peters out.
The Ohio native has just come off the back of one of the sickest rushes in poker, enjoying a stellar run of form that saw him make over $2.4 million during the last three months of 2016, including a third place finish in December’s EPT Prague, to snatch the GPI Player of the Year title from under the nose of fellow final tablist Fedor Holz.
In total Peters made a staggering $7.56 million during 2016. In addition to winning his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for a $412,557 first-place prize, the US poker pro also claimed the 2016 Macau ACOP High Roller title to bring his career tournament winnings up to over $14.8 million.
Add in Peter’s $5.1 million in online winnings and he’s up close to $20 million over his tournament career and is currently sitting in second on the GPI, just behind Nick Petrangelo.
