13 Jan 12

Daily Rewind: Aussie Millions Champion Event, Euro Finals Begin, PCA Side Events

Today on the Daily Rewind, we have news on a 10th anniversary champions event in Melbourne, IGT are set to buy a social gaming company, it is Tony G vs Phil Hellmuth, and more. Plus we have one of the sickest live hands you will ever see.

Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions event announced

This year is the 10th anniversary of the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, and yesterday PokerNews announced that in honour of this milestone, a Tournament of Champions event will take place. The winner of which will win a 'golden ticket' giving them a lifetime of buy-ins to the Aussie Millions main event.

The only player who won't be attending is 2008 winner Alexander Kostritsyn, which means that the following champions will duke it out on January 21:

Peter Costa	2003
Tony Bloom	2004
Jamil Dia	2005
Lee Nelson	2006
Gus Hansen	2007
Stewart Scott	2009
Tyron Krost	2010
David Gorr	2011

Also announced yesterday for the Aussie Millions, the 5th Annual Joe Hachem and Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament will take place on January 15. This will be the first public outing by main event champion Hachem since he surprisingly left Team PokerStars last year.

Gus will be looking to win a lifetime of Aussie Millions buy-ins

PCA side event news

The PCA is always a very special event because there is so much more going on beyond the main event. We told you earlier this week that former main event champion Jonathan Duhamel took down a side event for $239,830, and now his fellow main event champ and PokerStars pro Joe Cada has done the same.

The 2009 champion beat 348 other players to take down $175,550 in the $2,000 side event.

Elsewhere 148 players entered the $25,000 High Roller event, and 56 remain. The top prize is $1,134,930 and Nick Yunis is the surprise chip leader. The reason for the surprise is that Yunis won his entry into the event in a satellite, busted out early, then won a last-minute single table satellite to rebuy into the event.

He returns today with the chip lead in a tough field that includes Mike McDonald, Jonathan Duhamel, Chino Rheem, ElkY, Jen Harman, Joe Cada, Barry Greenstein, and Randy Lew.

Check out the PokerStars Blog for more news and live updates from the PCA.

Cada is back in the winners circle

Euro Finals of Poker start today

Yet another major tournament in the January schedule begins today, as the Aviation Club in Paris plays host to Euro Finals of Poker. The main event will be the €5,000 Diamond Championship event on January 26, as well as a €10,000 High Roller starting on January 28.

There is a huge range of side events, and the festival will also play host to the European Poker Awards on January 25. You can see the full schedule here.

IGT to buy Double Down Interactive

A US gaming machine provider is set to buy the largest gambling apps on Facebook. IGT is set to acquire Double Down Interactive, whose portfolio includes Double Down Casino on Facebook. IGT bought the Entraction network last year for £70m, and this deal with Double Down is said to be worth $500m.

Patti Hart, the CEO of IGT, commented:

“The addition of Double Down launches IGT into a leadership position in social gaming, extends our global reach through new mediums, and leverages our unmatched expertise in game development. We intend to drive meaningful value from this rapidly growing distribution platform that reaches a new, but complementary, demographic of gamers.”