Shurane Vijayaram Triumphs at 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event

Shurane Vijayaram qualified for the A$10,000 buy-in Aussie Millions Main Event via an A$130 rebuy event held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne one week ago. The local man subsequently continued his winning ways into the competition, eventually beating a field of 725 runners to capture the prestigious title, as well as a first-place prize of A$1.6 milllion ($1,209,760 USD).
Previous to his remarkable victory, Vijayaram was an amateur player whose poker action usually included low stakes cash games and pub tournaments. Now he has suddenly been propelled to number 27 on Australia’s All Time Money List, and commenting on his incredible feat, stated:
“I’ve been cashing in some other pub poker tournaments in the last four months. That’s part of the reason it gave me the confidence to play this. I think I’ll play a bit more tournaments. I really like it now – I really enjoy it.”
The Aussie Millions Main Event offered a prize pool of A$7.37 million, and amongst the notable pros cashing in at the tournament was Nick Petrangelo (72nd), Sam Grafton (60th), Matt Affleck (56th), Benjamin Tollerene (40th), Richard Ashby (37th), Jennifer Tilly (29th), and Mustapha Kanit (11th).
The final table also featured some of the game’s top players, including Fedor Holz (5th), Jeff Rossiter (4th), and Ben Heath, who eventually faced Shurane Vijayaram heads-up for the title. At this stage, Vijayaram held around three-quarters of the remaining chips, and 29 hands later the deciding hand was played with Heath check-raising all-in on a 9-7-6-3-Q board.
After deliberating for almost 5 minutes, Vijayaram (5-5) made the call with just a pair of fives, but his insight proved correct as Heath (K-8) was bluffing with just king high. Commenting on the hand which secured the title for him, Vijayaram explained:
“It was tough.. He made it really tough for me. That call on the river in the last hand, that was a tough call and I had to really analyze the hand and think about what he was representing. He was a really tough opponent and he did really well.”
Final Table Results: (A$)
1: Shurane Vijayaram $1.6m
2: Ben Heath $1m
3: Tobias Hausen $620k
4: Jeff Rossiter $440k
5: Fedor Holz $335k
6: David Olson $270k
7: Luke Roberts $210k