It's a big day for Glenn Leyland today as the local lad plays his first ever Aussie Millions Main Event.
The Crown Poker Room have a fantastic satellite structure with three phases meaning there's a chance one can qualify for as little as AU$65, the coast of entering phase one. That's exactly what Leyland did; entered phase one, won a seat to phase two and progressed to phase three where he won his seat.
He was feeling under the weather yesterday so delayed entering until today. He'a sat at table 33 with the likes of Kane Kalas and Dani Stern. Very best of luck to you!
Martin Stewart came back with around 10,000 chips and had less than that when he took his chance against Phil Ivey. The latter raised from the button and was priced in to call when Stewart moved all in from the small blind.
"All in and a call," has been shouted more than a dozen times in as many minutes. One of them ended up being Nino Marotta, who was at risk against Jayawardhana Karawgodagedon.
Marotta:
Karawgodagedon:
Marotta was well out in front, but the flop put a dagger through his heart by delivering Karawgodagedon a set. Neither the turn nor river helped Marotta, and he became one of the many to fall here in the early goings of Day 2.
It's always expected that at the beginning of Day 2, players come back fresh and short stacks come back with a purpose to get a stack together.
Many, "All in, call" cries can be heard from around the room. Some players are being eliminated, some are doubling up.
Percy Yung was cruising yesterday until a bad period near the end of the day saw her finish with just 5,100. She didn't manage to turn thing round today and was one of the first out.
Cards are in the air here on Day 2 of the 2015 Aussie Millions Main Event.
Just prior to the start, Crown's Jim Preston and 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe Hachem took the stage to announce this year's inductee into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame, a club that includes pros such as Gary Benson, Jeff Lisandro, and Tony G, just to name a few.
This year's nominees included Van Marcus, Joe Cabret, Michael Guttman, Tino Lechich, David Steicke, and Grant Levy, though only one would join the current roster of 14 members. The Hall of Fame Committee met days ago, and the man they chose to join their ranks was Van Marcus!
Marcus is currently ranked in 18th place on Australia's all-time money list with $1,372,294 in live tournament earnings with his biggest cash coming in the 2009 WSOP $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event where he finished third for $278,409. Marcus' biggest victory came in the 2008 Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Manila Main Event where he bested a field of 285 players for a PhP 8,037,000 ($164,380) payday.
Marcus, a well-known player in Australia, was meant to accept an award on stage, but when Hachem called his name Marcus was nowhere to be found. It was a bit of an uncomfortable snafu that was quickly covered up by the giving of the traditional, "Shuffle up and deal."
For many, the APPT Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Event starts today. The day where one can look around see the winner in the room, if it's not them. The three starting flights are out of the way and, for the first time, all the remaining players are together for Day 2.
A total of 341 players from the 645 starters have made it this far but those numbers could grow as registration is open until plays kicks at 12:30PM local time. Total entrants last year totalled 668 so it's unlikely that number will be broken today, but you never know!
End of Day 1b chip leader Ian Wassell heads into today as the overall leader with 229,500. The only other player to make it past the 200k-mark was Day 1c chip leader Alex Antonios (206200). Other notable big stacks heading into today include: Dan Cates (161,100), Ai Barer (147,900) Bryan Huang (120,700), Conor Drinan (96,600), Alex Trevallian (85,500), Phil Ivey (84,600) and Dan Smith (79,000).
The plan for today is to play five 90-minute levels with a 15-minute break after each one, and no dinner break. Join us back here at 12:30PM.