Ioannis Angelou Konstas flat-called a raise to 1,200 and Yevgeniy Timoshenko jammed his short stack in from two seats over. The initial raiser folded and Konstas snap-called with . Timoshenko only had the and found no miracle double.
One player opened and John Duggan three-bet to 4,200 in the next position. Toby Lewis then four-bet to 12,000. It folded back around to the initial player who folded and Duggan four-bet enough to put Lewis all in.
Lewis pulled his best 'Grumpy Cat' impression at this turn of events, and took his time with his decision before eventually open-folding with around a quarter of an hour left in the day.
With 10 minutes left in the level, the clock has been stopped and another three hands will be played for tonight. There are 364 entries right now of which 192 remain. Petrit Abazi was the last player to buy in for the night, joining the action with 10 minutes to spare before the final hands were announced.
When the clock was stopped, Dennis Huntly ended up in the center of the action on his table and faced a near-identical short stack with versus . The flop was a sweat, but Huntly improved to a full house thanks to the turn. The came on the river and that secured the pot for the Aussie.
While David Wu lost some chips towards the end of the day while Pim De Goede, Richard Ashby and Cole Swannack emerged at the top of the counts.
Swannack recalled a big pot on his previous table when he three-bet the button with ace-king and called a four-bet to 15,000. Swannack floated a ten-high flop and check-called all the way when an ace and blank river followed. He was good with top pair and top kicker, as his opponent only had pocket sevens.
Swannack already topped the counts on Day 1b in the previous year but failed to cash in the 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event. He will certainly try to avoid the same fate for this year.
The full counts and seat draw for Day 2 will be published when the PokerNews team receives them and a recap of today's action is to follow.
The 2019 Aussie Millions Main Event is tantalisingly poised heading into Day 2 after 364 players entered on Day 1c, leaving the tournament just three players short of equalling the record field set twelve months ago.
Late registration remains open for one more level when play resumes tomorrow, and with recent years attracting anywhere from three to 13 new entries, the figure of 800 looks within reach.
Year
Entries
Day 1a
Day 1b
Day 1c
Day 2
2019
797*
165
268
364
2018
800
212
196
379
13
2017
725
212
184
322
7
2016
732
180
207
337
8
2015
648
183
173
289
3
*denotes entry still open for one level into Day 2
It was a case of déjà vu with the Day 1c chip leader, with Cole Swannack bagging 208,200, just over 10,000 chips more than he managed when bagging the Day 1b chip lead last year. With two cashes under his belt this year in Aussie Millions side events, he'll be aiming to banish memories of 2018 where he failed to make the money.
Also bagging big in 1c was Pim De Goede (187,100), 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event seventh-place finisher Richard Ashby (180,000), Ben Lai (153,000), Ben Wu (140,100) and Sosia Jiang (139,200).
Other notables through to Day 2 include Tobias Ziegler, Dara O'Kearney, Maria Ho, Michael Soyza, Ana Marquez, Thomas Muehloecker, Martijn Gerrits, Dominik Nitsche, and Terminator Champion Ioannis Angelou-Konstas.
Shortly after former international cricketer, Shane Warne announced 'Shuffle up and Deal,' there was a cry of "Seat open" as Julien Martini's aces were cracked by the straight of Weiming Yu. Warne would later join him in busting on Day 1c.
Former champions Ami Barer and Shurane Vijayaram were both in attendance, but unfortunately both would bust midway through the day, Vijayaram losing out fives against ace-jack, and Barer losing a flip with ace-king against fives.
It was better news for defending champion, AU$25,000 Challenge runner-up and AU$50,000 Challenge champion Toby Lewis. Seemingly the man to beat this week in Melbourne, Lewis will join fellow former champions Tyron Krost and David Gorr in Day 2.
Other players from last year's final table enjoyed mixed fortunes, with Stefan Huber busting but Mike Del Vecchio making it through to Day 2 with an above-average stack.
Players to bust on Day 1c included Kitty Kuo, Gautam Dhingra, former AU$25,000 Challenge champion Alexander Trevallion, Michael Addamo, Artur Koren, Kristen Bicknell, Natalie Teh, AU$25,000 Challenge winner Rainer Kempe and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
For the players advancing, they will be part of the 425 players returning for Day 2 which gets underway at 12:30 pm on Wednesday. Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of what looks like being another record-breaking Aussie Millions Main Event.