Welcome to Day 1b of the 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event!
It won’t be long now until the Crown Poker Room is abuzz once again with a new batch of hopefuls trying their luck here on Day 1b. They’ll be chasing Sam Ingham who set the pace yesterday spinning up his 30,000-chip starting stack to a mammoth 160,100 by the conclusion of play.
Ingham shot to the lead in the final level of Day 1a when he flopped a straight against Chance Kornuth’s bottom set. The two of them had all the money in by the turn and with no repeat on the river Ingham sent the notable American pro packing to be awarded a huge pot.
Before that could happen, however, it was Australian cricket legend Shane Warne who kicked off proceedings hours earlier. He and Crown tournament director Joel Williams took to the microphones to welcome our players and with Warne announcing shuffle up and deal the cards were in the air. Warne joined the action himself and while he didn’t have a stellar day on the felt he still managed to qualify for Day 2 – finishing up with 37,600.
Power couple Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly were also in attendance and while Laak made an early exit, Tilly navigated her way through the seven levels of play to bag up 85,000 when all was said and done.
With late registration open until the end of Level 8 players were able to join the hunt all throughout yesterday. Ultimately it was 212 who took advantage of that, pulling up seats to comfortably eclipse last year’s 180 on Day 1a. Time will tell how many make an appearance here today as Day 1b is set to commence.
For now we wait until 12:30pm local time when we’ll do it all again. Day 1b will see another seven 90-minute levels with 15-minute breaks in between and a 75-minute dinner break following Level 4. Be sure to stay with us at PokerNews for live coverage direct from the tournament floor here in Melbourne!
Level
Small Blind
Big Blind
1
50
100
Break 15 minutes
2
100
200
Break 15 minutes
3
100
200
Break 15 minutes
4
150
300
Dinner Break 75 minutes
5
200
400
Break 15 minutes
6
250
500
Break 15 minutes
7
300
600
Yesterday attracted a field of 212 players, up from all recent years. Let's see what today brings.
Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros is having a good Day 1b so far – he just increased his stack with what were once Mark Radoja’s chips.
We arrived on the turn to see the board spread and Argyros firing for 3,200. Radoja made the call and the river completed the board.
Argyros loaded up again, this time firing for 7,000, which sent Radoja into the tank. Radoja looked back at his cards and reached into his stack before pausing as if deciding against a call. After another minute of thought he ultimately flicked in the 7,000 and saw the bad news when Argyro tabled for the nut flush.
After an initial open to 1,000, Federico raised it up to 2,500 from the cutoff. The player in the small blind then three-bet to 6,300 which saw the original raiser fold. Federico then pondered for a moment before four-betting to 10,500. The small blind didn't take to long to commit his stack totalling 27,000. Butteroni called with a total of 23,525 in chips.
Butteroni:
Opponent:
The board ran out to see Butteroni double with his overpair as he climbed back up to just short of 50,000 in chips.
We've just been informed of Joe Hachem's elimination from the main event.
The story goes that Hachem committed his remaining stack preflop holding and was at risk against Andrew Hinrichsen's .
The board ran out queen high to see Hinrichsen hold with his pocket pair ultimately sending the 2005 WSOP main event champion and most recognisable name in Australian poker to the rail.
2015 November Niner Federico Butteroni has just been felted after a battle of the blinds went the way of Michael Kane.
Butteroni was in the small blind and couldn’t avoid danger holding on a board of . Despite Butteroni having two pair Kane was seated in the big blind with the superior .
The two of them got all of the money in and Butteroni failed to find a five on the end to keep his tournament alive.
Mustapha Kanit has been on a tear today and things don’t look to be changing any time soon with the Italian raking in another pot.
On a flop of Kanit bet 2,000 from the big blind before the man on the button bumped it up to 8,000. Kanit called and the dealer turned the .
Both players checked it through to the river where Kanit opted to check again. His opponent took a shot at it for 16,000 but after two minutes in the tank Kanit made the right decision and called.
Kanit:
Opponent:
Kanit’s jack was good against the busted flush draw and he secured the pot.