2016 Aussie Millions

Event #11: $10,600 Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info

2016 Aussie Millions

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
j7
Prize
1,600,000 AUD
Event Info
Buy-in
10,000 AUD
Prize Pool
7,320,000 AUD
Entries
732
Level Info
Level
31
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
0

Event #11: $10,600 Main Event

Day 2 Completed

Dylan Honeyman Leads After Day 2 of Fourth-Largest Aussie Millions in History

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Dylan Honeyman
Dylan Honeyman

If there's any thought that poker's in a slump in Australia, the 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event put it to rest. The Southern Hemisphere's most prestigious tournament attracted 732 players, up 84 players from the year before, and the largest turnout since 2010.

The increased turnout, which also made it the fourth-largest Aussie Millions Main Event in its storied 19-year history, created a juicy prize pool of AU$7.32 million that will be distributed to the top 80 players. Of that, AU$1.6 million has been reserved for the winner.

After five one-hour levels of play on Wednesday, approximately 150 players remained in contention with Australia's own Dylan Honeyman and his stack of 517,200 leading the way.

Among those who will return on Day 3 are Jean-Pascal Savard (455,200), Bobby Zhang (425,900), Daniel Engels (421,300), Jason Brown (401,600), and James Obst (378,500), who all bagged big stacks. Also still alive are Samantha Abernathy (269,500), Mustapha Kanit (269,000), Philipp Gruissem (260,100), Kitty Kuo (233,800), Ari Engel (228,600), Stephen Chidwick (222,900), and Joe Hachem (139,700).

Of course, not everyone was so fortunate. Among those to fall on Day 2 were 2015 European Poker Awards Media Person of the Year Marc Convey, European Poker Tour Malta champ Niall Farrell, Australian Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson, Team PokerStars Pro members Celina Lin, Yaxi Zhu, Bryan Huang, Randy Lew, and Jason Mercier, as well as former Aussie Millions champs Manny Stavropoulos and Tyron Krost.

Stavropoulos and Krost were both eliminated by the same man, Benjamin Pollak, and Stavropoulos' elimination paved the way for no back-to-back winner.

Stavropoulos fell early on when he ran pocket nines into Pollak's tens, and Krost followed him out the door a short time later. If you recall, Krost won the Tournament of Champions back in 2012 — which invited all former Aussie Millions winners to an invite-only freeroll. As a result, he won free buy-ins to the Aussie Millions Main Event for life. Krost was freerolling, but his hope of cashing in came to an end when he ran jacks into Pollak's pocket kings.

That left Ami Barer as the only former champ still in contention. Barer, who topped a field of 668 two years ago, is in good shape to make another deep run bagging a stack of 260,000. Impressively, Barer finished in 11th place last year in his title-defense run.

Day 3 will kick off at 12:30 p.m. local time on Thursday. The money bubble should burst as players look to make it through seven levels of play. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there every step of the way to capture the action, so be sure to join us then.

In the meantime, check out this "Last Word" game featuring Jessica Dawley:

End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Player Chips Progress
Dylan Honeyman au
Dylan Honeyman
517,200
379,800
379,800
Jean-Pascal Savard ca
Jean-Pascal Savard
455,200
-24,800
-24,800
Daniel Engles (Daniel Engels) at
Daniel Engles (Daniel Engels)
427,300
Bobby Zhang au
Bobby Zhang
425,900
15,900
15,900
Jason Brown us
Jason Brown
401,600
351,100
351,100
James Obst au
James Obst
378,500
38,500
38,500
WSOP 1X Winner
Artur Koren at
Artur Koren
361,100
156,100
156,100
Martin Rowe au
Martin Rowe
311,200
247,500
247,500
Michael Egan au
Michael Egan
291,800
-38,200
-38,200
Michael Levy au
Michael Levy
291,600
Sam Steindl au
Sam Steindl
282,900
282,900
282,900
Xingrong Ren cn
Xingrong Ren
275,000
55,000
55,000
Bowdy Tolhopf au
Bowdy Tolhopf
271,600
185,400
185,400
Samantha Abernathy us
Samantha Abernathy
269,500
52,500
52,500
Mustapha Kanit it
Mustapha Kanit
269,100
-90,900
-90,900
Winamax
Ami Barer ca
Ami Barer
263,500
1,500
1,500
WSOP 1X Winner
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
260,700
10,700
10,700
WSOP 1X Winner
Michael Kenneady au
Michael Kenneady
259,000
144,600
144,600
Michael Wang us
Michael Wang
258,300
-7,700
-7,700
WSOP 2X Winner
Tony Dunst us
Tony Dunst
256,900
27,200
27,200
WSOP 2X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Emad Moaref au
Emad Moaref
254,000
167,800
167,800
Dzmitry Urbanovich pl
Dzmitry Urbanovich
249,000
114,000
114,000
EPT 1X Winner
Sinan Aydogan au
Sinan Aydogan
239,400
99,700
99,700
Mark Malecha au
Mark Malecha
238,000
141,000
141,000
Kitty Kuo tw
Kitty Kuo
233,800
149,800
149,800

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Dunst Knocks Out Colman and Ashby

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Tony Dunst
Tony Dunst

On the featured table we just saw the tail-end of a three-way all in that involved Richard Ashby, Julian Colman and Tony Dunst. Ashby was the short stack, and all in for 18,400 while Colman risked 77,300 in the following showdown.

Colman: {J-Hearts}{J-Spades}
Ashby: {Q-Clubs}{Q-Spades}
Dunst: {K-Diamonds}{K-Clubs}

The board ran out {6-Spades}{9-Clubs}{5-Hearts}{10-Clubs}{5-Spades} and both Colman and Ashby were knocked out.

Player Chips Progress
Tony Dunst us
Tony Dunst
229,700
115,700
115,700
WSOP 2X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Richard Ashby gb
Richard Ashby
Busted
WSOP 1X Winner
Julius Colman au
Julius Colman
Busted

Tags: Tony DunstRichard AshbyJulius Colman

Caption Contest Time!

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

Jonathan Karamalikis may be most well known for his big stacks on the poker felt, but he's also the founder of Big Stack Underwear. Kind of fitting for someone who used to be most known for as "xMONSTERxDONGx" in the online poker realm, right?

At the 2016 Aussie Millions, Karamalikis caught up with PokerNews' Sarah Herring to talk about his new venture and issue a caption contest where you could win a pair of Big Stack Underwear yourself.

Tags: Jonathan KaramalikisSarah HerringAussie Millions

Seidel Calls Fast With a Jack High!

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

Well, technically Erik Seidel didn't call with jack high, but we're just fan of the saying.

Action folded to Dietrich Fast and the German WSOPE bracelet winner, who recently lost a lot of chips, asked how much Seidel was playing. Seidel admitted to only have about 30,000 or so left. Fast now opened to 4,000 and Seidel in the big blind was the only caller.

Both players checked the {A-Spades}{A-Clubs}{2-Clubs} flop and {Q-Spades} turn to see the {5-Diamonds} complete the board.

Seidel checked again and Fast bet 5,000. Seidel smiled, hummed and shook his head like he had a nice tune on his headphones, and eventually reluctantly called.

Fast asked if he was just called by king-high but Seidel shook his head. Fast then showed his {9-Clubs}{10-Spades} and Seidel tabled {J-}{8-} for the pair of aces on board with the queen - jack - eight.

Player Chips Progress
Dietrich Fast de
Dietrich Fast
100,000
-120,000
-120,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
39,000
8,000
8,000
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner

Tags: Dietrich FastErik Seidel

Day 1b Chip Leader Stays Alive

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Alex Rocha from Day 1b
Alex Rocha from Day 1b

On Day 1b, no one did better than Alex Rocha, who bagged up the chip lead with 166,000. Unfortunately Day 2 hasn't been as kind to him.

Rocha was down to his last 39,600 when he three-bet all in from the big blind after the player on the button raised. The button called and it was off to the races.

Rocha: {9-Clubs}{9-Hearts}
Opponent: {a-Hearts}{k-Diamonds}

The {6-Hearts}{9-Diamonds}{k-Spades} flop paired Rocha's opponent, but fortunately it also contained a nine. the {4-Diamonds} turn guaranteed Rocha would double with his set, and he was pushed the pot after the {5-Spades} completed the board on the river.

Player Chips Progress
Alex Rocha us
Alex Rocha
80,000
40,400
40,400

Tags: Alex Rocha

Kanit Takes One Off Broom

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

From early position, James Broom opened with a raise to an unknown amount. Mustapha Kanit reraised from the cutoff seat to 11,600, and play folded back to Broom. He made it 21,500 to go, and Kanit made the call.

The flop fell {A-Diamonds}{9-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}, and Broom checked. Kanit bet 18,000, and Broom folded.

Player Chips Progress
Mustapha Kanit it
Mustapha Kanit
360,000
53,000
53,000
Winamax
James Broom au
James Broom
105,000
-56,000
-56,000

Tags: James BroomMustapha Kanit