2012 Aussie Millions

Day 3 completed

Posted 01-26-2012 22:02 GMT+12 by Chad_Holloway

Day 3 Cut Short; Ivey, Idema, Nelson in the Hunt

Posted 01-26-2012 20:51 GMT+12 by EricRamsey • Level 17: 4,000-8,000, 1,000 ante

Day 3 of the Aussie Millions Main Event came and went far more quickly than most everyone anticipated. From the starting field of 659 runners, the final 75 returned to the Crown Casino today for a scheduled five levels of action. Instead, play was cut short after just three levels as the field was dashed all the way down to just 26 players. When the bags game out, Matthew Turk had worked his stack up to the top of the leader board with nearly double the chips of his nearest challenger. But more on him in a bit.

With 75 players returning and only room for 72 of them on the payout sheet, three unlucky souls were sent off empty handed this afternoon. As anticipated, the bubble arrived very early in the day, but it took nearly two hours to find the next knockout and lock up a payday for the remaining 72. Frank Paul was all the way down to just 11,000 chips — barely 2bb — when he pushed the last of it in with . Kenna James didn't have much of a decision in the big blind, and his was drawing live for the knockout. Sure enough, the board ran out , and Paul was sent away with only a wooden spoon to show for his AU$10,000 investment.

Once the soft-stepping on the bubble was out of the way, the doors were thrown open and the march to the payout desk began in full force. Tom Grigg was one of the first to bow out with a small cash, and he was quickly followed out the door by the likes of Daniel Botta, James, Billy "The Croc" Argyros, Alexander Roumeliotis, Michael Tureniec, Dominykas Karmazinas, and Michael Pedley. Towards the end of the evening, Australia's newest bracelet winner, Andrew Hinrichsen was done in as well after running his pocket queens into Matthew Turk's two kings to mark an unfortunate end to his day.

It was a game of leapfrog at the top of the chip counts today, and a handful of players traded the top spot around for a few hours. Most notable among them was Phil Ivey who plugged along steadily to bag up 1.107 million at night's end. That would be in contention for the overall lead if not for a monster pot that unfolded on the final hand of the night. We'll let you read about it below, but the long and short of it is that Matthew Turk won a monster flip to pile 2.675 million chips into his thin plastic bag.

The remaining field is a pretty talented one with a couple bracelet winners and a former champion of this event still in the mix. Lee Nelson won this thing in 2006, and he'll be returning tomorrow with an above average stack of 878,000. Daniel Idema managed a shade more with 1.033 million to end the night, and the eight-time bracelet winner, Ivey is just out of the overnight top five with 1.107 million. Other notables still in the mix include Yann Dion, Oliver Speidel, Danny Chevalier, Grant Levy, and David Steicke.

Day 4 kicks off at 12:30pm in Melbourne, and we'll be back then to pick up the story.

Until then, all that's left is g'day.

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts

Posted 01-26-2012 20:39 GMT+12 by donpeters

Chip Counts
	Matt Turk		2,675,000	0
	Tim O'Shea		1,376,000	6,000
	Patrick Healy		1,353,000	393,000
	Bjorn Li		1,222,000	132,000
	Yann Dion		1,156,000	-64,000
	Phil Ivey		1,107,000	-133,000
	Daniel Idema		1,033,000	-117,000
	Minh Nguyen		992,000	12,000
	Borge Dypvik		882,000	132,000
	Lee Nelson		878,000	253,000
	Mohamad Kowssarie		793,000	153,000
	Josh Barrett		740,000	110,000
	Janis Lesinskis		689,000	359,000
	Kenneth Wong		618,000	-482,000
	Oliver Speidel		614,000	9,000
	Joey Lawrence		504,000	-6,000
	Mile Krstanoski		472,000	52,000
	Louie Srour		411,000	151,000
	Danny Chevalier		399,000	74,000
	Grant Levy		381,000	-89,000
	Elton Tsang		376,000	96,000
	Karim Jomeen		282,000	152,000
	Andrew Mellado		274,000	-286,000
	Ioannis Makris		213,000	-7,000
	David Steicke		183,000	13,000

Read full

Turk Claims Two-Million Chip Pot in Last Hand of the Night; Koon Eliminated

Posted 01-26-2012 20:37 GMT+12 by Chad_Holloway

Matthew Turk

On the last hand of the night, we stumbled upon Table 32 and saw 280,000 pulled into the pot and Jason Koon with a 89,000 in front of him, meaning some sort of raising war had taken place. Matt Turk took about 40 seconds before moving all in and Koon was clearly flabbergasted, though he did make the call to create a pot worth around two million!

Koon
Turk

"Let's flip for all the chips," Koon said when he seen his opponent's cards. "Whoever wins this wins the tournament."

It was a huge hand that would essentially guarantee the winner a spot at the final table pending a catastrophe. As the railbirds surrounded the table, the dealer burned and the was in the window! Koon was excited, but it vanished in an instance when the flop completed . Turk had flopped a set to take a commanding lead.

Koon, clearly dejected, pleaded for a sweat card on the turn, but the left him drawing dead. The river sent Koon home in 27th place while Turk ended the night as the massive chip leader with 2.675 million.

Tags: Jason Koon, Matt Turk.

Bagging and Tagging

Posted 01-26-2012 20:25 GMT+12 by donpeters • Level 17: 4,000-8,000, 1,000 ante

The level has ended and with that, play is done for the night. The remaining 27 players are now bagging and tagging heir chips before heading off. We'll have a complete list of chip counts, the seat draw and a recap coming shortly.

Voegele Eliminated with Just 10 Minutes Left in the Day

Posted 01-26-2012 20:21 GMT+12 by Chad_Holloway

Lee Nelson opened the pot and received two callers before Octavian Voegele shipped his short stack into the pot. Nelson then reraised, which drove the other two players out of the pot.

Showdown

Voegele
Nelson

It was a race, and Voegele was ahead. Unfortunately for him, the flop delivered Nelson a pair of queens and the lead. Voegele needed a five to stay alive, but it was not meant to be as the appeared on the turn followed by the on the river. Voegele was eliminated in 28th place.

Tags: Lee Nelson, Octavian Voegele.

Another One Sent Home

Posted 01-26-2012 20:17 GMT+12 by procession

27 players currently remain.

This is What's Happening

Posted 01-26-2012 20:11 GMT+12 by EricRamsey • Level 17: 4,000-8,000, 1,000 ante

Tournament Director Christian Vaughan has just given us a new schedule for the night. And it's just about over.

We're already down to 28 players, and we're flying through the eliminations so far. We also have one extra day to play this thing out if we need to. As such, the staff have decided that this will be the last level of the night, and we're going to bag and tag in just about 15 minutes time. The final table has been rescheduled for Sunday, so we expect to have another couple short days leading up to it.

Turk Busts Hinrichsen

Posted 01-26-2012 20:09 GMT+12 by procession

2011 WSOPE bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen will have to try again next time if he wants to secure a major title on home soil, because he has just been eliminated.

Hinrichsen was unlucky to run his into the of Matthew Turk. All Hinrichsen's chips were in preflop and when the board ran out , it was all over in 32nd place for Hinrichsen.

Chip Counts
	Matthew Turk		1,350,000	610,000
	Andrew Hinrichsen		Busted

Tags: Andrew Hinrichsen.

Wu Runs Into a Bigger One

Posted 01-26-2012 20:08 GMT+12 by EricRamsey

We just saw Stanley Wu ship a small double over to his neighbor on the left, and the next hand did not go well for Wu either. Joey Lawrence had and Wu the , and all the money went in preflop.

The board ran out , and Wu's jacks go under. He's been sent off to the rai, and Lawrence is up over a half-million chips.

Chip Counts
	Joey Lawrence		510,000	70,000
	Stanley Wu		Busted

Tags: Stanley Wu, Joey Lawrence.