Day 2 Soon to Begin

A champion will be crowned today as the first event of the 2009 Aussie Millions Poker Championship comes to its conclusion. This two-day event attracted 731 runners across two Day 1 flights. 110 of them will return the felt today to chase the AU$150,000 first prize; 72 are guaranteed at least AU$2,193, almost double the AU$1,100 buy-in.

When all of the chip bags were logged last night, Dean Blatt emerged as the far and away chip leader with 145,300. No other player has more than 100,000 chips, making Blatt an early favorite to make the final table. This is no-limit hold'em, however. As evidenced by Alexandre Gomes' stunning exit from the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament just a few hours ago, anything can happen.

Play kicks off in one hour. PokerNews will be there, from the first flop to the last river.