It took ten long hours of poker to whittle the field down from 83 players to 18, setting the stage for Friday's Day 4 race to the final table.
Day 3 saw plenty of highs, such as the rise of Kosmas Dratsas, the resilliance of Steven Topakas who battled from the short stack all day to reach Day 4, a rare bubble hand that pitted aces over kings with both spiking sets, and the remarkable play of two very talented females in Annette Obrestad and Jessica Dawley, who both made it through to Day 4. As for the lows... I think we'll just end on a positive note and leave them be for now.
Your overnight chip leader is Dratsas, following closely behind by Betfair ringers Obrestad and Sorel Mizzi.
Here's a quick look at your final 18, in chip stack order:
Kosmas Dratsas - 1,792,000
Annette Obrestad - 1,711,000
Sorel Mizzi - 1,695,000
[Removed:297] - 1,626,000
Stephen Shelley - 1,241,000
Dan Shak - 1,144,000
Frederik Jensen - 1,144,000
Tyron Krost - 953,000
Jens Kerper - 886,000
Peter Jetten - 642,000
Steven Friedlander - 494,000
Elliot Smith - 334,000
Pierre Aoukar - 310,000
Jessica Dawley - 295,000
Joel Dodds - 242,000
Steve Topakas - 191,000
Fouad Chaptini - 183,000
Kosta Varoxis - 183,000
We'll release Day 4's starting seat assignments as soon as they are made available to us.
Play is scheduled to resume at 12:30 p.m. local time, when the final 18 begin the home stretch toward the final table. Join us then for our continued coverage of the 2010 Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Event, from Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
With David's Frieling's elimination, we're all done with 11 minutes 21 seconds left on the clock.
The final hand went down as follows.
Sorel Mizzi opened to 25,000 from under the gun, and Frieling made it 85,000 to go from the big blind. Mizzi made the call.
They proceeded to a flop. Frieling led 90,000 which Mizzi flat called.
The turn was the Frieling moved all in for 626,000.
Mizzi went into the tank. After a while he asked, "Do you have a five?". More tanking. Finally he asked for a count. Back into the tank, and then the call.
Mizzi:
Friedling:
River .
With that Frieling goes out, and Mizzi rockets up to 1,695,000. What a monster pot to end the day.
While we wait out the Day 4 bubble, check out this exclusive interview we snagged with Peter Jetter who was responsible for bursting the money bubble earlier today. Jetten is still alive and well in the tournament with 19 players remaining and is currently sitting with 855,000 in chips.
A battle of the blinds has gone horribly wrong for Amir Minagar.
After being raised to 30,000 by the small blind, Annette Obrestad, Minagar shoved for 280,000. Obrestad made a quick call with putting Minagar's in dire straits.
Minagar's hand was unable to improve with the board, leaving him to hit the rail in 20th place.
Annette Obrestad is looming large at 1,716,000 in chips.
We caught action with Kosmas Dratsas and Pierre Aoukar on flop. They 20,000 chips a piece to proceed to the turn.
Dratsas check-raised to 120,000 over a meagre 20,000 bet from Aoukar. Aoukar called.
The river was the and Dratsas instantly fired out a bet of 400,000. Aoukar called almost as quickly tabling his but Dratsas had the case with the for four of a kind Kings.
Dratsas is almost to two million in chips, Aoukar has dropped to 333,000 in chips.
David Frieling just went to battle with two of Betfair's biggest names in Sorel Mizzi and Annette Obrestad and came out on top. Here's how the hand went down:
Action folded around the table to Frieling on the button who opened with a raise to 25,000. Mizzi called from the small blind, as did Obrestad in the big.
All three players checked the flop, sending the action straight to the turn -- .
Mizzi then fired a 38,000 bet, shaking Obrestad from the hand, but Frieling stuck around to see the river -- .
On 5th Street, Mizzi checked to Frieling who fired a 95,000 bullet prompting Mizzi to release his hand.
Frieling stacked up just under one million in chips after the hand.