Hachem Survives Aussie Millions Day 1b, Shane Warne Falls
The 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event continued on Day 1b with 196 entries in the second starting flight at the Crown Casino Melbourne. This brings the total number of entries to 408, with a bumper third straight flight tomorrow, and late registration open until the end of the first level on Day 2.
Just 97 players remain at the end of the day's seven 90-minute levels, and they are lead by Cole Swannack who bagged an impressive 197,300, helped in part by winning a monster pot off of Australian bracelet-winner James Obst.
Obst lost kings to Swannack's ace-king to bust
In the last level of the day Swannack called Obst's five-bet shove, with Swannack showing ace-king suited against the kings of Obst. There was an ace on an all-club flop, with Swannack dodging a club to double up and leave Obst perilously short. Obst was eliminated shortly after that. The monster pot, meanwhile, saw Swannack rocket to the top of the chip counts.
Other big stacks heading through to Day 2 include Tobias Hausen (156,800), Stephen Graner (145,800), Tony Tartaglia (141,700) and Jonathan Karamalikis (137,100).
2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem (56,100) and 2015 WSOP APAC Main Event winner Scott Davies (107,800) will also be present on Day 2, along with Sam Grafton (118,000), Julius Colman (98,600), Alex Foxen (86,900), Jack Salter (68,300), Winfred Yu (56,900), Sam Panzica (43,000), Ana Marquez (36,000), Kahle Burns (28,600), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (25,500), Daiva Byrne (12,100), and Manig Loeser (10,100).
2018 Main Event End-of-Day 1b Chip Count Top 10
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cole Swannack | New Zealand | 197,300 |
| 2 | Tobias Hausen | Germany | 156,000 |
| 3 | Tamara Volkoff | Australia | 153,300 |
| 4 | Stephen Graner | United States | 145,800 |
| 5 | Jack Brown | Australia | 143,100 |
| 6 | Tony Tartaglia | Australia | 141,700 |
| 7 | Jonathan Karamalikis | Australia | 137,100 |
| 8 | Lance Patison | Australia | 130,700 |
| 9 | Tung Nguyen | Australia | 121,600 |
| 10 | Jamie Pickering | Australia | 118,300 |
Hachem and Warne
Early names in the field today were two-time WSOP final tablist Antoine Saout, and Australian bracelet-winner James Obst. Obst also has two Aussie Millions rings (2014 A$2,500 8-Game, 2016 A$2,500 H.O.R.S.E) and was in action early on, increasing his stack by more than 10,000 at the end of the first level.
Another big name in the field was former international cricketer Shane Warne. Warne took over 1,000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals) in an international career spanning 15 years. He also has just under USD$100,000 in lifetime poker cashes, the biggest of which coming from here in Melbourne in a High Stakes A$10,000 event in 2010.
Warne was joined by his son Jackson in this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event. The pair appeared to go in polar opposite directions, with Jackson hovering around the 50,000 mark while his father battled with a sub-20 big blind stack for most of the day. In the end, the pair were eliminated quite soon after one another with Jackson heading to the rail after doubling up Adriano Scagnetti and subsequently losing tens against ace-ten.
His father Shane was more unfortunate. He got the last of his chips in having flopped a straight and was called by an opponent with a flush draw. Unfortunately for Warne, the river completed the flush and sent one of Australia’s most famous sporting sons to the rail.
Also among the early casualties on Day 1b were Sosia Jiang, Niall Farrell, Daniel Strelitz, Joni Jouhkimainen, $25,000 Challenge winner Ben Lamb, and Adam Owen.
Big names such as 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem (lead photo) and 2015 WSOP APAC Main Event winner Scott Davies were both in attendance and survived the day.
It was Szymon Wysocki who was the first player over 100,000; joined shortly thereafter by Benjamin Benoit who eliminated Jack Sinclair. Sinclair had flopped two-pair on an eight-six-five flop with eight-five but was up against the ten-eight of hearts of Benoit who had both a pair and a flush draw. The turn and river were both hearts, and Sinclair hit the rail as Benoit made his flush.
Jonathan Karamalikis, James Obst and Stephen Graner soon followed into the six-figure stack territory, but Hausen surged ahead once more to hold a stack more than the Day 1a chip leader when the dinner break got underway.
Kazuhiko Yotsushika, Michael O’Grady, David Steicke and Shane Howlett joined the Warne family on the rail before Obst suffered a massive cooler at the start of the final level of the day. His vanquisher was Swannack, who moved to the top of the chip counts, and he would end the day there, taking forward a healthy stack to Day 2.
Day 1c of the Aussie Millions Main Event gets underway on Tuesday at 12:30 local time. It's expected to be a large one, so be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all the live updates from our team in Melbourne.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
