2009 Aussie Millions

The players seem content to play small ball poker today, in contrast to the turbo-charged action of yesterday.

In a recent pot JC Tran raised to 25,000 from the button and John Juanda called in the big blind. They checked down the board of all the way to showdown.

Tran flipped for the only pair as Juanda flashed the and mucked.

The action folded around to JC Tran in the small blind who completed and David Steicke checked his option in the big blind.

The flop landed and Tran check-called the 10,000 chip bet from Steicke. The turn was the and both players checked. The river brought the and Tran fired out 13,000. Steicke timed right down before he folded as Tran takes it down.

The first post-flop pot of this final table has gone to Tony Bloom. He raised preflop to 25,000 and JC Tran made the call in the big blind.

They saw a flop of and Bloom's continuation bet of 30,000 was enough to take it down.

Of course the players still have several 30-second time breaker buttons in play, which they can use at any time.

JC Tran, David Steicke and John Juanda all have four buttons, Dan Shak has three, with Tony Bloom and Bill Jordanou having only two each.

As the first cards were shuffled, Dan Shak burst into the tournament area just in the nick of time for the first hand of play. He had apparently first run over to the feature table, not realizing that the tournament was to be concluded on the secondary feature table across the room.

Puffing like he'd run a marathon Shak apologized to all. His excuse..."I overslept!"

Dan Shak is still MIA. Apparently calls through to his hotel room and cell phone have been unsuccessful to this point. The players have generously decided to wait another ten minutes. This one will start at 4:30 p.m, with or without Mr. Shak.

Five of the players are seated and ready for action, we're just waiting for Dan Shak to arrive. He's been paged and apparently on his way, but it's been agreed to wait another 10 minutes for him to arrive.

With the opening day of the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event in full flight, the fans gathered on the rail of the Crown Poker Room are about to turn their attention to the secondary feature table for the conclusion of one of the premiere events of the series -- the $100,000 Challenge.

We're down to our final six players, led by cult hero David "Don't Call Me Sticky" Steicke. It's a world class field with $2.3 million and an Aussie Millions Gold Ring on the line.

The action kicks off in about 15 minutes' time. Stay tuned!

Here's how they will line up:

David Steicke - 631,000
JC Tran - 528,000
John Juanda - 480,000
Dan Shak - 356,000
Tony Bloom - 181,000
Bill Jordanou - 139,000