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It's official, 251 players entered the second starting flight of the Opening Event, joining the 274 from yesterday for a total so far of 525 players. Were expecting the biggest turnout tomorrow, so expect that number to jump quite dramatically.
Sorel Mizzi was crippled after he became involved in a hand against James Dempsey. It began when the latter raised to 1,600 from the hijack only to have an unknown player three-bet to 3,750 from the cutoff. Mizzi, who was next to act on the button, then made it 7,700 to go. Dempsey responded by moving all in for 40,875, the cutoff folded, and Mizzi called.
Showdown
Dempsey:
Mizzi:
Mizzi was in great shape to eliminate a tough competitor, but the flop paired Dempsey to give him the lead. Neither the turn nor river helped Mizzi, and he was reduced to just 7,500; meanwhile, Dempsey took over the chip lead with approximately 100,000. A few hands later, Mizzi was eliminated from the tournament.
It's Aussie Millions time again and we are pumped for all the upcoming events! Something tells me this is only the calm before the storm? Check out our latest welcome video with the lovely Nicki Pickering.
We don't mean to beat a dead horse, but we want to make sure you know . . .
The 2012 Aussie Millions Poker Championship kicked off Thursday with the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Opening Event. Crown officials told PokerNews that in celebration of the Aussie Millions’ 10th anniversary, a special Tournament of Champions will be held on Saturday, Jan. 21 — the day before the Main Event.
Tournament officials have confirmed that eight of the nine Aussie Millions champions will attend. Alexander Kostritsyn, 2008 winner, will not be able to attend.
The eight players who will attend are Peter Costa (2003), Tony Bloom (2004), Jamil Dia (2005), Lee Nelson (2006), Gus Hansen (2007), Stewart Scott (2009), Tyron Krost (2010), and David Gorr (2011).
The champions will compete for a “golden ticket,” which will award the winner a lifetime of buy-ins to the Aussie Millions Main Event.
“I’m really excited about having all of the former champions return to celebrate our 10th anniversary,” said Christian Vaughan, tournament director at Crown. “This will be the first time Jamil Dia has been back since his win in 2005 and we haven’t seen Peter Costa in many years. It’s thrilling to have all these great players under the same roof and battling it out for a lifetime freeroll at the Aussie Millions.”
Another one of the bigger stacks in the room has come to our attention and after a quick glance or two we realized the owner of the stack was Tom Middleton.
Middleton had a great 2011 which included a 3rd place for over $300,000 in the WSOP $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event and a 6th place for almost $20,000 in the $5,000 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Middleton also has a very impressive online resume which includes almost $3 million in online tournament winnings.
flop paired Dempsey to give him the lead. Neither the 
turn nor 
river helped Mizzi, and he was reduced to just 7,500; meanwhile, Dempsey took over the chip lead with approximately 100,000. A few hands later, Mizzi was eliminated from the tournament.
and caught good against the 
