The Last Leg

Good afternoon once again and welcome back to our coverage of the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event!

We've already put two starting flights in the books over the past two days, and today marks the third and final flight as the Day 1c group is filing into the room with their seat cards in hand. On Day 1a, Brett Watson built a fortress of chips, bagging up more than 250,000 from his 30,000-chip starting stack. Yesterday's flight saw James Dempsey go on a late heater to shoot his way up to the top of the counts with just shy of 200,000.

So far, a total of 340 players have played their respective Day 1 flights, and today's flight welcomes a new — and hopefully huge — batch of players to the felt with their sights set on the established chip leaders. It might well double our turnout from the first two days as we've already got more than 260 players registered for this flight with a few hours left to buy-in. It's not a sprint, though, and we've still got another four long days of play left after the field recombines for tomorrow's Day 2.

We're just about 20 minutes away from kickoff here in the Crown Poker Room, and the room is abuzz. Dealers are suiting their decks and stacking out chips, cupcakes are being passed out table-to-table, and the staff is scurrying around the floor making last-minute preparations for play. "Make sure every stack gets a cupcake," they instruct.

And don't forget about the media. #wink

We'll be here until they bag up in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow, and we hope you'll stick with us for another exciting day in the Main Event! Sit tight; it's almost starting time.