Welcome to Day 2 of the 2016 Aussie Millions Opening Event
In half an hour from now at 12.15 p.m. local time, Day 2 of the A$1,150 No-Limit Hold'em Opening Event will get underway at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The first event of the 2016 Aussie Millions Poker Championship drew a field of 1,320 entries through four starting days and just 222 remain to battle for the first-place payout of A$275,300.
The top 126 spots will get paid at least A$2,975 and a total of ten 60-minute levels are scheduled for the penultimate day with a 30-minute dinner break after the end of level six. Play resumes with blinds at 1,200-2,400 and a running ante of 400. Still in the lead is Flight 2 chip leader Ferenc Riech with 205,700.
In the overall top 10, only one other player is not from Australia and that is fellow German Christian Nolte, who led Flight D last night with 166,500. Besides that, plenty of local talent has made it through including Daniel Neilson (167,000), Australian Poker Hall of Famer Van Marcus (148,800) and Andrew Hinrichsen (95,600).
The international field is represented by EPT Malta champion Niall Farrell (131,000), Kenneth Khoo (123,300), Louis Salter (120,000), Josep Maria Galindo Lopez (88,200), Ronnie Bardah (83,200) and Matas Cimbolas (81,300). Among the shorter stacks are Gerald Karlic (53,200), Rainer Kempe (44,200) and Xuan Liu (31,700).
The event is scheduled to play down to a winner tomorrow and the PokerNews live reporting team will be at hand to provide all key hands until the final river card is dealt.