O'Dwyer Seeks Another High Roller Title; Leads Surviving 26 Players
The 2016 Aussie Millions $25,000 Challenge attracted 100 of the game's best to Crown Melbourne on Friday. In the first eight levels 22 of them took advantage of the single reentry option, which brought the total field up to 122 entries, up from 104 the year prior.
The huge turnout created a AUD$2.928 million prize pool that will be distributed to the top 14 finishers with the eventual winner taking home AUD$790,560. After 12 levels of play, just 26 players remained in contention for the top prize, with Steve O'Dwyer and his stack of 519,000 leading the way. O'Dwyer is looking for yet another high roller score after winning the PCA $50,000 Singe-Day High Roller for $945,495.
"It went good almost the whole way," O'Dwyer said after bagging. "One bad hour, but now I'm at my peak."
Others who bagged on Day 1 were Jason Les (406,000), who sits in second place; Australian big stacks Alexander Lynskey (346,000) and Michael Egan (326,000), online stars Ben Tollerene 263,500 and Daniel Cates (221,000); former champ Igor Kurganov (314,000), and Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov (399,000) and Yaxi Zhu (219,500).
Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to take a shot only to bust – in some cases twice – were Brian Rast, Antonio Esfandiari, John Juanda, 2014 Aussie Millions champ Ami Barer, Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, and defending champ Alex Trevallion.
The surviving players will return at 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday with the plan of playing down to a winner. Be sure to join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action straight from the tournament floor.
to send Kozlov to the rail.
flop as well as the 
turn. Unfortunately for him, the 
spiked on the river to pair Egan's kicker and give him the win.
on the river.
turn have Urbanovich his flush, and he rapped the table to wish Sammartino, who was drawing dead, a good game. The meaningless 
and his example was followed by both Lichtenberger and Aido. The 
fell on the turn and Sukonthachartnant bet out 9,500. Lichtenberger raised to 25,000 almost instantly and Aido folded right away. Sukonthachartnant moved all in for 47,300 and Lichtenberger called.
on the river was dealt by the dealer anyway to make things official, and Lichtenberger handed over half his stack.
, as Juanda checked to the Austrian pro. Muehloecker bet 2,800 from the cutoff seat, and Juanda called from the big blind.
was tabled.
. Two checks saw Giesbrecht continue for 2,100, Trevallion folded, and Troyanovskiy woke up with a check-raise to 4,700.
for a bluff. Giesbrecht then tabled the 
. 
for a flopped set, and it was good as De Silva flashed the 
