Cary Katz Tops 33-Entrant Field to Lead Remaining 14 Players into Day 2 of AU$100,000 Challenge
Day 1 of Event #20: AU$100,000 Challenge from the 2019 Aussie Millions has come to a conclusion with the 33-entrant field reduced down to just 14 players with Cary Katz the overall chip leader.
Katz has been a regular on the high roller scene around the world collecting cashes and victories on his way to amassing over $17.3 million in lifetime earnings. The one result missing on Katz's poker resume is a tournament score on the shores of Australia, but with his start here on Day 1, Katz has put himself in fantastic position to make a run at the AU$100,000 Challenge title to join the likes of fellow Americans Nick Petrangelo, Andrew Roble, Dan Smith, Dan Shak, Howard Lederer, and Erick Lindgren as previous winners of the Aussie Millions AU$100,000 Challenge.
Day 1 action began at Crown Melbourne with a table of players that swiftly developed into two. Two changes were made to the structure of the tournament which included the implementation of the big blind ante and the addition of a 30-second shot clock and four 60-second time extension buttons to speed up play throughout the event.
As players continually joined the field, many were forced to re-enter as the likes of Rainer Kempe, Manig Loeser, Kristen Bicknell, Kahle Burns, and Thomas Muehloecker were forced to fire re-entries. Bicknell and Burns found themselves on the rail at the conclusion of play alongside the likes of AU$50,000 Challenge winner Toby Lewis, Tobias Ziegler, Julien Martini, and Koray Aldemir as just 14 players survived into Day 2.
Courtesy of a turn check-raise all-in on the penultimate hand of the day, Katz snatched the chip lead and ended the day with 1,108,000. On his heels is Alex Foxen who shot out to the chip lead in the first few levels, and although he slipped back to the middle of the pack, he finished strong to end with 999,000 in chips. Behind Foxen is Manig Loeser who fired three bullets in the event but fortunately ended with 872,000 and will be looking to improve on his second-place in this event last year. Abraham Passet (751,000), Johannes Becker (730,000) and Tsugunari Toma (713,000) are the only other players that sit with an above-average chip stack.
Day 2 is set to begin at 12:10 p.m. (AEDT) on Saturday, February 2, and registration and re-entries are open through the first level of play and will close at the beginning of level 11 (approximately 1:10 p.m.). With the Aussie Millions Main Event having a scheduled day off before the final table, several players are likely to jump in the AU$100,000 Challenge including Bryn Kenney and Michael Addamo.
Play kicks off at 12:10 p.m. (AEDT) with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing continuous live updates of all the AU$100,000 Challenge. So stay tuned right here to PokerNews.com for all the live coverage from the 2019 Aussie Millions.