2019 Aussie Millions

Aussie Millions Highlights
Day: 1

Aussie Millions Actions Gets Underway with First Opening Event Flight

Opening Event Players in Action During Flight 1
Opening Event Players in Action During Flight 1

After months of feverish anticipation amongst poker players both here in Melbourne and further afield, the 2019 Aussie Millions got underway with the first flight in the Event #1 the AUD$1,150 Opening Event.

Carrying a AUD$1,000,000 GTD, the tournament has an added fifth flight for 2019, making it a near certainty that last year's field of 1,538 is going to be surpassed.

With cards getting in the air at 6:10 pm, the tournament garnered a total of 166 entries by the time registration closed at the end of level six.

Among the players to enter was Scott Davies who famously won the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event in 2014 at this very casino. Sadly for Davies, he would bust around halfway through the day after a cooler against Tony March.

After March opened to 700 from early position, there was one call before Davies three-bet to 2,300 out of the blinds. Both players called and the flop was {j-Diamonds}{9-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}. Davies continued for 4,800 and March shoved for 5,700. The other player got out of the hand and Davies called.

Davies held {a-Diamonds}{a-Clubs} but was up against the flopped set of March who had {7-}{7-}. That left Davies short and he would bust shortly thereafter. He will be back tomorrow for Flight 2 hoping to make his way through to Day 2.

Jan Suchanek
Jan Suchanek

Another casualty from the first flight was Jan Suchanek who had looked to be going well with an above average stack heading into the final level of the night. However, he suffered ran pocket kings into the {a-Clubs}{a-Hearts} of Mario Mosboeck. The {7-Spades}{q-Diamonds}{7-Clubs}{a-Spades}{2-Clubs} was not what Suchanek wanted to see and he was left short.

And with just a quarter of an hour left in the day, he got his remaining chips in with {a-Diamonds}{4-Diamonds} on a {2-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}{9-Spades} flop with both straight and flush draws. His opponent Fedon Phaedonos held {a-Hearts}{9-Diamonds} for top pair, and the board bricked out coming {k-Hearts}{6-Clubs} to send Suchanek to the rail.

From the 166 players that started, just 18 players advanced at the end of the night including Australian Heidi May who scored a last-level double up with {a-Hearts}{j-Clubs} against the {3-Hearts}{3-Clubs} of another player. The {q-Clubs}{9-Clubs}{2-Clubs} flop was not what she wanted to see, but the {a-Clubs} turn completed her flush and the {a-Hearts} on the river was just a matter of overkill.

Heidi May
Heidi May (foreground)

"Now I can just chill," said May who was delighted to secure her place in Day 2 at the first time of asking. "I've got a week off and a wedding on Friday so that'll be fun."

Fedon Phaedonos
Opening Event Flight 1 Chip Leader Fedon Phaedonos

Helped by the elimination of Suchanek, it is Phaedonos who leads the opening flight. The Australian has recorded Aussie Millions side event cashes in both 2017 and 2018 and will be looking to secure another one after bagging the chip lead.

Here is a list of the 18 players advancing from the first flight:

NameChip Count
Fedon Phaedonos169,500
Pierce Mchellar128,100
Manuel Rodrigues127,200
Heidi May126,100
Jon Jia121,500
Thorben Vellrath119,600
Dean Blatt119,200
Dean Hutchinson118,000
Mario Mosbock106,700
Joep Raemaekers91,400
David Stanton91,300
Roland Hawkins55,900
Mikael Koistinen46,900
Tristan Bain34,500
Bas de Laat25,600
Doy Q Truong15,800
Ning Zhang15,300
Joel Williams14,300

Flight 2 of the AUD$1,150 Opening Event gets underway tomorrow at 6:10 pm. Stay tuned to PokerNews for interviews and highlights from the early stages of the 2019 Aussie Millions.

Tags: Fedon PhaedonosHeidi MayJan SuchanekScott Davies