Ian Simpson had hovered around a million chips for two levels on a fun table including tennis legend Boris Becker. He was hardly getting involved and just chipping up steadily by firing out the odd uncalled three-bet.
"It all changed!" he told us. "I ran the nut flush into a straight flush. I was all-in, so I lost all I could."
Despite the early hit, Simpson still has 30 big blinds and will be fighting hard to get back into contention for a place in Day 2.
With almost 400 runners still going at it this partypoker Live Millions Main Event, the players are having their one hour dinner break in groups. Half the field are just about now making it back with their bellies full, while the other half are waiting impatiently to get their turn at the buffet.
Among the notables on the upper tier (the last group of players to eat) is Niall Farrell, who's really been at it this last hour. He has managed to make the most of his cards, and is up to 1.75 million chips.
Tom Hall started the day battling it out at the £10,300 High Roller final table, but ultimately had to be content with a third place finish good for £142,000.
Hall didn't waste much time wallowing as he dipped straight into the Main Event, but couldn't seem to get anything going, and he was eliminated just before the dinner break.
Hall got in it with on a flop against the of Vojtech Skalak, and though he did manage to dodge the flushdraw, he ended up falling to the backdoor straight of Skalak as the board ran out .
Steve O'Dwyer is bossing his table in the partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Main Event, with a whopping 2.45 million chips to his name. Elsewhere on his table, partypoker ambassador Natalia Breviglieri has 680,000 after a difficult start and losing a big hand pre-flop to O'Dwyer.
Kelly Saxby is faring a lot better, however. She's up to 1.2 million having bought into Day 1 after suffering defeat at the hands of some of the toughest players in the game yesterday during a Phase 1 attempt where she had 250,000 chips and was mostly playing professionals with millions of dollars of tournament wins and a million chips each from late registrations and direct buy-ins.
"It's a lot easier today with a million chips." she told us, "I'm having a much better time."
Steve O'Dwyer is the man to catch today. He just took down another massive pot while eliminating Steve Watts in the process.
On a board he put Watts to the test for his stack. Watts called, committing his last 350,000 chips, only to be shown a full house by O'Dwyer. The was more than enough to claim the pot, and Watts sent his into the muck and hit the rail. That's the second time within the hour, that Watts was eliminated.
In other news: High Roller 10th place finisher Oliver Waters just took his seat in the Main Event. He faced a three-bet in his very first hand but decided to let it go.
A shortstacked Jim-Robin Hansen moved all-in from middle position for somewhere around 150,000 and Partypoker Ambassador Padraig Parkinson moved in over the top a few spots over. The rest of the table got out of the way, and hands were on their back.
Padraig Parkinson:
Jim-Robin Hansen:
The flop was good for Hansen, but the turn even better for the 1999 WSOP Main Event finalist, Parkinson, who needed to fade four outs to get the knockout. The river was the , and the Irishman dragged the pot bringing his stack back to 650,000.
The action started with a raise to 28,000 by Markus Ross from early position and he picked up two callers in Niall Farrell on the button and Bryan Ruiter in the small blind. On the flop, the action checked to Ross and he continued for 51,000. Only Farrell called and the fell on the turn.
Ross moved all in for 240,000 and Farrell quickly called.
Markus Ross:
Niall Farrell:
Ross had a gutshot, but instead the river gave Farrell quads to eliminate the Austrian in style. The same table also features Keith Cummins and Sohnke Jahn.
One of the biggest pots of the day saw Florian Duta surge to the top just minutes ago. Jan-Peter Jachtmann came in for a raise, Romanian Florian Duta three-bet before Michael Howard went all-in for 400,000. Back on Jachtmann he moved in for 837,500 total, which sent Duta into the deep tank.
Ultimately Duta committed the chips and turned over , way ahead of both the of Howard and the of Jachtmann. The five community cards didn't change anything this time around, and Duta scooped the massive pot.
While Jachtmann hasn't yet visited the cashier for a reentry, two other well-known players have. Mike Sexton and Tom Hall are both back in the mix.