Day 2 Completed
Live Highlights
Day 2 Completed
Pekarek Leads as Bubble Approaches in partypoker MILLIONS Vegas at Aria

Who wants to win $1,000,000? Well, one thing's for certain it will be one of the 83 remaining in the $10,300 partypoker MILLIONS Vegas at Aria.
Registration closed two levels into today, with 93 further entrants on Day 2. This meant the tournament attracted a total of 536 entrants generating a prize pool of $5,360,000. Just 79 players will be in the money, securing themselves a min-cash of $20,000.
In pole position for that min-cash is chip leader Jeremy Pekarek. Pekarek is having a strong summer, and has already racked up over $400,000 in cashes including winning his first bracelet. He doubled through Goran Mandic in the penultimate level of the night when his pocket queens held against ace-king to move over 1.5 million.
He then finished off the Croatian and added more chips to his stack to bag 2,560,000 ahead of Day 2.
Other players over a million in chips include Ran Ilani (1,748,000), Sergio Aido (1,590,000), Freddy Deeb (1,385,000), Conor Beresford (1,304,000), Taylor Paur (1,269,000), Rainer Kempe (1,170,000), Julien Stuer (1,130,000), Ana Marquez (1,099,000), Jeremy Ausmus (1,160,000) and Sam Grafton (1,112,000).
Day 1a chip leader Govert Metaal also bagged with 470,000 along with notables Kitty Kuo (320,000), Joe Cada (283,000), Chris Moneymaker (207,000), Olivier Busquet (341,000), and Sergi Reixach (555,000)

partypoker pros Joao Simao (701,000) and Josip Simunic (970,000) are the remaining team members left in the field ahead of Day 2 after other partypoker pros such as Patrick Tardif, Mike Sexton, Bertrand Grospellier, Kristen Bicknell, Sam Trickett, Mikita Badziakouski and Anatoly Filatov were all eliminated. Also sent to the rail was Ludovic Geilich who got it in on a flop three-ways with both flush and straight draws but was drawing dead by the turn.
The remaining field will resume play at 12 p.m. on Monday and play a further ten levels. PokerNews will be on hand to provide all the live updates, including coverage of the money bubble and beyond as we get closer to crowning the first partypoker MILLIONS champion on American soil.
End of Day Chip Counts (full)
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2,560,000 | -90,000 | |||
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1,748,000 | 1,748,000 | |||
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1,590,000 | 150,000 | |||
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1,385,000 | 15,000 | |||
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1,344,000 | 119,000 | |||
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1,324,000 | 764,000 | |||
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1,304,000 | 394,000 | |||
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1,300,000 | 600,000 | |||
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1,269,000 | -21,000 | |||
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1,250,000 | 120,000 | |||
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1,215,000 | -235,000 | |||
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1,170,000 | -115,000 | |||
|
1,167,000 | 37,000 | |||
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1,160,000 | -125,000 | |||
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1,130,000 | 797,000 | |||
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1,112,000 | 172,000 | |||
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1,099,000 | 254,000 | |||
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970,000 | -38,000 | |||
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927,000 | 855,500 | |||
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886,000 | 11,000 | |||
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876,000 | 811,000 | |||
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870,000 | 550,000 | |||
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805,000 | 225,000 | |||
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797,000 | 354,000 | |||
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795,000 | 165,000 |
Final Four Hands
With play just seven eliminations off the money, tournament director Paul Campbell has taken the decision that the final four hands will be played in soft hand-for-hand format.
Tables will be balanced and a table broken should we reach 80 players. Dealers are dealing two hands and holding up, followed by two further hands.
Simunic Joins the Seven-Figure Club

A completed board of was spread across the felt and Orpen Kisacikoglu knuckled the table. Josip Simunic had other plans as splashed in a bet of 139,000. Kisacikoglu asked for a count and then flicked in a single chip to make the call.
Simunic revealed the for trip aces and Kisacikoglu looked none-too-pleased with his crying call. Simunic collected the pot to climb over 1,000,000 chips for the first time today.
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1,008,000 | 421,000 | |||
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875,000 | -273,000 |
Updated Chip Counts
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1,440,000 | 479,000 | |||
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1,370,000 | 740,000 | |||
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1,290,000 | 440,000 | |||
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1,285,000 | 460,000 | |||
|
1,130,000 | 630,000 | |||
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796,000 | 76,000 | |||
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625,000 | 625,000 | |||
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580,000 | -65,000 | |||
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454,000 | 127,000 | |||
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323,000 | -502,000 |
Busquet Takes a Late Knock
The full board of was out between Olivier Busquet and Samuel Vousden.
Vousden had put a pot-sized bet of 40,000 out and Busquet was thinking. He eventually called, but mucked when shown for a pair of jacks.
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470,000 | -440,000 | |||
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310,000 | -110,000 |
Pekarek Extends Chip Lead
A player opened and Jeremy Pekarek three-bet to 75,000. A motormouth opponent called and the initial raiser folded.
Pekarek check-called 100,000 on the flop. "I got the nuts," said his opponent as the turn brought the
.
Pekarek bet 155,000 and his opponent quickly called.
The river was the and Pekarek bet 160,000. His opponent tanked.
"You're not going to do all that tanking and then fold on me?" asked Pekarek.
"Why God why?" said his opponent. "You look so comfortable...you flop a set of nines?"
"What are you slow-rolling me?" asked Pekarek.
Eventually, Kitty Kuo called the clock and his hand was counted down and declared dead.
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2,650,000 | 550,000 |
Pekarek Finishes Off Mandic, Climbs Over 2 Million
Goran Mandic was down to just 85,000 chips after losing a massive coin flip to Jeremy Pekarek. Mandic raised to 80,000 in middle position and Pekarek dropped in a call from the small blind. Before the flop even hit the felt, the two players quickly got the last 5,000 chips in the middle.
Jeremy Pekarek:
Goran Mandic:
The flop of gave Mandic some outs and the
on the turn increased those outs with a flush draw. Unfortunately, the
bricked everything and Pekarek eliminated Mandic to climb over 2,000,000 chips.
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2,100,000 | 360,000 | |||
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Busted |
Mustafov's Top Pair Earns a Pot
Picking up the action on the turn with the board reading , Mustapha Kanit checked from the big blind. Fahredin Mustafov tossed in a bet of 68,000 into a pot of around 90,000. Kanit called and the
landed on the river.
Kanit checked again and Mustafov splashed in another bet of 145,000. Kanit thought for a couple of minutes and eventually made the call. Mustafov turned over for top pair and Kanit ditched his cards in the muck.
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880,000 | 448,000 | |||
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443,000 | -522,000 |