Pechie, Leonard, and Freedman Lead Final 142 in Millionaire Maker
Event #16: Millionaire Maker $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em began with 7,275 entrants — which created a prize pool of $7,142,850 – but after Day 2 came to a close Sunday night, just 142 remained in contention for the $1,277,193 first-place prize. Leading the pack is Florida's Justin Pechie, who bagged 979,000. However, both Aaron Leonard and Wendy Freedman are hot on his heels with 952,000 and 907,000 respectively.
PokerNews actually spoke to Freedman at the end of Day 2 to talk about her experience. You can read that story by clicking here.
Day 2 began with 1,130 players, but just 747 of them were slated to het paid. Among those to earn a payday were defending champ Jonathan Dimmig (731st - $2,749), The Colossus champ Cord Garcia (652nd - $3,044), birthday boy Jeff Madsen (351st - $5,205), online star Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond (252nd - $5,990), and recent recipient of a European Poker Awards Lifetime Achievement award Pierre Neuville (179th - $6,973).
While hundreds fell a slew of notables advanced to Day 3 including Bart Hanson (845,000), Blair Hinkle (837,000), Harley Stoffmaker (627,000), Olivier Busquet (358,000), Mike Sexton (350,000), and Andrew Lichtenberger (756,000), who began Day 2 with just 12,000 in chips.
Day 3 of the Millionaire Maker will kick off a 11 a.m. on Monday, and the plan is to either play 10 levels or down to the final table, whichever comes first.
Top 10 End-of-Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Pechie | 979,000 |
| 2 | Aaron Leonard | 952,000 |
| 3 | Wendy Freedman | 907,000 |
| 4 | Kelly Minkin | 858,000 |
| 5 | David Miscikowski | 850,000 |
| 6 | Steve Gross | 847,000 |
| 7 | Bart Hanson | 845,000 |
| 8 | Jeffrey Tanouye | 841,000 |
| 9 | Blair Hinkle | 837,000 |
| 10 | Viclouris Quinonez | 833,000 |