The final day-one flight of the $10,500 AUD no-limit hold’em main event at the 2009 Aussie Millions Poker Championship began at 12:30 p.m. AEDT on Tuesday, Jan. 20. As expected, it attracted a large field of players, and the largest amount of poker professionals of any day thus far at the Crown Casino. Excitement filled the room as 2005 world champion Joe Hachem took his seat at a table along with Australian tennis professional Mark Philippoussis. At the next table over Australian cricket star Shane Warne took his seat, as well. This area of the room garnered the lion’s share of attention in a field of 288 players.
The early play was tough on the two Aussie athletes, and neither remained at the end of the second level. Chino Rheem had beaten both of them in the race out of the tournament, though, busting in just five minutes on the second hand dealt at his table. The second level was also when the official numbers for the event were announced. The field was a total 681 strong, creating a total prize pool worth $6,810,000 AUD.
Here is a look at the payout structure:
1: $2,000,000 AUD
2: $1,000,000 AUD
3: $700,000 AUD
4: $400,000 AUD
5: $300,000 AUD
6: $210,000 AUD
7: $150,000 AUD
8-9: $100,000 AUD
10-12: $80,000 AUD
13-18: $65,000 AUD
19-24: $50,000 AUD
25-30: $40,000 AUD
31-36: $30,000 AUD
37-40: $25,000 AUD
41-48: $20,000 AUD
49-64: $15,000 AUD
The Crown Casino made good on their $2 million guarantee, and 143 players from day 1C are going to have a shot at it when they begin day 2 tomorrow. Players who won’t be in the running tomorrow include a laundry list of professionals that fell during the day, a large portion of which busted during the last level of the night. Rheem, Warne, Philippoussis, Lee Nelson, Ed Sabat, Masaaki Kagawa, Andrew Robl, actor Michael Vartan, Quinn Do, Nam Le, J.C. Tran, John Juanda, Jennifer Tilly, Marsha Waggoner, and Liv Boeree all busted out of the tournament on day 1C. Gus Hansen and Tom Dwan appeared to be locked in a prop-bet about who could show up later to play their stack on day 1C. Both arrived hours late, and both fell by the end of the day, but it is safe to say they are more focused on the million dollar cash game that will be hosted at the Aussie Millions on Sunday.
Quads played a part in the proceedings today, but just once, falling quite short of matching the four times it happened yesterday. Relative unknowns dominated the top of the leader board for most of the day, and that’s the way things ended, as well. A few professionals survived to fight another day, and they include Michael and Nick Binger, Kelly Kim, Scotty Nguyen, Hachem, Steve Sung, Joe Cassidy, Phil Laak, Eric Stiglets, and Clonie Gowen . Here is a look at the leader board from day 1C:
Ben Charlton: 161,000
Luis Pampliega: 143,600
Jani Mikkola: 109,050
John Paul Kelly: 104,500
Tom Rafferty: 95,000
Mike Manttan: 92,000
Michael Binger: 86,000
Bodo Sbrezesny: 83,000
Richard Ashby: 83,000
Mark Phillips: 81,850
The 143 day 1C survivors will return tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. AEDT (5:30 p.m. PST) to start their march to the final table with those that remain from day 1A and 1B. Catch all of the day 2 action in live updates, chip counts, and photos tomorrow from Melbourne.
