July 31 2011, Josh Bell

There was a sense of déjà vu kicking around the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia, as Day 3 of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event came to a close. Phillip Willcocks yet again bagged a staggering amount of chips and ended the night as the chip leader.

Willcocks began the day with almost double his nearest competitor and after nine hours of play, Willcocks again found himself with almost double his nearest competitor. Willcocks will begin the final table with 2,317,000 in chips, which happens to be over quarter of all the chips in play.

How Willcocks managed to accumulate such a massive chip stack became the story of the day. It can be attributed to a misstep from the young Koray Turker. After the bubble burst, both Willcocks and Turker had dominating chip leads, and there were no players close to the towering stacks of these two. All they had to do was stay away from each other and they would both be primed for a deep run and almost certainly a final table finish.

All was well until Turker tried to get tricky with a busted straight draw on a board showing . Turker had already fired bullets on the flop and turn, and continued this aggression on the river, when he jammed his remaining 650,000-chip stack into a pot of around 400,000 on the river. Willcocks made the call with for a flush, and Turker showed his , exiting the building in 28th place for a $8,600 score.

Some of the prominent names who managed to finish in the money, but fell short of the elusive final table include, PokerStars Team Online Pro Keiran Harris, Ricky Kroesen, Antonis Kambouroglou, Michael Guzzardi and James Obst.

When Aharon Shabtay was eliminated in 10th place after almost nine hours of play, there was applause and handshakes galore as the nine remaining players reveled in their impressive final table finish.

Willcocks with the dominating chip lead, is the man to beat. He will begin the final table with a staggering 30 percent of all the chips and in good position to win the title of APPT Melbourne Main Event Champion.

Not only will the nine returning be playing for the title and being able to make a name for themselves as one of the best players in the Australasian region, but they will also be vying for the $330,000 first-place prize that goes with all the bragging rights.

Join PokerNews for continuous live updates of all the action until the 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Melbourne Main Event champion is crowned. It all kicks off at 1410 AEST (2100 PDT).

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.