2011 January 25, Elaine Chaivarlis

Tuesday concluded the Day 1 flights of the 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event. After three Day 1s, a total of 721 players handed over the AUD$10,600 to get their shot at taking home the title. Those 721 players created a total prize pool of AUD$7,210,000, with first place taking home an astounding AUD$2,00,000. Two players will be made millionaires at the end of this event, as second place will be taking home AUD$1,035,000.

Day 1c saw 274 players enter the Crown Poker Room and take their seats. Among them were local hopefuls James Obst, Matthew Pearson, Tony Hachem, and Peter Aristidou. Joining them were Full Tilt Poker Red Pros James Bord, Matthew Jarvis, Peter Jetten and Simon Watt.

When all was bagged and tagged, 109 players made it through the day, to combine with the 83 from Day 1a and the 80 from Day 1b, giving Day 2 a total number of 240 runners.

Australia’s Oliver Keefe came out of no where to bag the largest number of chips at the end of the day, 198,200. That’s good enough to give him the overall chip lead going in to Day 2. He’s not going to have it easy though, Erick Lindgren, chip leader from Day 1a is just behind him on the leaderboard with 186,200. Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey are also looming with 176,500, and 134,200 respectively.

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action from Day 2 of the Main Event, so keep it locked to the Live Reporting Page for all the updates.

Million Dollar Cash Game

The second day of high-stakes action kicked off around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday inside Studio 3 at Crown Casino. The Million Dollar Cash Game cast included Patrik Antonius, Justin Smith, Tom Dwan, Andrew Feldman, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, Erik Cajelais, and David Oppenheim and the game was $400/$800 with a $1,000 ante. All the players started with a starting stack of $100,000. About two hours after play began, Phil Ivey took Smith’s place, and while two of the Chinese businessmen visited the set, Tom Dwan just couldn’t close the deal in getting them to sit down. The big winners of the second session were Matusow, Oppenheim and Feldman. Cajelais and Smith each lost two $100k buy-ins, and Ivey played for less than an hour.

Want to check out the play-by-play? You can, on the Live Reporting Page.

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2011 January 24, Elaine Chaivarlis, Elissa Harwood

There was no rock band, no confetti, and the “shuffle up and deal” was given by the tournament director on Monday for the Day 1b flight of the Main Event of the 2011 Aussie Millions. Nonetheless, plenty of players came out, putting down AUD$10,600 to buy in all with the hopes of becoming the 2011 Aussie Millions Champion.

After seven levels of play, the 209-player field was whittled down to just 80. Jeff Rossiter is the man at the top, bagging 154,900 at the end of the day. Martin Drewe, 2011 Aussie Millions Event #1 winner, clocked in with 136,100, and that puts him third on the leaderboard. Australian online phenom, Jay “SEABEAST” Kinkade is just below him with 128,700, and European Poker Tour regular Jeff Sarwer sits fifth in chips with 120,500. Also in the top ten, is PokerNews Strategy instructor Randy “nanonoko” Lew (110,000) and Gavin Griffin (101,700) in ninth and tenth respectively.

Sorel Mizzi, Jeffrey Lisandro, Eric Assadourian, Team Full Tilt’s Chris Ferguson, Full Tilt Poker Red Pros Scott Montgomery and Roland de Wolfe, Neil Channing, and Lee Nelson have also all made it to Wednesday’s Day 2.

With those who made it through however, come the list of those who weren’t so fortunate. Full Tilt Poker $25,000 Shootout Invitational winner David Oppenheim, Annette Obrestad, Carlos Mortensen, Andy Bloch, David Benyamine, Andrew Feldman, Gus Hansen, Joe Hachem, and David Steicke all had their day cut short and can now take the rest of their time here in Melbourne to enjoy some of the Australian Open, or go sightseeing. The hope of a back-to-back Aussie Millions Champion is also non-existant anymore, as Tyron Krost was eliminated in a hand against Gavin Griffin where his ace-queen couldn’t improve against Griffin’s aces.

The third and final Day 1 flight kicks off on Tuesday in Melbourne, Australia at 12:30 p.m. local time and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action from the Crown Poker Room.

Million Dollar Cash Game

While there was plenty of Main Event action going on downstairs, there was even more upstairs in Studio 3 where the Million Dollar Cash Game was being filmed. It all got under way around 4:00 p.m. local time and while the usual suspects were involved, three new faces graced the felt as well. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Eli Elezra, and John Juanda were joined by three wealthy Chinese businessmen who are regulars in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.

The game was $500/$1,000 no-limit hold’em with a $100 ante. Juanda was paid in full for a flopped wheel and then won a few other pots to finish up nearly $250k and Dwan found himself scooping a $250k pot with a missed flush draw and jack high. Antonius lost a $300k flip and had to reload, but he was back in the black after flopping a boat 20 minutes later. He won a $435k pot with and a few more after that to make him one of the night’s biggest winners. Then, with the production crew on break, Paul Phua stacked Ivey and decided to call it quits. His friends joined him, and the game broke about five hours after it started.

Soon after, those seats were filled, as Andrew Feldman, Sam Trickett, David Benyamine, and Daniel Cates joined the game for the second session. Trickett and Benyamine were that sessions biggest winners.

Once the game was under way, Lynn Gilmartin went up to Studio 3 to check it out and brought us a look at the action.

Another line up of pros will take their seats for the televised Million Dollar Cash Game and you can bet that PokerNews will be there to bring you all the big pots and missed flops. So keep it locked to the Live Reporting Page from 4:00 p.m. to midnight local time.

Remember to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Want to rail the biggest games in the world? Not only will you get a $600 sign-up bonus at Full Tilt Poker, new depositors also get to play in a $100,000 First Deposit Freeroll. — so you can play while you watch!