Friday, 29th March 2024 14:15
Home / Uncategorized / Aussie Millions Day 1B: Schneider and the shenanigans

If you thought the first eleven days of the Aussie Millions Poker Championship were big, then I’m here to tell you they were dwarfed by comparison to the Day 12 schedule that greeted us today. We just ran the gauntlet through three final tables, a promotional sit and go, an enormous Last Chance satellite, Day 1b of the Main Event, the Player’s Party and a partridge in a pear tree.

Yep, we were busy. No time to watch the Super Bowl! The Crown Poker Room was overflowing with action of all varieties and we did our best to cover every angle in the room.

The Main Event kicked off at 12:30pm with another strong field of 153 players hitting the tables for a long day on the felt. Some of those in action included Daniel Neilson, Erik Seidel, Jesse McKenzie, Paul Newey, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad, Aaron Benton, Aaron Lim, Brendon Rubie, Marco Johnson, Andy Hinrichsen, David Steicke, Michael Guzzardi, Full Tilt Ambassadors Jonathan Karamalikis and Liam O’Rourke, former Aussie Millions champions David Gorr and Lee Nelson, Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel and the defending champ Mervin Chan.

After seven levels of play, 81 players remained with Aussie young gun Dean Schneider ending the day as the chip leader with 188,800.

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Gareth Dwyer, Tolly Sakellariou, Dennis Huntly and Daniel Neilson are also bagging up some impressive stacks, while it appeared that Jonathan Duhamel survived with a short stack.

Top Ten Chip Counts
Dean Schneider – 188,800
Gareth Dwyer – 161,100
Tolly Sakellariou – 133,500
Denis Huntly – 130,000
Dan Neilson – 120,000
Erik Seidel – 116,800
Marco Johnson – 116,700
Sotirios Kiokpasoglou – 107,400
Daryl Hussey – 106,400
Anthony Laming – 105,000

Meanwhile champions were crowned around the poker room with three championship gold rings awarded. First it was Reza Vakili in the $1,650 Bounty Event. He got past a strong final table that featured Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin who would ultimately finish in 8th place.

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The Mix Max Event would be decided in the early hours of the morning, while the big talking point of the night was the carnage that unfolded over in the $25,000 Challenge.

On a day that started with 30 players, just eight would make the money, with Benny Spindler the unfortunate bubble boy. When Dan Shak departed in 6th place, a five-way deal was struck that would lead to the players chopping up the prize money before gambling for the title. The blinds were cranked up in an all-action finale that thrilled the railbirds and brought plenty of laughs. Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier was right in the middle of it, eventually taking 3rd place for $265,538 for his first ever cash down under.

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Officially Max Altergott was the champion, but poker was the real winner tonight.

These guys are now happy to go off and get some rest before the final flight of the Aussie Millions Main Event arrives tomorrow. Another 12:30pm kick off will greet us as we push the numbers towards 700 players, and hopefully beyond.

Join us once again on the PokerStars Blog tomorrow for all the updates from the 2014 Aussie Millions Poker Championship.

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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