With 26 left Ivey in contention for Aussie Millions

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Jan 26, 2012 Posted in Aussie Poker News, Tournament News | No Comments »

It was a fast day at the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event as the 75 remaining players played down to just 26 on Day 3 of the tournament. The money bubble burst just into Day 3 action, as 72 players were slated to receive at least a $15,000 payday from the tournament.

By the end of the day, the talk of the tournament remained Phil Ivey. Ivey came into Day 3 as one of the chip leaders, and was able to end Day 3 as one of the big stacks as well. While most of the remaining big names fell Ivey conquered, ending the day in 6th place with just over 1.1 million in chips.

A few other players to keep an eye on during Day 4 are former Aussie Millions Champion Lee Nelson, who is currently sitting in 10th place on the leader-board with over 870k in chips, and for fans who like more of a longs-hot there is David Steicke, who will enter Day 4 as one of the short-stacks with 183,000 chips in his stack. With the blinds at 4k/8k and a 1k ante there is still plenty of room for Steicke to maneuver his way up the leader-board.

Steicke may not be as well known as Ivey and Nelson, but the poker pro has a very impressive resume including winning the inaugural $100k Challenge at the 2009 Aussie Millions; a runner-up finish in a recent Epic Poker League Main Event tournament, a 4th place finish in last year’s Aussie Millions Main Event, and career tournament earnings of over $2.6 million according to thehendonmob.com.

However, all of the remaining players are looking up at the current chip-leader Matt Turk, who dominated the action on Day 3 and built up an impressive mountain of chips nearly double his closest competitor. Turk will be bringing over 2.6 million to the tables on Day 4 thanks to winning a huge pot and busting Jason Koon on the final hand of the night.

Turk’s 2.6 million in chips is way ahead of the rest of the field with Tim O’Shea sitting in 2nd place with just under 1.4 million in chips. According to thehendonmob.com database Turk has only two career cashes, both coming on the GUKPT in his native England.

Here is a look at the Top Ten on the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event leader-board heading into Day 4 of the tournament:

1. Matt Turk — 2,675,000

2. Tim O’Shea — 1,376,000

3. Patrick Healy — 1,353,000

4. Bjorn Li — 1,222,000

5. Yann Dion — 1,156,000

6. Phil Ivey — 1,107,000

7. Daniel Idema — 1,033,000

8. Minh Nguyen — 992,000

9. Borge Dypvik — 882,000

10. Lee Nelson — 878,000

Day 4 will kick-off at 12:30 PM local time, with the field set to play down to the final table!