Thursday was a big day at the 2013 Aussie Million, as two of the biggest tournaments of the series were both in action: Day 3 of the Aussie Millions Main Event, and the $250k Challenge, the highest buy-in poker tournament in the world this side of the Big One for One Drop.

The $250k Challenge

Thed $250k Challenge tournament is now in its third year and attendance has been fairly consistent: with 20 participants in 2011 and 16 participants in 2012. The $250k Challenge attracted 14 entrants with four players deciding that $250k wasn’t enough and rebuying into the tournament after being eliminated, Paul Phua, Andrew Robl, Gus Hansen, and Tony Bloom. Even with just two tables the tournament will award the biggest prize of the Aussie Millions tournament, with $2 million set aside for the winner, and a total of four places being paid:

* 1st place: $2,000,000

* 2nd place: $1,250,000

* 3rd place: $750,000

* 4th place: $500,000

Here is a look at the 16 players who entered the tournament:

1. Philipp Gruissem

2. Igor Kurganov

3. Richard Yong

4. Fabian Quoss

5. Sam Trickett

6. Tobias Reinkemeier

7. Winfred Yu

8. Paul Phua

9. Tony Bloom

10. Erik Seidel

11. Andrew Robl

12. Gus Hansen

13. Antonio Esfandiari

14. Jason Mercier

The Aussie Millions Main Event

At the same time the Aussie Millions Main Event was running, with the remaining players getting in a fairly short session as they played-down from the 68 players that began the day to the 36 players that will return on Day 4. Among the players who survived Day 3 were Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius and Dan Shak, all three players being members of Team IveyPoker.com. Joining them on Day 4 will be Aussie James Obst, Brandon Adam, Lee Markholt, Jay Tan, Minh Nguyen, and Celina Lin.

Here is a look at the Top 10 Chip Counts heading into Day 4 of the Aussie Millions Main Event:

1. Ray Ellis — 1,044,000

2. Patrik Antonius — 957,000

3. Mervin Chan — 943,000

4. Ang Pangleng — 928,000

5. Jan Collado — 908,000

6. Brandon Adams — 739,000

7. David Yan — 696,000

8. James Obst — 660,000

9. Damian Baldi — 624,000

10. Shoshiro Karita — 608,000

Day 4 will see the field trimmed down to just 6 players and will see the tournament switch to a six-handed format –which will remain in place straight through the final table. So if the field thought today was a short day of play, tomorrow is likely to be extremely long as the remaining players go from 36 to 6.

 

Tags: Adam Lee, Antonio Esfandiari, Aussie Millions, Celina Lin, Challenge Tournament, Dan Shak, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Main Event 1, Mercier, Mervin, Minh Nguyen, Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, poker tournament, Ray Ellis, Richard Yong, Short Session, Trickett, Two Tables

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2013 at 9:58 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.