Kahle Burns Leads Shortened Day for AU$50,000 Challenge; 23 Still Remain
Today the 2019 Aussie Millions played host to Day 1 of the Event #12: AU$50,000 Challenge, and due to some scheduling issues, play was halted after just four-and-a-half levels of play.
Some viewed last year's AU$50,000 Challenge as a small disappointment as only four players took part with Sam Greenwood capturing the title over Jan-Eric Schwippert. Although this year's installment begin with just four players after a slight delay to the kick-off, the field continued to swell throughout the day as players looked to get involved in the high stakes action.
When play ended for the day, several players were on their second entry, while some were looking at firing a third on Day 2 as a total of 37 entrants had taken a seat to create a prize pool nearing AU$1.8 million.
Only 23 players would bag chips, and it would be local high stakes player Kahle Burns leading the field with 242,300 in chips. His nearest rivals were Alex Foxen (139,900), Hideki Izutsu (128,900), and Toby Lewis (109,200). Burns launched into the chip lead early in the day when he eliminated Foxen with kings versus ace-jack suited. Following that, he eliminated Koray Aldemir and was remained with his big stack until the end-of-play. Foxen's decision to fire a second entry was a good one as he experienced a roller coaster journey of ups and downs on his new table before ending second in chips.
Izutsu (pictured above) was on the verge of being eliminated in a hand that saw him run queens into kings into ace-king suited. Fortunately for Izutsu, a queen fell on the flop and he rode his new found chip stack to third overall. Early this morning, defending Aussie Millions Champion Toby Lewis finished in second-place in the AU$25,000 Challenge. After doing the shuffle up and deal for Day 1a of the Main Event, Lewis was planning on taking a day off, but his change in heart resulted in him finishing with the fourth biggest stack of the day. Players also surviving into Day 2 include AU$25,000 Challenge winner Rainer Kempe, Dominik Nitsche, Michael Addamo, Maria Ho, Jack Sinclair, Jack Salter, and Rory Young.
With the parameters of the tournament being altered by Aussie Millions Tournament Director Joel Williams, the plan for Day 2 will be a complex one.
There will be no overnight re-draw, instead a re-draw will occur after level six - the intended Day 1 ending. After this redraw, players will have their time extension buttons reset to two, and after one more level is complete, registration will be closed at the end of level seven; approximately 4 p.m. (AEDT) on Monday, January 28. Players still have unlimited re-entries in the AU$50,000 Challenge.
The cards are in the air for Day 2 at 1:10 p.m. (AEDT) with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing continuous live updates of all the Event #12: AU$50,000 Challenge action. So stay tuned right here to PokerNews.com for all the AU$50,000 Challenge action, along with all the updates live from the 2019 Aussie Millions.