Artur Coren Bags Big in Second Opening Event Starting Flight
After Fedon Phaedonos bagged 169,500 yesterday in the first flight of the Opening Event, he was going to be the man to beat when the second starting flight got underway today at 6:10 pm.
And with two players bagging over 200,000 it was Artur Koren who emerged as the overall chip leader after 12 levels of play, bagging 262,500 chips after a field of 191 was whittled down to just 24.
Coren has a strong pedigree here in Melbourne, finishing 14th in the Main Event in 2016, 18th in the Main Event in 2017 and then last year finished 15th for combined cashes of AUD$245,000.
Since his last visit to Australia, he has recorded a deep run in the WSOP Main Event where he finished 48th for USD$156,265.
Other big stacks include Vishal Maini (200,000) who was seated next to Koren at the table, as well as Wayne Clinch (193,000) and Gautam Dhingra (179,300) who clashed late on resulting in Clinch soaring up the chip counts.
"I opened the button and [Dhingra] three-bet," Clinch told PokerNews as he was bagging up. "I flatted on the button with 
. The flop came 
with two clubs. He checked and I bet. He then check-raised and I re-raised all in with my straight and flush draw and he called.
"He had 
and I hit the flush on the river!"
Among the other players to bag were last year's Australian Poker Young Achievement Award Winner Kahle Burns, who will have to work hard to run up his stack of 17,300 come Day 2, and Jonathan Karamalikis who is better positioned with a stack of 46,600.
The Crown was beginning to buzz with players from all corners of the world, but the likes of WSOP champion Joe Hachem, Marc Macdonnell, Josh Abady, Sorel Mizzi, Sam Cohen, Scott Davies, Andreas Klatt and Paul-Francois Tedeschi will all have to return if they're going to make Day 2 of the AUD$1,150 Opening Event.
Here's a full list of all the players advancing to Day 2:
| Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Artur Koren | 262,500 |
| Vishal Maini | 200,000 |
| Wayne Clinch | 193,000 |
| Gautam Dhingra | 179,300 |
| William Overmire | 132,700 |
| Muhammad Asad | 116,100 |
| Qi Hu | 86,700 |
| Neri Stone | 86,100 |
| Eiji Matsumura | 61,500 |
| Sean McConnille | 60,800 |
| Hamish Crawshaw | 59,700 |
| Ren Vahili | 50,100 |
| Netanel Amedi | 49,400 |
| Wan Y Gan | 46,600 |
| Jonathan Karamalikis | 46,600 |
| Julius Colman | 42,000 |
| Steven Chew | 36,300 |
| Daniel Simons | 36,000 |
| Sheng Ye | 32,400 |
| David Y Wang | 31,900 |
| Qiang Fu | 31,800 |
| Travis Endersby | 31,300 |
| Kan Lin | 22,500 |
| Kahle Burns | 17,300 |
Stay tuned to PokerNews for more highlight coverage from the first week of Aussie Millions action, with the H.O.R.S.E. final table kicking things off tomorrow at 1 pm, and the third flight of the Opening Event getting underway tomorrow at 6:10 pm.