Defending Champion Eberle Through to Opening Event Day 2
In the largest flight so far with 213 players entering, it's Sean Eichendorf who bagged 218,300, good enough for the chip lead in Flight 3 of Event #1: AUD$1,150 Opening Event.
A big number always looked on the cards today in Flight 3, with 130 players already entered just 30 minutes into the first level. This brings the total number of entrants so far to 570 with two flights to go.
Eichendorf's route to the chip lead was helped by a last level elimination which saw his stack move over 200,000. Holding ace-king against his opponent's pocket fours, the board double-paired on the river, counterfeiting his opponent.
"I like to think that I played well today," the Canadian told PokerNews just before bagging. "But probably ran better than I played!"
"It was just a really clean run. Don't know if I played very well but I definitely ran well. I had aces against another chip leader's kings, then I counterfeited someone. I probably won ten flips today; don't know if I lost any, which is just bizarre.
Having previously played the Aussie Millions "regularly" in his words between 2008 and 2011, Eichendorf says that he's happy to be back. And it appears that this tournament is happy to have him back too!
Also through to Day 2 is defending champion Benedikt Eberle, who had to battle with Austrian pro Josip Simunic in the latter stages of the day, but still bagged 40,100 to ensure safe passage through to Day 2. Simunic bagged 57,000.
Players who sadly bust during today's play included former WSOP APAC champion Scott Davies, Samantha Cohen, H.O.R.S.E. final tablists Luke Edwards and Ashish Gupta, Joshua Abady, WSOP Main Event final tablist Michael Dyer, Dong Guo, father and son duo Joe and Anthony Hachem, Marc Macdonnell, Sorel Mizzi, Jan Suchanek and Steven Warburton.
Here is a list of the 26 players who made it through:
| Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Sean Eichendorf | 218,300 |
| Didrik Mantor | 148,000 |
| Guanchen Wang | 126,600 |
| Tim Ulmer | 121,000 |
| Frank Naturel | 118,400 |
| Josh Foster | 114,100 |
| Tobias Leknes | 106,700 |
| Niall McGovern | 98,100 |
| Stephen Quon | 87,500 |
| Eli Siegel | 85,600 |
| Kim Macnaught | 79,500 |
| Jim Giannoukos | 69,600 |
| Connie Graham | 69,000 |
| Jayan Li | 67,600 |
| Lin Hung Sheng | 62,100 |
| Josip Simunic | 57,000 |
| Ari Shin | 56,600 |
| David Clark | 55,800 |
| Carlos Beverra | 51,700 |
| Thomas Chong | 46,300 |
| Samuel Johnston | 45,300 |
| Charlton Hawes | 42,800 |
| Benedikt Eberle | 40,100 |
| Amon Mustchin | 35,700 |
| Kwang Nguyen | 33,500 |
| Justin Liberto | 26,100 |
Both remaining flights kick off at 12:10 pm on Friday and Saturday, offering new and re-entering players a final chance to lock up a seat in Day 2 which gets underway on Sunday.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for more action live from the Crown Casino here in Melbourne at the Aussie Millions.