Hun Lee Cruises to Big Lead; 13 Players Survive Day 1 of the 25k PLO

Christian Zetzsche

Level 12 : 2,000/4,000, 0 ante

The first High Roller tournament of the 2020 Aussie Millions has kicked off and unlike in the previous year, the A$25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha took place in the middle of the festival and prior to the prestigious Main Event. Nonetheless, some of the biggest names in poker and mixed game specialists alike made their way to the poker room of the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne and a field of 59 entries emerged.

Only the top seven spots will take home a portion of the A$1,416,000 prize pool and the min cash is worth A$84,960, the winner can look forward to a payday of A$467,280 and the ANTON Jewellery championship ring.

Day 1 concluded at the end of level 12 and by then, six levels of 40 minutes and six levels of 60 minutes each had whittled down the field to the final 13 hopefuls. Australia's Hun Wei Lee has emerged as the commanding chip leader with more than three times of his nearest follower. Lee advanced with an impressive 892,500, second in chips is last year's runner-up Farid Jattin with 293,000 after a an intense rollercoaster ride at the tables.

Fabian Brandes is the only German-speaking mixed game specialist still in contention and his stack of 223,500 is good enough for third place on the overnight leaderboard. Besides Day 1 chip leader Lee, another five Australians will aim to keep the ring on home soil with Event #6 A$2,500 Six-Max 4th place finisher Najeem Ajez right in the middle of the pack with a stack of 208,500. He is closely followed by his countrymen Tam Truong (195,500) and WSOP bracelet winner Martin Kozlov (195,500), Benjamin Pockett (99,000) is among the shorter stacks.

The 2014 WSOP Main Event third-place finisher Jorryt van Hoof, who made the trip Down Under for the first time, advanced with 213,000 and the remaining international players include Miroslav Sheynin (184,000), Marc Rivera (168,000), Stephen Chidwick (165,000), Xue Wu (70,500), and Sylvain Loosli (45,000).

Day 2 will recommence at 2.10 p.m. local time on Tuesday, January 14th, and the blinds will be 2,500-5,000.

Late Rush Vaults Lee Into Big Lead

Lee was among those seated right away and saw his stack go above and below the starting stack frequently. Down to the final three tables, he gained a lot of momentum and a late surge saw the Aussie send several opponents to the rail to boost his stack significantly. His first high-profile victim in the final two levels was Ben Lamb, who held trips eights only to see Lee turn over nines full. Luc Greenwood followed next when his aces up were no good as Lee had flopped trips fours, and Maxi Lehmanski became the last casualty of the day when he ran with a double-suited ace-king into the aces of Lee.

Other notables that came up short of making Day 2 were Alex Livingston, Toby Lewis, Bryce Yockey, Ami Barer, Mike Watson, Steve O'Dwyer, Cary Katz, Dan Smith, and Erik Seidel. Lewis had just won his third title at the Aussie Millions in as many years but was unable to run up a stack in PLO. Katz, Smith and Sam Higgs were among those to fire two entries without anything to show for.

After a good night's sleep, the final 13 players will return to their seats in the Crown Casino poker room to play down to a champion.

Day 2 Seat Assignments

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
8	1	Marc Rivera	Philippines	168,000	34
8	3	Sylvain Loosli	France	45,000	9
8	4	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	165,000	33
8	5	Xue Wu	China	70,500	14
8	6	Fabian Brandes	Germany	223,500	45
8	7	Hun Lee	Australia	892,500	179
8	8	Tam Truong	Australia	195,500	39

10	1	Martin Kozlov	Australia	195,500	39
10	3	Jorryt van Hoof	Netherlands	213,000	43
10	5	Benjamin Pockett	Australia	99,000	20
10	6	Najeem Ajez	Australia	208,500	42
10	7	Miroslav Sheynin	Australia	184,000	37
10	8	Farid Jattin	Colombia	293,000	59