AUSSIE MILLIONS: Turk takes big Main Event lead into day four

The 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event field has been slashed to 26 after a dramatic Australia Day in the Crown Poker Room.

The UK’s Matthew Turk holds an almost 2:1 chip leader over his closest rival Queensland’s Tim O’Shea having acquired the bulk of his stack on one of the final hands of the day. His pocket 10s improved to a set on the flop against Jason Koon’s A-K to leave him well placed to reach the final table.

Phil Ivey maintained his position among the chip leaders for most of day three to lie sixth overall heading into day four, while Lee Nelson’s dreams of becoming the first multiple Main Event champion remain alive in 10th spot.

Others still in the hunt for the title include reigning ANZPT Player of the Year Danny Chevalier, Grant Levy (out to surpass his 13th place finish of 2008), Oliver Speidel, Joey Lawrence, Elton Tsang, Karim Jomeen and David Steicke.

The list of players to cash so far features Octavian Voegele (28th), Dennis Huntly (31st), Andrew Hinrichsen (32nd), Michael Pedley (34th), Pat Dillon (35th), Sean O’Reilly (36th), Ben Savage (45th), Billy Argyros (51st), Mike Ivin (52nd), Ali Ghezelbash (53rd), Kenna James (57th), Daniel Botta (58th), Tom Grigg (63rd) and Matt Wakeman (67th).

Former Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series champion and winner of The Poker Star reality show Amanda De Cesare was the highest placed female player, finishing 64th. Despite the rapid number of eliminations throughout the day, play will continue tomorrow and Saturday with the final table re-scheduled to Sunday in Studio 3.

2012 Aussie Millions Event 8: $10,600 No Limit Hold’em Main Event (659 players, 72 players paid, total prizepool AUD $6,590,000) end of day 3 chip count – 26 players remain, chip average 760,385

Matthew Turk 2,675,000
Tim O’Shea 1,367,000
Patrick Healy 1,353,000
Bjorn Li 1,222,000
Yann Dion 1,156,000
Phil Ivey 1,107,000
Daniel Idema 1,033,000
Minh Nguyen 992,000
Borge Dypvik 882,000
Lee Nelson 818,000
Mohamad Kowssarie 793,000
Josh Barrett 740,000
Janis Lesinskis 689,000
Kenneth Wong 618,000
Oliver Speidel 614,000
Joey Lawrence 504,000
Mile Krstanoski 472,000
Louie Srour 411,000
Danny Chevalier 399,000
Grant Levy 381,000
Elton Tsang 376,000
Karim Jomeen 282,000
Andrew Mellado 274,000
Ioannis Makris 213,000
David Steicke 183,000
Slade Fisher 172,000

Payouts (27-72)

27 Jason Koon $35,000
28 Octavian Voegele $35,000
29 Aage Ravn $35,000
30 Stanley Wu $35,000
31 Dennis Huntly $30,000
32 Andrew Hinrichsen 30,000
33 Steve Hansen $30,000
34 Michael Pedley $30,000
35 Pat Dillon $30,000
36 Sean O’Reilly $30,000
37 Michael Russell $25,000
38 Alexander Antonios $25,000
39 Robert Lam $25,000
40 Bob Sova $25,000
41 Rob Angood $20,000
42 Alexander Roumeliotis $20,000
43 Ben Jenkins $20,000
44 Paul Sing $20,000
45 Ben Savage $20,000
46 Michael Tureniec $20,000
47 Dominykas Karmazinas $20,000
48 Brett Watson $20,000
49 Robert Raymond $20,000
50 Wissam Boumadi $20,000
51 Billy Argyros $20,000
52 Mike Ivin $20,000
53 Ali Ghezelbash $20,000
54 Emad Moaref $20,000
55 Jeremy Simon $20,000
56 Diego Zeiter $20,000
57 Kenna James $15,000
58 Daniel Botta $15,000
59 Zakria Zahid $15,000
60 Armin Zoike $15,000
61 Louis Sawa $15,000
62 Stuart Kerr $15,000
63 Tom Grigg $15,000
64 Amanda De Cesare $15,000
65 Khiem Nguyen $15,000
66 Oscar Kemps $15,000
67 Matt Wakeman $15,000
68 Michael Langdon $15,000
69 Anthony Marenko $15,000
70 Patrick Lui $15,000
71 Lorinda Johnson $15,000
72 Paul Wilde $15,000