On a flop, Timothy Mitchell had 16,000 in front of him and Antonino Cascio had check-raised to 53,000. Mitchell thought for minutes before committing the rest of his chips, slightly more than Cascio's raise. Cascio quickly added the extra chips.
Timothy Mitchell:
Antonino Cascio:
Mitchell was in a world of hurt and the on the turn ended his attempt in the Main Event, rendering the river moot.
James Hopkins raised to 5,200 and short stack James Romero three-bet all in from the cutoff for his last 22,000 to pick up an instant call from Hopkins.
James Romero:
James Hopkins:
The hopes of a comeback for Romero were crushed immediately on the flop and the turn and river failed to improve Romero.
Jason Pritchard followed right after from a nearby table when his nut flush draw with bricked off against the turned straight of Chris Kostoulas.
Last but not least, Ludovic Geilich tried to force off Yuen Lai from a flopped set of fours when picking up a flush draw on the turn with to forfeit a big portion of his stack with the board eventually running out .
Martin Jacobson's table was the first to break, but he still had time to win a substantial pot off of Jack Brown.
On a flop, Jacobson check-called a bet of 7,800 and then bet 12,000 himself on the turn. Jacobson reverted to checking on the river and Brown bet 23,000. Jacobson called, and took down the pot without showdown after Brown mucked.
Live streaming on Twitch with Jason Somerville and friends starts today, and they could not have picked a better table to start off proceedings, with former Aussie Millions winner Ari Engel up under the lights.
"I'm good," said Engel. "I'm running good in Australia and hopefully I can keep it up. There are tons of people left so I hope to still be here by the next level.
Stefan Huber raised to 5,200 from early position and short stack David Hanlon three-bet all in from one seat over for 16 big blinds, which Huber snap-called.
800 players entered, 158 players remain and 88 of them will finish in the money. Day 3 of the record-breaking 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event is the money day, with each of the last 88 standing guaranteed at least AUD$15,000 for their three-day survival. At 12:30 p.m. local time, cards will be in the air for what's sure to be another long and hotly contested day for the biggest prize pool in the Southern hemisphere.
Leading the way are two locals: Najeem Ajez (522,100) and Frank Pezzaniti (480,000). Ajez is a regular face in the crowd here, with cashes at the Aussie Millions dating all the way back to 2012. Despite a fistful of cashes in smaller events, Ajez has yet to score his first Main Event cash, and he's put himself in prime position to do so. Pezzaniti finished 32nd last year and is looking to improve onto that already impressive performance.
Notables in the hunt include former champions Ari Engel (334,000) and Ami Barer (202,400). Plenty of other big names from around the globe are looking to win the record-breaking edition, including Sam Grafton (419,900), Kahle Burns (201,500), Jonas Lauck (189,000), Jonathan Karamalikis (147,600) and Fedor Holz (71,100).
Seven levels of 90 minutes await the players on Day 3 in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, with much-needed 15-minute breaks scheduled after each level to reenergize. The blinds will start at 1,200/2,400 with a running ante of 400 and the long day will wrap up around 2 a.m. in the night.
PokerNews will again be your one-stop shop for all live updates on the floor so make sure to check back regularly to not miss out on any of the exciting action Down Under!