Lee Armstrong has been involved in plenty of hands in order to run up his stack and the latest one saw him jam the river of a completed board of . With some 100,000 already in the middle, Armstrong's shove was for 78,100 and Ken Demlakian was in the think tank after having asked for a count. Ultimately, Demlakian folded the face up and Armstrong raked in the pot.
Down to just 18,100, Sarah Bilney moved all in from early position and was called by Frank Pezzaniti in the big blind with the . Bilney had and the board of brought no upset. It was only a small dent into the stack of Pezzaniti, who remains at the top of the counts with half an hour to go.
Andreas Klatt held and was in good shape to eliminate a player holding . The flop gave Klatt a set coming but his opponent still had outs to a straight.
However, the turn gave the German a full house and the river was inconsequential.
Ari Engel opened preflop and got a call from the big blind. That player led out at Engel on the flop for 12,000 and Engel called. The turn was the and the big blind checked. Engel bet 23,500. The big blind slid in 100,000 and Engel thought awhile and then shoved all in. It was 97,500 more.
After a several minutes in the tank, the big blind folded .
After an early limp, a player raised to 8,000 in middle position.
"Attacking the limp," Sam Grafton mused from the big blind.
With action on him, he put in a reraise to around 25,000, and the next thing we knew, stacks were in with the original raiser at risk for about 130,000.
Grafton:
Opponent:
The flop had Grafton's neighbors calling for jacks and telling him they were sorry about the beat. He calmly watched the and roll off though and shook his vanquished foe's hand.
Two hands later, someone opened for 4,500 and Grafton made it 15,500 on the button. Max Young cold four-bet to 38,000 in the next seat, chasing away the blinds and the opener. Grafton shoved all in and induced a quick fold from Young.
Tristan Bain doubled up his short stack for some 21,000 with against the of James Clarke thanks to a board of and Bain doubled. He then made it 5,000 to go and Parker called in the cutoff. The button moved all in for 28,300 and Bain reshoved to isolate successfully.
Button:
Tristan Bain:
The board ran out and Bain's two pair scored the knockout.
Frank Pezzaniti's hot run came to an end in the very last hand of the day after his table neighbor flopped top set and had a full house by the time the river came to see Pezzaniti pay off and drop below half a million.
A raising war ended with the all in and call in the corner of the upper tournament area and John Parker ended up all in and at risk for 103,100 in a battle of pocket pairs against Sherif Derias.
John Parker:
Sherif Derias:
The board ran out and Parker doubled to an above-average stack.
While other tables were busy bagging there was an all in at Martin Kozlov's table, with the Australian holding against the of Szymon Wysocki. The flop read and there was no help for Kozlov on the turn or river.
At last year's Aussie Millions at Crown Melbourne, Fedor Holz put together a legendary run, pairing a third-place finish in the $100K Challenge with a fifth-place finish in the Main Event for a total of nearly A$700,000 in cashes.
This year, things looked quiet on the Holz watch as there was nary a sight of him in the tournament area through the first three starting days of the Main Event. Perhaps he took Sam Greenwood's Twitter barbs as a challenge, or perhaps he always planned on fashionably late arrival.
Either way, Holz beat the buzzer with a Day 2 registration and got to work right away, He doubled up just a few minutes in after backing into a flush against an opponent who made the nut straight and couldn't find a river fold to Holz's check-raise.
The German legend had nearly triple the starting stack in under an hour, and it looked like the start of another tour de force. However, it would prove a swingy day, and though Holz hit heights around 150,000, he would only put 71,100 in the bag. He has work to do on Day 3, but that doesn't mean anyone will feel comfortable seeing his name on their table draw.
Holz's late registration was part of the final push during the opening level play that pushed the tournament to a record number of 800 runners, creating a prize pool of exactly A$8 million. Even at the ripe old age of 21, the Aussie Millions is doing the opposite of slowing down.
A couple of former champions have built big stacks and put themselves in prime contention among the 160 players remaining at the close of Day 2. Ari Engel (2016) and Ami Barer (2014) both had strong showings. The former bagged 334,000 and the latter 202,400,
Engel got a turn jam through in a huge pot late, inducing a player to fold trip kings on a three-flush board.
While that was happening, loquacious British star Sam Grafton was putting the finishing touches on his monster Day 2 at the neighboring table. He busted a player with aces against ace-king and then got a five-bet shove through on Max Young to finish with 419,000.
"You're gonna tell people about this some day," he boasted to his tablemates. "You're gonna tell them I played with Sam Grafton that year he won the Main Event here."
The chip lead, though belongs to Aussie Najeem Ajez (522,100). He sent Kitty Kuo packing when she couldn't find a fold with nines, five-bet shipping into Ajez's queens.
Marc Macdonnell, Ludovic Geilich, Kahle Burns, Matt Salsberg, Mike Del Vecchio, Martin Jacobson and Mel Judah were some other recognizable names to advance.
The remaining players return at 12:30 p.m. local time for Day 3, set to play 1,200/2,400/400 and hit the money with 88 players left. Come back to PokerNews to follow all of the live updates.