Frank Pezzaniti opened from the button and Corentin Hillion flat-called in the small blind. Tu Lan was in the big blind and three-bet to 75,000. Pezzaniti flat-called before Hillion four-bet all in for 417,000. Lan tank-called and action was on Pezzaniti who, after assessing his options, called all in for his last 243,000.
Frank Pezzaniti:
Corentin Hillion:
Tu Lan:
Lan was clearly overjoyed to be ahead, calling on his cards to hold. There was a jack in the window of a flop which caused him to cheer out loud.
The turn, however, drew 'oohs' from the assembled rail, who had gathered to see the big all-in showdown, as the gave Pezzaniti flush and straight draws.
There was a pause before the river was dealt - and what a river it was. The caused Pezzaniti to celebrate, having hit his flush, but it was all for naught as celebrating equally loudly was Lan who had rivered quads.
Earlier, on a flop of Duy Ho put out a continuation bet with and James Hopkins raised in position with . Ho called and the turn was the .
Ho checked and Hopkins bet 55,000. Ho then check-min-raised to 110,000. Hopkins tanked with just 120,000 behind before eventually folding his straight. Ho turned over his cards to show his ace-high straight to his opponent.
Ami Barer has bumped his stack up to one million over on the feature table after sending Tony Tartaglia to the rail. Barer's raise was called by Tartaglia before the former Aussie Millions champion then checked the flop. Tartaglia bet 27,000 and Barer called.
On the turn, Barer checked once more and Tartaglia moved all in for his last 125,000. Barer called and the cards were turned over.
Tony Tartaglia:
Ami Barer:
Tartaglia needed a queen, ten or heart in order to avoid elimination, but it was a blank with the , further improving Barer to trips jacks.
Mike Del Vecchio opened early and got one caller before Anthony Hachem shoved in the small blind for about 260,000. Del Vecchio put him at risk and the third player mucked.
Anthony Hachem:
Mike Del Vecchio:
Hachem's crowd called for a six but none hit on the . The meant chants changed to calls for a club but the river was the .
The third day of the 2018 Aussie Millions A$10,600 Main Event started with 158 players remaining out of a record-breaking 800-entry strong field, all aiming for their share of the massive A$8.0 million prize pool. After seven levels of 90 minutes each, the field was whittled down to see just 38 hopefuls in contention for the first-place prize of A$1.8 million.
Former Aussie Millions champions Ari Engel and Ami Barer consistently built their stacks throughout the day on their mission to become the first ever two-time champion. Engel advanced with 1,075,000 and Barer ended Day 3 with 428,000. At the top of the counts, Mike Del Vecchio claimed a big lead over the rest of the field with 2,330,000. “That was about as physically good as somebody could run,” the American said, and he headed to Australia full of confidence with a career-best score of $752,196 after finishing 3rd in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic only a few weeks ago.
Engel was smiling as usual at the tables regardless of the outcome of the hands and was very satisfied with how things went on Day 3. “It was a good day. I ran really well and won the flips and flopped some good hands. Even flying over here I always get memories of winning so there are a lot of positive memories being in this building.”
The Canadian, who won the title and A$1.6 million first prize in 2016, is looking forward to the switch to six-handed tables with 36 players remaining. “I'm confident playing short-handed so that's fine. I'm fine playing eight- or nine-handed also - whatever they wanna do is good for me!”
Other chip millionaires at the end of Day 3 include two-time APPT champion Aaron Lim (1,358,000), Tu Lan (1,220,000) and Vincent Chua (1,089,000). Kahle Burns, who received the Australian Poker Young Achiever Award at the Crown Casino during a break on Day 2 of the tournament, bagged up 973,000. Furthermore, Najeem Ajez (958,000), Espen Solaas (862,000), Bobby Zhang (714,000), Toby Lewis (571,000), Stefan Huber (538,000), Artur Koren (315,000) and Daniel Neilson (89,000) will all return for more action.
Only the top 88 spots were paid and among those to bust out before the money were such big names as Jesse Sylvia, Fedor Holz, Federico Butteroni, Sam Grafton, Paul Michaelis, 2014 WSOP APAC champion Scott Davies, Jonathan Karamalikis and Australian Poker Hall of Famer Mel Judah. Grafton ran a triple barrel bluff after his nut flush draw and straight draw bricked off and was called by start-of-the-day chip leader Najeem Ajez to bust with a bang.
The money bubble burst without hand-for-hand mode having kicked off. Down to 89 players all current hands were supposed to be finished with two tables still running and that would prove to be crucial for Matthew Wakeman. Having flopped top set with pocket jacks, he check-raised all in against Toby Lewis and Harry Demetriou with both opponents calling before Lewis got the rest of his stack in after the turn when he improved to the nut flush with ace-jack suited. Demetriou called with queen-ten for the flopped straight and a blank river crowned Wakeman as the bubble boy.
With at least A$15,000 locked up for their efforts, the remaining players dropped quickly after with Daniel Laidlaw, 2014 WSOP Main Event Martin Jacobson, Martin Finger, Day 1c chip leader Frank Pezzaniti, Duff Charette and Casey Kastle all heading to the payout desk earlier than they were hoping for. Pezzaniti's roller coaster ride ended after the dinner break when his ace-five suited faced the pocket tens of Corentin Hillion and the pocket jacks of Tu Lan. A jack on the flop and river gave Lan quads and he skyrocketed to the top of the leader board.
At the end of the night, 2014 Aussie Millions champion Ami Barer dropped back into the middle of the pack while Mike Del Vecchio took a commanding lead with the eliminations of Duy Ho and Anthony Hachem.
The action recommences in level 20 with blinds of 6,000/12,000/2,000 on Friday February 2nd, 2018, as of 12.30 p.m. local time in the biggest casino in the Southern hemisphere, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide exclusive updates. The live stream of the feature table can be followed on the runitup Twitch channel with a security delay of 30 minutes.