$10,000 Main Event
Day 2 Completed
2017 Aussie Millions
$10,000 Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2017 Aussie Millions
Buy-in
10,000 AUD
Prize Pool
7,685,000 AUD
Entries
725
Level
31
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
The 2017 Aussie Millions will once again reward AU$1,6 million to the winner and nonother than Jennifer Tilly leads the remaining 151 players. The poker enthusiast and Oscar-nominated actress, is followed by, amongst others, big stacks Stephen Bantick, Haoran Zhang, Marc Macdonnell and [Removed:17].
| Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Tilly | United States | 497,100 |
| Stephen Bantick | United Kingdom | 411,600 |
| Haoran Zhang | Australia | 329,100 |
| Marc Macdonnell | Ireland | 320,000 |
| [Removed:17] | Australia | 319,800 |
Before things got underway, the Australian Poker Hall of Fame inducted a new member in 2015 Aussie Millions champion Manny Stavropoulos. [Removed:17] received the Young Achiever Award out of the hands of Joe Hachem.
As play got going with initially 372 players still in contention, some new players signed up to contribute to the prize pool and get a crisp 30,000 stack in return.
One of the new players was Fedor Holz and in true Holz fashion, he was up to 140,000 after just an hour of play. He didn't hold on to that mojo all day as he dropped down considerably halfway through, but he found a lucky double with a limp-shoved deuce-eight suited for 28 big blinds to double. He ended the day with a very healthy stack.
Jennifer Tilly soared to the top winning a huge pot where she called a bluffing neighbor with top set. She can boost her total live tournament earnings over that magical $1,000,000-mark if she finishes 24th or better.
While Tilly soared, defending champion Ari Engel was heading in the other direction. He bled away some chips to he got to the point he went with it having found pocket fours. Unfortunately for the 2016 Aussie Millions champion, his opponent had pocket aces.
Last year's runner-up, Tony Dunst, did make it through. Dunst will bring 242,600 in chips to Day 3 where the starting blinds will be 1,200/2,400 with a 400-ante. Seven levels are scheduled for Day 3. Some of the other notables to survive the day are Erik Seidel (309,100), Brian Altman (205,200), Jeff Rossiter (192,000), Cate Hall (153,100), Shane Warne (146,500) Dominik Nitsche (144,000, Matt Affleck (139,500), Ben Tollerene (126,600), Scott Davies (116,900), Nick Petrangelo (111,100) and Vojtech Ruzicka (67,000).
"We're in Australia mate! Enjoy it!" Sam Grafton said at one point in the last level of the day, sipping on a well-deserved beer with only a couple of minutes left on the clock. His huge smile en cheerful laugh just about perfectly described the atmosphere in the tournament room all day. While a lot of people met their Waterloo on Day 2 of the event, the ambiance was always as good as they could come in a poker room. There was laughter and banter everywhere, mostly instigated by that very Grafton (surviving the day with 80,700) while Mustapha Kanit (ending the day with 125,700) took care of uplifting spirits on the other end of the room.
Let's hope Day 3 will be more of the same, while there's always the chance that tensions will rise as it's going to be bubble day. With 151 players remaining and 80 in the money, the stage where Crown Melbourne will be handing out AUD$15,000+ cheques will for sure commence.
Action gets back underway at 12:30 p.m. local time so check back then for more updates from the 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event. As a bonus, Jason Somerville starts live streaming the event and we'll have those images on tap for you in our dedicated live reporting section.
Here's what's at stake:
| Position | Prize | Position | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AU$1,600,000 | 10 - 12 | AU$115,000 |
| 2 | AU$1,000,000 | 13 - 18 | AU$80,000 |
| 3 | AU$620,000 | 19 - 24 | AU$60,000 |
| 4 | AU$440,000 | 25 - 30 | AU$40,000 |
| 5 | AU$335,000 | 31 - 36 | AU$30,000 |
| 6 | AU$270,000 | 37 - 48 | AU$25,000 |
| 7 | AU$210,000 | 49 - 64 | AU$20,000 |
| 8 - 9 | AU$155,000 | 65 - 80 | AU$15,000 |
Here's a look at the prize pools and first place prizes throughout the long and rich history of the biggest event on the Southern Hemisphere:
| Year | Entries | Prize Pool (AU$) | Winner | First Prize (AU$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 74 | AU$74,000 | Alex Horowitz | AU$25,900 |
| 1999 | 109 | AU$109,000 | Milo Nadalin | AU$38,150 |
| 2000 | 109 | AU$173,500 | Leo Boxell | AU$65,225 |
| 2001 | 101 | AU$151,500 | Sam Korman | AU$53,025 |
| 2002 | 66 | AU$330,000 | John Maver | AU$150,000 |
| 2003 | 122 | AU$1,220,000 | Peter Costa | AU$394,870 |
| 2004 | 133 | AU$1,330,000 | Tony Bloom | AU$426,500 |
| 2005 | 263 | AU$2,630,000 | Jamil Dia | AU$1,000,000 |
| 2006 | 418 | AU$4,180,000 | Lee Nelson | AU$1,295,800 |
| 2007 | 747 | AU$7,470,000 | Gus Hansen | AU$1,500,000 |
| 2008 | 780 | AU$7,758,500 | Alexander Kostritsyn | AU$1,650,000 |
| 2009 | 681 | AU$6,810,000 | Stewart Scott | AU$2,000,000 |
| 2010 | 746 | AU$7,460,000 | Tyron Krost | AU$2,000,000 |
| 2011 | 721 | AU$7,210,000 | David Gorr | AU$2,000,000 |
| 2012 | 659 | AU$6,590,000 | Oliver Speidel | AU$1,600,000 |
| 2013 | 629 | AU$6,290,000 | Mervin Chan | AU$1,600,000 |
| 2014 | 668 | AU$6,680,000 | Ami Barer | AU$1,600,000 |
| 2015 | 648 | AU$6,480,000 | Manny Stavropoulos | AU$1,385,500 |
| 2016 | 732 | AU$7,320,000 | Ari Engel | AU$1,600,000 |
| 2017 | 725 | AU$7,250,000 | AU$1,600,000 |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
A recap of today's action is to follow.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
497,100
82,000
|
82,000 |
|
||
|
432,100
327,100
|
327,100 |
|
411,600
1,600
|
1,600 |
|
334,000
202,900
|
202,900 |
|
329,100
263,300
|
263,300 |
![Profile photo of [Removed:17]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
|
319,800
-200
|
-200 |
|
316,200
94,200
|
94,200 |
|
||
|
312,700
312,700
|
312,700 |
|
309,100
-34,900
|
-34,900 |
|
||
|
306,400
116,400
|
116,400 |
|
303,600
303,600
|
303,600 |
|
302,300
72,300
|
72,300 |
|
288,600
187,000
|
187,000 |
|
|
284,500
207,300
|
207,300 |
|
273,100
180,800
|
180,800 |
|
268,600
243,100
|
243,100 |
|
265,800
-24,200
|
-24,200 |
|
||
|
263,000
157,400
|
157,400 |
|
|
||
|
258,600
202,200
|
202,200 |
|
|
||
|
256,900
256,900
|
256,900 |
|
248,700
198,400
|
198,400 |
|
244,200
194,500
|
194,500 |
|
242,600
186,600
|
186,600 |
|
||
|
235,700
10,700
|
10,700 |
|
230,700
230,700
|
230,700 |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
We caught the action on the flop in a three-way pot between Brit Stephen Bantick, Erik Seidel, and [Removed:17] who between them have over 1.1 million in chips.
With the flop reading 
both Bantick and Seidel, sitting in the small and big blind respectively, checked the action over to Yan who checked it right back.
Bantick and Seidel again check on the 
turn and Yan fired out a bet of 11,500 into a pot of 12,000.
Bantick check-raised to 35,500, Seidel got out of the way and Yan gave the Englishman the stare down. Bantick however, was giving nothing away and after tanking for a minute Yan eventually tossed in the call.
The 
river saw Bantick tank for 30-seconds or so before counting out a sizable stack of yellow 5k chips, pausing to add two blue 1k chips and a single red 500 chip before sliding them over the line for a bet of 67,500 in total.
Yan thought it over briefly before tossing in calling chips.
“You have the straight right?” he asks Bantick, who nods the affirmative, rolling over 
to scoop the pot and climb to 410,000 while Yan dropped to 320,000 or so.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
410,000
130,000
|
130,000 |
|
|
320,000
-80,000
|
-80,000 |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
And the day is done. We'll be back soon with assorted end-of-day chip counts and a recap of today's action.
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Proving his Australian Poker Hall of Fame Young Achiever Award was well earned New Zealander [Removed:17] has been busy building quite the chip stack.
We caught Yan involved in a hand against Erik Seidel, with both players being recently moved to the table.
Yan was the aggressor in the hand, opening to 4,500 from early position and picking up two callers in the form of Erik Seidel (small blind) and Didier Guerin in the big blind.
All three players checked the 
flop with Seidel leading out on the 
turn for 7,500. Guerin folded but Yan decided to stick around and made the call taking play heads-up to the 
river.
Seidel checked, rolling over 
after Yan checked it back, but this was not enough to beat the Kiwi’s 
. Seidel dropped slightly but still has a huge stack of 344,000 while Yan climbed to over 400,000 and what looks to be close to the chip lead.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
400,000
99,000
|
99,000 |
|
|
344,000
44,000
|
44,000 |
|
|
||
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Thomas Muehlocker’s 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event dream is over after he found himself all in and behind against two players. We’re not sure when the chips went in as all the cards were out on the table and the dealer was sorting out the main pot and the side pot.
Muehloecker had pocket tens which was no good against an opponent’s pocket queens and Tony Mladenovski’s pocket kings with the community cards showing 
.
Muehloecker hit the rail, Mladenovski collected the main pot and the player with pocket queens raked the side pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
105,000
-200,000
|
-200,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
On a board of 
the player in the big blind checked. Aymon Hata fired out 11,000 from middle position and was called by Ben Richardson to his immediate left. The big blind folded.
The 
completed the board and Hata moved all in for around 30,000. Richardson paused for just a second and made the call.
Hata quickly turned over 
for a set of sixes but had met is match when Richardson flipped over 
for a higher set.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
125,000
18,000
|
18,000 |
|
Busted |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
From early position, Vojtech Ruzicka opened before the flop. The big blind shoved all in for 32,200 more and Ruzicka called after some time in the tank.
Ruzicka's 
was second best as his opponent turned over 
. The 
board did not help Ruzicka out and he was down to just over 77,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
77,300
-32,200
|
-32,200 |
Level 12
: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
A short-stacked David Vamplew moved all-in from under the gun and action folded around to Jai Kemp who peeked down at his cards and quickly announced the call.
David Vamplew:
Jai Kemp: 
The board came down bereft of paint and ran out 
to send the Scotsman to the rail and push Kemp up to 90,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
90,000
31,000
|
31,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
||