Less than 100 in Aussie Millions Main, Players Confirm for $250K Challenge, HPT to Visit Commerce Twice

Aussie Millions Main Event Reduced to Less than 100 Players

One of the biggest tournaments of each year is the Aussie Millions Main Event, and this year it partnered with the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. The $10,600 NLHE Main Event grew to the largest in three years, bringing in 668 total players. That boosted the prize pool to $6.68 million, out of which the top 72 players would be paid with $1.6 million to go to the winner.

Out of the original starting players, there were 355 who started Day 2, but that number thinned to only 109 by the end of the night. Players like Gus Hansen, Joe Hachem, and Philipp Gruissemdeparted along the way. Among those who survived, Phillip Willcocks had the largest stack of 510,600 chips. Sorel Mizzi was second in line with 507,100 chips, followed by Gareth Dwyer with 503,600. John Juanda and Scott Seiver were also in the top 10.

Day 3 began on February 6, and some of the initial eliminations included Annette Obrestad, Julian Powell, Mike Watson, and Tom Grigg. The field quickly fell to fewer than 100 players.

Players Confirm for Aussie Millions $250K Challenge

Thanks to Kevin Mathers live from the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, a list of confirmed players for the weekend $250K Challenge tournament has been released.

Among the 24 names on the list: Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Fabian Quoss, Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Viktor Blom.

HPT Announces Two Commerce Casino Stops in 2014

The Heartland Poker Tour announced plans to return to Commerce Casino in Los Angeles again this year, but it will be so nice that they’ll do it twice.

The first HPT stop at Commerce will be the finale of the California State Poker Championship, a series that runs from April 30 to May 19 with the Main Event beginning on May 15. The tour will then return to Southern California as part of its own Gold Rush Series with a Main Event set to begin on September 18 at Commerce.