Aussie Millions Begins
Aussie Millions mid-day report

by Sarne Lightman

The sun has long set when the gong sounds telling the players the final hand of the day has been played. It has been almost 10 hours and 156 players can no longer dream of the $1million first prize.

Two hundred sixty-two players still remain with Barry Greenstein leading the field with 126k.

World Champion Joe Hachem has made a full recovery, grinding his way back against horrible flops and horrible beats he finally found a hand to gamble most of his chips:

With blinds at 250/500, under the gun Joe finds QQ and raises to 1500. He is called in two spots and then the button goes all in for another 11k.

Joe goes into the tank for quite a few minutes but finally decides he has the best of it and calls. The other players fold and Joe is heads up.

The all in player flips 88 and Joe with an exclamation of glee flips his queens. However, Joe has been having such a rough time with the flops he decides to walk out of the room while the board is dealt.

He need not have worried. No eights are dealt and Joe suddenly has more than the chip average for the first time all day.

He carries on taking down small pots and even after losing 4k in the last hand of the day ends with a very respectable 36,150.

Another late boost was found by Australian PS qualifier Mike Comer. After being grinded down to only 12,000 in chips about 1 hour before the gong, he finds himself facing a 2k raise with KK. He re-raises all his chips and is called instantly by QQ. His kings hold and he manages to end the day with 21,500.

The luck did not continue for our Doris Humunicki, after some horrible flops for her pocket Queens and Jacks, she is bluffed out of another large pot. Her once impressive stack ends the day at only 8k. She is in good spirits, however, knowing that at least 156 players would do anything to have her stack.

The rest of team PokerStars is mostly going strong being led by American player Bernard Martinelli who has an impressive 49,100.

Other PS qualifiers who I have seen are:

Mathew Gloier (America) -- 37,825
William Purle (UK) -- 25,350
Rob Galluzzo (Australia) -- 18,875
George Magdas (Australia) -- 18,865
Frank Luciano (Australia) -- 12,625