After what turned out to be the shortest day of play yet at the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event, Matt Turk holds the lead over Day Two leader Tim O’Shea and a host of top professionals, including Phil Ivey, with Day Three in the books.
75 players were alive and kicking when the play began on Thursday in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, but a few of those players would not be happy to come back to action. With a field of 659 players, 72 of them would get some hard earned cash for their efforts; this meant that three players in action today would go home empty handed for all their work. Although the field was able to get to the bubble quite quickly, it would be a two hour slog before Frank Paul (holding A-J off suit) was eliminated from the tournament by Kenna James’ 8-5 to take the dubious crown of “bubble boy.”
Once Paul vacated the tournament floor, the eliminations came fairly quickly. The plan was to play five levels on Thursday, but those “in the money” players were able to break the field down in a measly three levels. Along the way, several notable names were dropped from the action as the true contenders began to step forward.
James could not sustain his drive from his elimination of Paul, eventually succumbing to Jason Koon in a particularly brutal fashion. After Koon made a raise from the button, James three bet the action out of the small blind. Once the big blind mucked, Koon pushed in his remaining chips and was called immediately by James. It turned out the quick call meant exactly what an experienced player would expect – pocket Aces – as Koon could only turn up a pocket pair of deuces. The flop was unkind to James, however, delivering a third deuce for Koon and, once he was able to fade a flush draw on the turn, Jason Koon dispatched Kenna James in 57th place ($15,000 Australian).
James was joined on the rail by a host of top players who, while taking down some cash, surely were disappointed not to be going any further. Billy Argyros (51st, $20,000), Michael Tureniec (46th, $20,000) and 2012 Aussie Millions $1,000 Rebuy champion Michael Pedley (34th, $30,000) all headed to the cage earlier than they wanted.
Koon himself would be the last victim of a frantic Thursday of play, and the hand would put Turk atop the leaderboard. After several bets, Turk put in enough chips for Koon to be all in and the duo exposed their hands. Koon’s A-K was trailing Turk’s pocket tens pre flop and, right in the window, he saw another King. Koon’s elation was short-lived, however, as the flop fanned out with a ten as well. Once a blank came on the turn to leave him drawing dead, Jason Koon was out of the tournament in 27th place ($35,000).
While Turk was able to surge to the chip lead with the final hand of the night, several other players who have seemingly been atop the leaderboard all tournament kept pace. Although he will have approximately half of the chips that Koon has, O’Shea was able to work his way through the Day Three carnage with more chips than he started the day with. Ivey, for his part, kept a steady pace as well, seemingly unfazed by his six-month absence from the tournament arena.
Two players made significant advancements through the field to put themselves in contention for the 2012 Aussie Millions championship. Minh Nguyen started Day Three action with only 238,000 in chips but, by the end of the night on Thursday, had amassed nearly one million in chips. 2011 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Idema’s move up the leaderboard was perhaps more impressive, starting the day with 350K in chips and ending Thursday’s action with over one million.
With Day Three action in the books, there is one former champion left in the field, 2006 winner Lee Nelson, who is a part of the Top Ten heading to play on Friday:
1. Matt Turk, 2.675 million
2. Tim O’Shea, 1.376 million
3. Patrick Healy, 1.353 million
4. Bjorn Li, 1.222 million
5. Yann Dion, 1.156 million
6. Phil Ivey, 1.107 million
7. Daniel Idema, 1.033 million
8. Minh Nguyen, 992,000
9. Borge Dypvik, 882,000
10. Lee Nelson, 878,000
The final 26 players will return to the Crown Casino on Friday afternoon (Melbourne time), with the goal of working down to the final table. After action on Saturday, we will learn who will walk off with the $1.6 million first place prize and the prestigious title of 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event champion.
