The 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event got underway over the weekend as championship hopefuls turned out at the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia to start their journey to a title in one of the most popular events on the worldwide tournament calendar. Two of the three starting days are in the books (with the tourney in Australia, timing for those of us in the States can get pretty confusing) and leading the way so far is Aussie poker pro James Obst with 212,100 chips. He is the only player after the first two flights with more than 200,000 chips.
Obst has earned about $1.1 million on the live tournament circuit according to TheHendonMob.com. He has a number of six-figure cashes, though (perhaps) interestingly, none for over $200,000. His best cash came at the Aussie Millions in 2011 when he finished fifth in the AUD $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for AUD $200,000 (USD $197,804).
As often happens in opening flights of major tourneys, it was a late hand that catapulted Obst to the chip lead. On one of the final hands of the night, reports PokerNews, there was a raiser to 1,500 and a caller pre-flop before the action got back to Obst, who re-raised it up to 5,500 chips with pocket Aces from the button. Obst was thrilled to see the original raiser continue to fire, re-raising to 14,000. The caller folded and Obst five-bet to 26,000. Obst’s opponent wasn’t going anywhere, moving all-in for around 100,000, an amount which Obst obviously called.
It was a strange hill on which to take a stand, as the opponent had just T-J suited and though he flopped a pair, couldn’t do any better and was eliminated from the tournament.
The first starting flight attracted 182 players while the second brought in 207 for two-day total of 389. It looks like about 189 of those made it to Day 2, where they will await the survivors of the third and final starting flight.
2016 Aussie Millions Main Event – Day 1A Chip Leaders
1. James Obst – 212,100
2. Terence Clee – 183,000
3. Andrew Bassat – 168,000
4. Jack O’Neill – 141,000
5. Daniel Reijmer – 137,400
6. Dylan Honeyman – 137,400
7. Michael Egan – 133,600
8. Sailendra Sha – 133,000
9. Greg Goldberg – 129,200
10. Umut Picakci – 129,200
2016 Aussie Millions Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Alex Rocha – 166,000
2. KC Wong – 163,000
3. Josep Maria Galindo – 153,200
4. Mazyar Misaghian – 152,000
5. Stephen Graner – 135,000
6. Pete Matusik – 135,000
7. Robert Salter – 127,700
8. Pheap Chea – 123,800
9. Mikkel Habb – 123,000
10. Peter Brasile – 118,400
2016 Aussie Millions Main Event – Overall Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. James Obst – 212,100
2. Terence Clee – 183,000
3. Andrew Bassat – 168,000
4. Josep Maria Galindo – 153,200
5. Mazyar Misaghian – 152,000
6. Jack O’Neill – 141,000
7. Daniel Reijmer – 137,400
8. Dylan Honeyman – 137,400
9. Stephen Graner – 135,000
10. Pete Matusik – 135,000
