2009 Aussie Millions Main Event, Day 2: Ivert, Obrestad Top Pack
After three grueling Day 1 flights, 320 surviving players combined into a single Day 2 field on Wednesday at the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event. The poker players on hand at the Crown Casino in Melbourne included Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Patrik Antonius and Tony G, but it was two young women who led the field at the end of the day. Annica Ivert and Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad locked up the top two spots on the leader board as the field neared the money.
Mark Vos and Phil Laak were among the early casualties as the field shrunk rapidly to less than 100 survivors. Vos started the day on the short stack and never got anything going on Day 2, and Laak took a tough beat to send him to the rail. Laak moved all in on a 9?7?4? flop and was called by an opponent with A?7?. The 7? on the turn gave Laak only two outs to survive, and the 5? on the river wasn't one of them. Other early eliminations included Saidal Wardak, Neil Channing and Billy "The Croc" Argyros.
Tony G started the day with a healthy stack, but a horrible run of luck put him on life support early in Day 2. He moved the last of his chips in preflop with 3?3? and was called by Zach Gruneberg. Gruneberg was in a race with K?Q?, and the flop looked good for Guoga as it came down 10?5?9?. The 6? was no help for Gruneberg, and Guoga was poised to double up when the river brought the Q? and ended Tony G's event. Other notable exits on Day 2 included David Saab, Ivan Demidov, James Obst and Mel Judah.
Day 2 was rough on some world champions as well. Scotty Nguyen and Joe Hachem struggled to make it through the day. Nguyen picked up chips early when he caught a two-outer to crack an opponent's kings with his queens, but could gain little traction for the rest of the day. He made it through Day 2, but with a short stack. Favorite son Hachem was on a very short stack before he tripled up with pocket aces, then open-shoved on the penultimate hand of the night. Action folded around to Martin Comer, who thought for a moment before folding A-9 face up. Hachem tabled A-K and sipped his scotch. Hachem asked the table to give him a walk in his big blind to end the evening, but the cutoff refused to oblige. Hachem goofed with his opponent for a few moments before folding, and the cutoff flashed pocket aces to the champ. Hachem finished the day with one of the tournament's shortest stacks.
The same could not be said for 2007 WSOP-Europe Main Event champ Annette Obrestad, who finished Day 2 just behind fellow Team Betfair member Annica Ivert. Obrestad started Day 2 with an early double-up when her top pair held up on a board of 3?7?10?2?K?. All her chips went into the middle again on the very next hand, with a board of 10?10?9?7?. Obrestad showed J?8? for the straight and was called by an opponent on a club draw with K?. The 5? on the river gave Obrestad another double-up and set the tone for the rest of her day.
Annica Ivert came into the tournament via a Betfair qualifier, and set about making a name for herself as a tournament player on Day 2. She spent much of the early day mixing it up with Patrik Antonius and claimed several victims on her way to the top of the leader board. She bounced Josh Malone on a flop of 5?9?7? when she moved all in over the top of Malone's post-flop raise. Malone thought for a moment before calling with the naked flush draw �C Q?10?. Ivert tabled 9?7? and faded the diamond to send Malone home. Ivert finished the day with the chip lead as the top ten chip stacks looked like this:
Annica Ivert -- 555,900
Annette Obrestad -- 454,800
Rajkumar Ramakrishnan �� 388,200
David Docherty -- 362,000
Stewart Scott -- 348,000
Karl Bullock -- 347,900
Patrik Antonius -- 335,900
Michael Tureniec -- 332,000
John Paul Kelly -- 321,600
Will Zemljaric -- 308,000
Join PokerNews at 12:30 pm Melbourne time on Thursday for all the live updates from Day 3.
