Day 1 play lasted for almost fourteen hours yesterday. By the time things wrapped up, the starting field of 449 runners had collapsed to four eight-handed tables. Those four tables will play a double shootout format today, with the top two players from each table moving onto the final table and the chance at Aussie poker immortality.
The players have re-drawn for seats according to a seeding formula. That means that the top four chip stacks -- John MacNaughton (181,300), Saidal Wardak (146,300), Sean Keeton (145,400), and Neville Eber (127,800) -- are all on different tables. The bottom four chip stacks are all on different tables as well. They won't be able to hide together on the same table.
Once we have two players remaining on any table, that table will suspend play until each of the other tables has reached the same point. The final eight players will then combine to one final table and play as normal from there.
The action kicks off in thirty minutes.