Players Set To Reach the Money on Day 3 of the 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event; Honeyman Leads
Welcome back for Day 3 of the 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event.
With 150 players remaining, the field will look to make its way into the money on Thursday. The top 80 spots will pay a minimum of AU$15,000, and without a doubt tensions will be high for all of those left competing.
The player with the least amount of worry is Dylan Honeyman, who bagged up an impressive, field-leading stack of 517,200 after Day 2. Honeyman finished ahead of Jean-Pascal Savard's second-place stack of 455,200 by a considerable margin and is representing the home country of Australia.
Rounding out the top five behind Honeyman and Savard are Daniel Engles (427,300), Bobby Zhang (425,900), and Jason Brown (401,600).
After bagging up the overall chip lead heading into Day 2 of the event, James Obst had himself another positive day on Wednesday. He worked his was from 212,100 to 378,500 to place sixth on the leaderboard. Obst has had much success in Australia, which includes him winning an LK Boutique Aussie Millions ring at this year's festival, but his only Main Event cash came in 2013 when he took 19th from a field of 629 for AU$40,000. All signs point to him making another deep run this year for a man many consider Australian poet's best all-around player.
A couple of World Series of Poker Main Event champions also remain, with Joe Hachem and Martin Jacobson both advancing to Day 3. Hachem, who won the WSOP Main Event in 2005 for $7.5 million, will have 139,700 to start the day, and Jacobson, who won the WSOP Main Event in 2014 for $10 million, is on the shorter side of things with 42,500.
Another player with championship pedigree, specifically in this event, is Ami Barer, the 2014 winner. Barer is the only former Aussie Millions Main Event winner still alive in the field, and he takes a healthy 263,500 into Day 3. Not only did Barer win the event in 2014, but he ran all the way down to 11th place in 2015, trying ever so hard to hold onto his title before he ultimately fell short. With the 15th-best stack coming into Day 3, it looks like we're going to be seeing plenty of Barer in the days to come.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Tony Dunst with 256,900 in chips. The American once lived in Australia for an extended period of time before the government kicked him out due to Dunst overextending his stay, but he's back and looking to work his magic in the Main Event. For Dunst, Day 2 was a very quiet one until the end, and that's when his stack really ballooned.
In the second-to-last level of Day 2, Dunst cracked pocket queens with his pocket jacks against former Aussie Millions Main Event winner Oliver Speidel to double up. Speidel was later eliminated. Then, in the last level of play, right at the end of the day, Dunst was all in against both Richard Ashby and Julius Colman in a three-way clash of big pocket pairs. Dunst had two kings, Ashby had two queens, and Colman had two jacks. The kings held for Dunst, and both Ashby and Colman were done.
Just like it has on the prior days, Aussie Millions Main Event action will commence at 12:30 p.m. local time on Thursday for Day 3. Again, 150 remain, Honeyman leads, and the top 80 will reach the money. Seven 90-minute levels are scheduled, with a 15-minute break after each and a 75-minute dinner break after Level 16. That means the day will be long, but it'll only get more and more exciting as it goes on.
Stay tuned right here to PokerNews.com for continued coverage.