The Start of a New British Empire?

Another glorious day has greeted us here at the Crown Casino in Melbourne and PokerNews is once again front and center at the feature table for the final table of the 2011 Aussie Millions $1,100 No Limit Hold'em Shootout!

The event began with 158 players, including a cavalcade of international superstars including past Aussie Millions Main Event champions Tony Bloom, Stewart Scott and Tyron Krost, as well as a massive stable of Full Tilt Red Pros, featuring Annette Obrestad, James Akenhead, Scott Montgomery and 2010 APPT Grand Final champion Jonathan Karamalikis.

All of these players fell by the wayside, but we've already had eight players make the money. Ben Delaney, Sam Vakili, Toby Lewis, Neil Channing, Sam Georges, David Lacchia, Dave Morton and Dean Nyberg have all picked up their AUD $2,015 from the cage, leaving us with a final table worthy of any "Ashes" battle.

However, it's those limey Poms that make up 50% of the players returning today, outnumbering the Aussies (of which there are four) and the Koreans (one), as well as Denmark's Soren Blanner, who leads the chip counts with 334,900.

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	BBs	Chip %
1	Soren Blanner	Denmark	334,900	84	21.2%
2	James Keys	England	280,700	70	17.8%
3	Barry Drysdale	Australia	241,400	60	15.3%
4	Charlie Combes	England	230,100	58	14.6%
5	Jack Powell	England	230,000	58	14.6%
6	Justin Walch	Australia	121,200	30	7.7%
7	Andrew Teng	England	96,300	24	6.1%
8	Chris Yea	Korea	95,600	24	6.1%
9	Daniel Neilson	Australia	57,200	14	3.6%
10	John Eames	England	28,900	7	1.8%

Play will be getting underway very shortly, so be sure to stay with us for exclusive coverage, right here at PokerNews! In the meantime, why not catch up with all the latest news from the rest of the poker world with The Nightly Turbo?