Australian Obst Leads Remaining 68 Players
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With 68 players remaining in the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event, James Obst is the chip leader with 1,061,000 in chips. Obst is the only player in seven figures, but Scott Wilson won a massive pot during the last few minutes of play, and bagged 933,500 in chips.
Day 2 of the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event began with 312 players, and the chip leader was Brian Payne. Payne entered the day with just under 300,000 chips, and quickly started to plummet down the counts. In one particular hand, Payne and Mark Teltscher took a flop of 
. Payne led out for 4,000, and Teltscher made the call. The turn was the 
, both players checked, and the 
completed the board. Payne tossed out 6,000, and Teltscher moved all in for 20,000. Payne folded, leaving himself with under 200,000 chips. A few hours later, Payne was eliminated in unknown action.
Payne wasn’t the only notable to hit the rail during play on Day 2. Stephen Chidwick, Russell Thomas, Eoghan O’Dea, Nate Silver, Richard Yong, Paul Phua, Neil Channing, Eric Liu, Annette Obrestad and Joe Hachem were all eliminated.
Chidwick was eliminated in the last level of play with the 
against the 
of Ray Ellis. According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Ellis was a 69.61% favorite while Chidwick had a 29.60% chance of survival. The 
flop dropped Chidwick's chances to 16.46%, while the 
turn cut it down to just 6.82%. Chidwick needed an ace on the river to keep his 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event hopes alive, but he would find no salvation as the useless 
peeled off.
Silver, who appeared on the PokerNews Podcast earlier this week, had a roller coaster day, but the famous statistician was ultimately eliminated in the ultimate cooler scenario. Silver was all in and at risk preflop with two kings against Gary Benson’s two aces. Benson held, winning the 240,000-chip pot, while Silver hit the rail.
Among the survivors, no one was more aggressive than Obst, who rocketed up the counts. In one particular hand, he and Brandon Adams were heads up on a board of 
. Obst checked, Adams bet 60,000 into a pot of around 80,000, and Obst check-raised all in for effectively 200,000. Adams quickly folded, and Obst raked in the pot.
There was a very interesting ruling made during the day that concerned Tan and Wong — who are openly in a relationship. Tan was moved to Wong’s table, and when she was, she requested a seat change. At Crown Casino, the staff tries to keep relatives and couples separated as much as possible for as long as possible to avoid collusion or other strange scenarios.
“When there’s two full tables left we’re not gonna re-seat players , because that would be unfair,” Tournament Director Christian Vaughn told PokerNews. “Personally, I think it would be good if we were able to split up players who have substantial stakes in each other, but that’s far more complicated."
Tan’s request was granted, and she moved to a separate table. Both players cruised for the remainder of the day, and both players ended the day with healthy stacks.
Another couple that the PokerNews Live Reporting Team had its eyes on were Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. Antonius was moved to Ivey’s table in the middle of the day, and the two controlled the table until it broke with less than 20 minutes to play in the seventh and final level. During one orbit of play, four hands were won by Antonius and two by Ivey. In one particular hand, Antonius three-bet Ivey, prompting the rail to lean in and gawk at the table. Ivey folded, allowing the spectators to finally exhale.
The two poker icons finished the day with solid stacks — Ivey with 390,500 and Antonius with 332,000.
The prize pool was announced during Day 2, and the 629 players generated a total purse of AU$6,290,000. The top 64 players will earn a minimum of AU$15,000, and the winner will take home AU$1,600,000 and a Chrysler 300C sports car.
2013 Aussie Millions Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize (AU$) |
|---|---|
| 1st | $1,600,000* |
| 2nd | $1,000,000 |
| 3rd | $600,000 |
| 4th | $400,000 |
| 5th | $290,000 |
| 6th | $220,000 |
*Will also receive a car.
Day 3 will begin on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. local time. Be sure to head over to the PokerNews Live Reporting Page for exclusive up-to-the-minute reports directly from the poker room floor.