Suchanek Bags Lead for 2nd Day; Ivey, Barer, and Lyndaker All Advance
With registration open until the start of Day 2, three players waited until the last minute to buy into the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship AU$10,600 Main Event, bringing the total field to 648 players. That created a prize pool of AU$6,480,000 which will be paid to the top 72 finishers, with AU$1,600,000 reserved for the eventual winner.
A total of 344 players returned for Day 2 action at the Crown Melbourne, and after five 90-minute levels 135 remained with Jan Suchanek and his stack of 483,900 leading the way. It marked the second day in a row Suchanek finished with the top stack after finishing Day 1a at the chip leader.
Others who bagged big stacks included Keanu Simpson (403,000), James Rann (382,000), Michael Pedley (376,700), Andrew Chen (344,400), and Isaac Lau (318,000).
It actually looked as if Lau was going to finish as the chip leader. In Level 12 (1,000/2,000/300), he opened for 5,000 from middle position and Suchanek called. Another player then three-bet to 22,000, Lau four-bet to 55,000, and Suchanek got out of the way. The other player tanked for a long time before someone called clock on him, and with about 20 seconds remaining to make a decision he five-bet to 120,000. Lau, who had the bigger stack, wasted little time in six-betting all in and his opponent called off his remaining 70,000.
Lau: 
Opponent: 
It was a flip, and obviously there was a lot on the line. Lau, who had most of his chips at risk, was on his feet hoping his ladies would hold. They did on the 
flop as well as the 
turn. With one card to come the dealer burned and put out the 
. Lau clapped his hands together in celebration as his dejected opponent exited the tournament area.
Lau didn't hold onto the lead for long, however, as he sent a pile of chips over Suchanek before the end of play.
In one hand, Suchanek, who was sitting with over 200,000, three-bet Lau holding the 
. Lau called with 
and made top pair on the ten-high flop. The turn put two hearts out there, and Suchanek ended up making a flush on the river. He moved all in after Lau checked and managed to get paid off.
Of course not everyone ran as well as Lau and Suchanek. Among those to meet their demise on Day 2 were Jose "Nacho" Barbero, Winfred Yu, Ole Schemion, Erik Seidel, Jeff Rossiter, Jack Salter, Jeff Lisandro, former champ David Gorr, Patrik Antonius, Joe Hachem, Scott Davies, and Dan "jungleman12" Cates.
Seidel and Salter were actually eliminated by the same man, Richard "nutsinho" Lyndaker, who finished the night with 320,600. Lyndaker dispatched Seidel after flopping a flush draw to the Poker Hall of Famer's set. Lyndaker managed to fill the flush on the river, and that was all she wrote for Seidel.
Less than 30 minutes later, Salter, who finished runner-up in the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific back in October, opened for 2,300 from the hijack and Lyndaker just flatted from the cutoff. The player in the big blind came along, and the trio saw a flop of 
. The big blind checked, Salter continued for 5,200, and Lyndaker popped it to 12,500. The big blind wasted little time in folding, and then Salter three-bet all in for roughly 50,000. Lyndaker snap-called.
Lyndaker: 
Salter: 
Salter had flopped bottom two pair, but he was essentially drawing dead as Lyndaker had flopped middle set. The turn left Salter drawing dead, and after the 
was put out on the river he took his leave from the tournament.
While many fell, a slew of notables advanced to Day 3 including WSOP APAC bracelet winner and Day 1c chip leader Alex Antonios (329,000); Australian pro Grant Levy (324,500); defending champ Ami Barer (318,600); Phil Ivey (278,300), Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang (255,100); Mike "Timex" McDonald (167,300); and 2014 WSOP runner-up Felix Stephensen (153,100).
The remaining players will return for Day 3 action at 12:30 p.m. local time on Thursday to play seven 90-minute levels. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way to bring your all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of the Crown Poker Room.
While you wait, check out this video of Joe Hachem's new restaurant here in Melbourne: