Chris Moussa raised to to 300,000 from under the gun with A♣A♥ before Ken Demlakian slid out a three-bet to 825,000 with A♦K♣ in the cutoff.
Moussa then announced a four-bet to 1,700,000, with Demlakian opting to call. Moussa led out for 600,000 on the 5♣4♠5♠ flop and Demlakian called to see the 6♦ turn.
Moussa then moved all in for 1,525,000, with Demlakian taking some time before making the fold.
Michael Sleiman moved all in on the button for his last 775,000 and was immediately at risk when Chris Moussa moved all in from the small blind.
Michael Sleiman: J♣8♣
Chris Moussa: K♠K♥
Moussa turned over pocket kings for the second straight hand, improving to a full house on the K♦4♣8♥4♥7♦ board. Sleiman wished everyone good luck as he left the feature table.
It will take an extra day to decide a champion at Doltone House Western Sydney at Club Marconi, where the final 10 players in the $1,500 Platinum Player Championships will return at 4 p.m. local time to battle for the Australian Poker Open trophy.
The field of 937 entries is down to 10, with each of them guaranteed A$14,000 to this point. All of them will have their eye on the title and first-place prize of A$248,000, which will finally be handed out on this unscheduled Day 3.
Day 3 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Justin Woo
Australia
8,150,000
54
2
Alex Lee
Singapore
8,125,000
54
3
David Hirst
Australia
5,325,000
36
4
Khanh Le
Australia
4,950,000
33
5
Paris Sitzoukis
Australia
4,900,000
33
6
Ken Demlakian
Australia
4,875,000
33
7
Campbell Ashton
Australia
4,100,000
27
8
Sergio Colosimo
Australia
3,950,000
26
9
Chris Moussa
Australia
1,600,000
11
10
Michael Sleiman
Australia
875,000
6
The top two on the leaderboard are separated by just a single 25,000 chip, as Justin Woo and Alex Lee tower over the rest of the field with 54 big blinds apiece. Their stacks combine to represent a third of the chips in play, and they return to action with sizeable leads at their tables.
Day 3 will begin at 4 p.m. local time, where action will resume hand-for-hand on the final table bubble. The last nine players will then redraw for the final table, playing down to a winner from there.
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
1
$248,000
2
$176,000
3
$114,000
4
$70,600
5
$43,500
6
$31,000
7
$26,700
8
$22,500
9
$18,200
10
$14,000
Play will recommence with 60-minute levels, beginning with blinds of 100,000/150,000 and a 150,000 big blind. Players will see scheduled breaks after every two hours of play.
The Australian Poker Open Twitch channel team will be sticking around for an extra day, bringing you all of the action on stream beginning at the final table.
The PokerNews live reporting team will also be on the ground for every moment in the final stretch to crowning a new champion in Sydney, so keep it locked here for full coverage.