Phil Ivey Among Leaders at Aussie Millions

After three days of play at the Aussie Millions Main Event, 26 players remain in contention, with Matthew Turk leading the field. But the biggest story is the reemergence of Phil Ivey, who has been near the lead since the beginning of the tournament and now sits in 6^th place.

Day Three of the tournament saw the money bubble burst, as 75 players entered the day fighting for 72 paid places. That close to the money, the bubble quickly broke, and the fast play continued after that. While the day’s play was scheduled for five levels, only three were needed to eliminate nearly two-thirds of the field.

The biggest hand of the day came on the last hand before play broke for the evening. Matthew Turk tangled with Jason Koon at a time when each had over 1.2 million in chips – putting them among the tournament leaders. All of the money went in preflop, with Koon holding AK against Turk’s pocket tens.

The flop came K-T-9, giving Koon a pair of kings, but putting him well behind Turk’s set of tens. Koon could not improve further, eliminating him from the tournament in 27^th place for a prize of about $35,000.

The pot gave Turk a huge chip lead. He now holds 2,675,000 chips, almost double the stack of the second place player, Tim O’Shea. Along with Phil Ivey, other notables near the chip lead include Minh Nguyen, Daniel Idema and Lee Nelson. The remaining players will be looking to claim the top prize of $1.6 million.

In other news from the Aussie Millions, David Bach won the $2,500 HORSE tournament to claim a prize of $32,250. Bach entered the final table in a virtual three-way tie for first, and went on to dominate the final table.

This wasn’t Bach’s first experience with winning a major HORSE tournament. Bach also won the World Series of Poker’s $50,000 HORSE in 2009, a tournament that would eventually become known as the Poker Players Championship.