Phil Ivey Still Alive in Aussie Millions

Only 12 players remain in the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event, with Yann Dion now leading the field with a stack of 2,670,000 chips. Dion was not among the leaders heading into the 4^th day of play, but steadily built a chip stack that has now put him in great position to take down his first major tournament title.

Dion, a poker pro from Quebec, Canada, has a number of small cashes over the last three years – but has never won a large event or claimed a prize of more than around $50,000. That could easily change in the next two days, as first prize in the Aussie Millions will be worth approximately $1.6 million.

Heading into the final day of play, though, it’s likely that all eyes will still be on Phil Ivey. While Ivey comes into play with the shortest stack remaining, he does have 699,000, or more than a quarter of the largest stack. This puts him in decent shape, as the entire tournament field is rather tightly packed together.

In fact, Dion has plenty of company near the top of the leaderboard. Bjorn Li, Mohamad Kowssarie and Karim Jomeen all have over two million in chips, while four more players – including Daniel Idema and Lee Nelson – have over 1.5 million.

Twelve players went home on Day 4, cutting the field in half. Perhaps the biggest name that hit the rail during the session was Minh Nguyen, who hit the rail in 16^th place. Nguyen’s pocket kings couldn’t hold up against the AQ on Daniel Idema, ending his deep tournament run.

Another surprising elimination was that of Matt Turk. After winning an enormous flip at the end of Day 3, Turk struggled throughout Day 4, eventually being eliminated in 14^th place. Amazingly, at the end of the 4^th day of play, nobody has accumulated a chip stack equal to the one held by Turk heading into the day.

Day 5 will see the final 12 players start at two tables of six players each. They will then play down to a final table, which will be contested on the 6^th and final day of play.