2014 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge Day 1: McDonald Leads After Record-Setting Day
Day 1 of the 2014 Aussie Millions AU$100,000 Challenge was an insane flurry of action like nothing we've ever seen before. At the end of the day, 66 entries were generated. Ten of those came from the tandem of Isaac Haxton and Daniel Negreanu, each of whom fired five bullets into the event. Negreanu ended the day with 221,500 in chips, while Haxton busted for a fifth time.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike McDonald | 468,500 |
| 2 | Paul Newey | 428,500 |
| 3 | Richard Yong | 379,500 |
| 4 | Antonio Esfandiari | 364,000 |
| 5 | Phil Ivey | 341,500 |
| 6 | Tom Dwan | 323,000 |
| 7 | Igor Kurganov | 310,000 |
| 8 | Winfred Yu | 301,000 |
| 9 | Max Altergott | 288,800 |
| 10 | Paul Phua | 274,000 |
Leading the 29 survivors into Day 2 was Mike "Timex" McDonald. After a making a late appearance to this year's festival, McDonald finished an exciting first day with a field-leading 468,500 in chips. The only other player over 400,000 to finish was Paul Newey, and he bagged up 428,500. Richard Yong, Antonio Esfandiari, and Phil Ivey round out the top five stacks.
With over 40 unique players in the event, the field was jam packed with poker's high-rolling superstars. Jason Mercier, Justin Bonomo, Doug Polk, Viktor Blom, Patrik Antonius, Fabian Quoss, Philipp Gruissem, Mike Watson, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, and Tom Dwan were just a handful of names to take a shot (or two, or three) and advance to Day 2. Joining them will be reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champion Ryan Riess, who will return Saturday with 208,500 in chips.
Furthermore, there are rumors swirling of even more entries to come. Registration and re-entry will remain open right up until the start of Day 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, and the word on the street is that Tobias Reinkemeier will be back in the mix after busting, and Sorel Mizzi and Scott Seiver may join up on their day off from the Main Event final table. The field could easily eclipse 70 entries, which would put quite the icing on the cake for this highly-anticipated event.
The Day 2 table draw, prize pool, and payouts won't be made available until registration officially closes, so you will have to stay tuned for that information. If Day 1 is any hint of what's to come in this event, Day 2 will be a day you won't want to miss. Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews for all of the live updates straight from the tournament floor as we hunker down for a long finish.
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