Yann Dion Leads Final 12 of Aussie Millions Main Event; Ivey Short Stacked

The 2012 Aussie Millions Poker Championship continued Friday and was headlined by Day 4 of the $10,000 Main Event. As the field played down from 26 players to 12, the big story continued to be Phil Ivey, who was closing in on his major final table since 2010.

Elsewhere around the Aussie Millions, a couple of preliminary events wrapped up, while a few new ones kicked off. Friday was supposed to see the start of the $250,000 Challenge, but that event was postponed until 16:00 AEST on Saturday to help accommodate some of the players who had commitments over the Chinese New Year. PokerNews will be on hand to cover that event in its entirety.

Here’s a look at the action from Day 16 of the 2012 Aussie Millions Poker Championship:

Event #8: $10,000 Main Event Day 4

Day 4 the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event began with 26 players. Only 12 advanced to Day 5. Friday's action began at noon and after around seven hours of intense play it was Yann Dion who finished at the top of the chip counts with a huge chip stack of 2,670,000.

The man who held the attention of railbirds from the start of the day was Phil Ivey,. He began Day 4 with 1,107,000 and, after a long day of ups and downs, will return on Day 5 with enough chips to keep his opponents at least mildly concerned. A key hand for Ivey came when he and Karim Jomeen got all the chips in on a  board. Ivey held  for bottom set while Jomeen held  for middle set. Fortunately for Ivey, Jomeen only put a small dent in his stack, so he still sat with around the chip average. At the end of the day, Ivey bagged up 699,000, leaving him with the shortest stack of the remaining players.

The play was fast and aggressive from the start, with the first couple eliminations coming within the first level. David Steicke was the first player to go home, taking a $35,000 payday after he ran his  into the  of Patrick Healy and was unable to improve.

Following Steicke out the door in 25th place was Ioannis Makris, whose elimination came at the hands of Ivey. Andrew Mellado then hit the rail in 24th place when he couldn’t win a race against Dion. The payday increased for the next couple of players; Louie Srour exited in 23rd place before Day 2 overnight chip leader Tim O’Shea exited in 22nd place.

Janis Lesinskis was on a roll up to that point and continued to run hot as he sent Elton Tsang home in 21st place. Next out the door was Josh Barrett, with his  unable to catch up against . Borge Dypvik’s stack was left to blind off for half of the first level, but he ended up managing a 19th-place finish.

Slade Fisher was in bad shape when he got his stack all-in preflop holding  against Jomeen’s ; however, he was looking good as the turn card was dealt on a  board. Unfortunately for Fisher, the  on the river gave Jomeen the straight and sent him home in 18th place. The next to go was Joey Lawrence as his  ran into Daniel Idema’s .

Idema then continued his climb up the leader board by eliminating Minh Nguyen in 16th place. In that hand, Idema held  and had to come from behind against Nguyen’s . The ace fell on the flop and Idema added another casualty to his hit list. Grant Levy was next to go in 15th place after losing a flip for his tournament life against Lesinskis.

Matt Turk started Day 4 with a massive chip lead, but couldn't hold on. Turk lost a large portion of his stack to Lesinskis when he watched his  go up against Lesinskis' . The  board was enough to see Lesinskis survive and thrive while Turk was sent down the leader board. Turk then bled chips throughout the day before his  ran into the  of Dion to see him out the door in 14th place. Interestingly enough, Turk finished Day 3 with more chips than the current chip leader going into Day 5.

The last elimination of the night came at the hands of the chip leader Dion. Danny Chevalier got his short stack in preflop holding  against Dion’s . The flop improved both of their hands, but the ace for Dion was enough to end Chevalier’s tournament life.

Here's a look at the final two tables in the Aussie Millions Main Event:
 

Day 5 kicks off at 12:30 pm in Melbourne, and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand capturing all the action.

Event #17: $550 NLHE

The final table of Event #17: $550 NLHE concluded early Friday morning with Luke Tsapazis emerging as the winner. The tournament attracted a field of 189 and created a prize pool of $94,500. Here's a look at the final table results:

Event #17: $550 NLHE Final Table Payouts

Upcoming Events

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand for Day 5 of the 2012 Crown’s Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Even. In addition, Events #20 $250,000 Challenge (16:00 AEST), #22 $550 NLHE-1x R/A (12:15 AEST), #23 $25,500 NLHE Semi-Shootout (14:15 AEST), and #24 $550 Pot Limit Omaha (18:15 AEST) are all set to kick off.