It is unusual to see a player have the chip lead in consecutive early days of a live poker tournament, so Jan Suchanek’s 2015 Aussie Millions to this point has been quite impressive. Suchanek was the Day 1A chip leader, ending the day with 163,400 chips (ok, so he wasn’t the overall chip leader, but flight chip leader counts for something) and now, after Day 2, he has over 300,000 more chips to now be the top dog in the entire tourney.
The New Zealander has about $636,000 in lifetime live tournament earnings, according to TheHendonMob.com, putting him fifth on the country’s all-time money list. He has a couple minor victories, including one in a preliminary event at the Aussie Millions in 2012. He has six World Series of Poker cashes and one World Poker Tour cash.
Suchanek rose to his perch shortly before the end of the night. According to PokerNews.com, with over 200,000 chips, he three-bet pre-flop with just 6♥-2♥ and Isaac Lau called with A-T. The flop was ten-high, giving Lau a pair, but Suchanek made a runner-runner flush and shoved all-in. Lau had no reason to think Suchanek had the hole cards he had and made the call, doubling-up Suchanek and giving him the chip lead.
Lau taken the lead shortly before that hand, getting into a raising war with another player at the table pre-flop until they were both all-in (Lau had the bigger stack). Lau showed pocket Queens while his opponent flipped over A-K for a good, old race. The flop was 8-6-6, keeping Lau in the lead. The 8 on the turn put two pair on the board, and though his opponent now had two pair with an Ace kicker, Lau’s Queens meant that he had a better two pair, kicker be damned. A Ten on the river clinched the hand for Lau was the chip leader for a short time.
A number of notable players are still in contention heading into Day 3, including the Aussie Millions Main Event defending champ, Ami Barer, last year’s World Series of Poker runner-up, Felix Stephensen, Day 1C Chip Leader Alex Antonios, all-everything Phil Ivey, and Mike “Timex” McDonald.
After a few late entries before the start of Day 2, the total field was set at 648 players. A total of 72 players will make the money with AUD $1.6 million going to the winner.
2015 Aussie Millions Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Jan Suchanek – 483,900
2. Keanu Simpson – 403,000
3. James Rann – 382,000
4. Michael Pedley – 376,700
5. Andrew Chen – 344,400
6. Wai Tung Lo – 340,000
7. Alex Antonios – 329,000
8. Grant Levy – 324,500
9. Rahul Byrraju – 321,400
10. Michael Addamo – 321,100
