By Joe Zusman | January 18, 2008

Day 2 of the Aussie Millions, held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, saw a field of 338 of the best poker players in the world competing for a seat to advance to the next round. By the end of the day there were only 98 competitors left and many were stunned to see some of the game’s best take an early leave from the tournament.

The day started off with 2007’s third place finisher, Andy Black, as the chip leader. Not far behind was poker ace Phil Ivey, who dominated much of the action during Day 1. During round one, each match was played in a best-of-three format. The first player to win twice progressed to the next round. Due to the large fee to play in the tournament and the aggressive format, all the players came out with their best poker. Some of the more familiar faces at hand were Annete ‘Annette_15’ Obrestad, Josh ‘JJprodigy’ Field, Jeff Madsen, Paul ‘kwickfish’ Wasicka and Rafe Furst among many others.

Rafe Furst was the first player to make it into Round 2 as he took down Steve Zolotow within a few minutes in his opening match going 2-0. The final results of Round 1 played out as such:

Josh Field def. Terje Augdal (2-1)
Lee Nelson def. Justin Schwartz (2-0)
Eric Hershler def. David Singer (2-0)
Paul Wasicka def. Sorel Mizzi (2-0)
Tony Bloom def. Alex Keating (2-0)
Harry Demetriou def. Jon Van Fleet (2-0)
Roy Winston def. Emanuel Seat (2-0)
Jamie Pickering def. Annette Obrestad (2-1)
Michael Watson def. Doug Lee (2-1)
Anna Wroblewski def. Jeff Madsen (2-0)
Ralph Burd def. Sarah Bilney (2-1)
Michael McDonald def. Sergey Rybachenko (2-1)
Jan Suchanek def. Zachary Clark (2-0)
Masaaki Kagawa def. Josh Egan (2-0)
Florian Langmann def. Mark Flowers (2-0)
Rafe Furst def. Steve Zolotow (2-0)

Round 2 played out very much the same as Round 1. Rafe Furst and Lee Nelson both knocked out their opponents 2-0 and quickly secured themselves a seat for Round 3. Harry Demetriou was able to earn a seat as well after taking down Tony Bloom 2-0. Before the players had recovered from Round 1, Round 3 had already been set up with these matchups:

Rafe Furst v. Masaaki Kagawa
Michael 'Timex' McDonald v. Michael Watson
Lee 'Final Table' Nelson v. Eric Hershler
Roy 'The Oracle' Winston v. Harry Demetriou

Masaaki Kagawa was the first to survive Round 3 after he knocked out Rafe Furst 2-0, giving him a little taste of his own medicine. Winston was the next to follow as he took out Harry Demetriou. Lee Nelson managed to squeak through by besting his opponent Eric Hershler. The final match of the day was played out by good friends Michael ‘Timex’ McDonald and Michael Watson. McDonald was able to claim victory laying out the quarterfinals for the Day 1a foursome:

Lee Nelson v. Roy Winston
Michael McDonald v. Masaaki Kagawa

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