Last Opening Flight of $1,500 Platinum Player Championships Begins
As the prize pool continues to grow in the $1,500 Platinum Player Championships, the anticipation and excitement builds with it. The race to creating a $1,000,000 pool concludes today, as the magical number is certainly within reach given field sizes over the first four starting flights at the Australian Poker Open.
With a total of 637 entries thus far, the prize pool sits at AUD $824,200, already far beyond the guarantee of $500,000. But there is just one last chance to chase the money at Doltone House Western Sydney at Club Marconi, and it comes at 2 p.m. local time on Day 1e.
The prize pool is not the only million in play, as the chip counts have produced an exclusive club over the first four flights of the event. Just five players have managed to hit the 1,000,000 mark at the end of the night, sitting with what is likely to be 200 big blinds entering Day 2 on Monday, April 1.
In all, a total of 80 players have bagged with a minimum cash of $2,300. The number that will join that group today will not be determined until late registration comes to a close before the start of Level 10.
Overall Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minkyu Jun | Australia | 1,521,000 |
| 2 | Hasan Onay | Australia | 1,433,000 |
| 3 | Greg Davison | Australia | 1,078,000 |
| 4 | Justin Woo | Australia | 1,000,000 |
| 5 | Ken Demlakian | Australia | 1,000,000 |
| 6 | Tty Ly | Australia | 969,000 |
| 7 | Shane Pearce | Australia | 916,000 |
| 8 | Jason Pritchard | Australia | 835,000 |
| 9 | Justin Tsui | United Kingdom | 822,000 |
| 10 | Matt Rolfe | Australia | 773,000 |
Minkyu Jun��s big lead from Day 1a continues to hold up as the largest stack to this point. The other chip leader from each day are Hasan Onay on Day 1b, Justin Woo from Day 1c and Ken Demlakian just last night on Day 1d.
The final opening flight will kick off at 2 p.m. local time, where players will sit down with 50,000 chips and play until 12.5% of the field remains. Levels will continue to be 40 minutes long on Day 1e, starting with blinds of 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante.
Breaks will occur at the end of every three levels, which includes a 30-minute dinner break after Level 6. Late registration will close prior to the start of Level 10, and players can continue to take advantage of unlimited reentries until that time.
One last chance to earn a spot in the latest monster prize pool at the Australian Poker Open, and PokerNews will have it all covered here in Sydney so be sure to follow along.