Today at 12:00pm, the first event in the MILLIONS North America – the $1,000 + $100 MILLIONS Open tournament – will begin its final phase. From a total of 1,231 entries, there are just 68 players left competing for a share of the big prizes – the tournament is already relatively deep into the money. Action will begin in level 25 – blinds 300,000/600,000 with a button ante of 600,000 and will continue all the way until the end of the event.
The tournament is relatively shallow to start Day 3, with a chip average of just 30bb – although this is heavily influenced by the fact that almost 20% of the remaining field is playing a sub-15bb stack to start the day. If history is any guide, there should be a slew of quick eliminations today that will deepen the overall tournament and move things much closer to a 40bb or greater chip average before too long.
That being said, there is no dominant leader playing a monster stack. The top 8 players by count for the restart each have more than 35M in chip, led by Anthony Ruberto with 40.175M to start the day. Also among the front-runners today are two internationally renowned stars and two local heroes. Chris Moorman and Martin Jacobson are well known throughout the poker world and have world-class resumes including a WSOP Main Event championship and the wide recognition Moorman enjoys as the #1 online tournament player of all time. Joining them near the top are Jean-Francois M, a local player with significant skills and a history of winning, and Sebastien Drolet-Poitras – known affectionately as Seabass – all 4 of these players are certain to have a big influence on the game moving forward.
Good luck to everyone left at the tables today in the MILLIONS Open!