The MILLIONS Open is now down to its final three tables. Although most players are deeper than they were to start the day, the bust outs are continuing at a steady rate. Every pot could be decisive at this stage, and the players are making all the moves they can to come out on top.

Alexander Hartung came out ahead in the most recent clash of stacks, when he busted out Brandon Kitchen in 24th place. The two players were heads-up on a wet flop of . Kitchen, with the pre-flop betting lead, put out a bet of 2.2M. Hartung, in position, quickly raised to 8M. Not to be deterred, Kitchen came over the top and moved all-in. Hartung then snap called and hands were tabled. Kitchen held and found himself behind Hartung’s . The turn and river were as blank as they come, sending Kitchen to the tournament desk in 24th place, good for $6,500.

The MILLIONS Open is now down to the final five tables, as only 40 players remain. The day began with a number of short stacks in the field, and many of them have since made their way to the tournament desk to collect their payout tickets.

As the players return to their seats following their first break of the day, the stacks are noticeably larger and the chip average provides roughly 30 big blinds. There remains a handful of short stacks in play, but most players now have enough blinds to make a wide range of plays possible.

Here are the current chip leaders:

First Name	Last Name	Chip Count
Abdullahi	Hassan	89,400,000
Karim-Olivier	Kamal	75,600,000
Martin	Jacobson	73,150,000
Alexander	Lynskey	61,100,000
Sebastien	Drolet-Poitras	52,500,000

Martin Jacobson has just scored a huge double up through Steven Tripp to take the overall chip lead in the tournament – a dangerous state of affairs for the rest of the players in the tournament notwithstanding the fact that there’s a long way to go today.

Martin opened the action with a preflop raise to 1.2M. Action folded around to Steven, who 3bet to 4.8M – only to be immediately faced with a re-pop to 10M from the World Champ. Tripp responded with a strong shove and Martin called – the two relatively big-stacked players would have a showdown.

Steven had much the better of things preflop, as he turned over while Martin was playing – even running flush cards would be no help for Jacobson.

The flop turned the situation on its head: to put Martin well in the lead, and there were no miracle saves to come for Steven on the turn and river. Martin’s stack was counted down to 38,750,000, and he’s now playing over 80M in chips.

Here’s a photo of Martin Jacobson from yesterday’s Day 2 action:

It was a fairly standard kind of hand this deep in a tournament, but it always hurts to get rivered, and local player Jason Mandanici-Turcot has just felt that pain. The play folded around to Jason, who open shoved his small-ish stack only to find an instant call from Dejuante Alexander immediately to his left.

Jason:
Dejuante:

The flop was perfect for Jason – , and the turn wasn’t an issue either: . But the on the river spelled the end of the tournament for Mandanici-Turcot. He cashed in 61st place for $4,750.

The final day of the MILLIONS Open has just begun, and the chips are going in quickly. 66 players emerged from yesterday’s action-packed Day 2 where the field played down from 392 entries. The final 66 included a number of notable local and international players, ranging from the likes of Sebastien Drolet-Poitras to Chris Moorman and Martin Jacobson.

Many players started the day with relatively shallow stacks; roughly half of the field is playing less than 30 big blinds. The shallow stacks limit the options for many players, as they are likely to be forced to put all their chips at risk sooner rather than later. If the short stacks double up then the tournament will remain relatively shallow, but if the big stacks manage to gobble them up then the stacks will get much deeper and change the dynamics at the table. So far it seems that the big stacks are prevailing, as the field is already down to 53 players.

Good luck to all!