Dean Blatt

If you thought event 1a was big with 342 players, event 1b was even bigger with 389 players all ponying up the $1100 buy-in to compete for the big prize. This created a combined pool of over $700,000, well in excess of the guaranteed $500,000 advertised.

After another grueling day on the felt, the cards went Dean Blatt’s way and he finished at the top with 145,300. Blatt picked up an 8th place recently at the 2008 PokerNews Cup Championship in October.

Today 110 of the survivors from day 1a and day 1b will compete for the first title of the Aussie Millions tournament and a grand prize of $150,000.

Play starts at 12:30pm local time and should finish around midnight.

Here’s how the chips stacked from day 1b

Dean Blatt 145,300
Paul Rochford 99,600
Jim Ghobrial 86,800
Ben Delaney 80,000
Steve Goldwater 69,200
Thomas Lindbjerg 63,900
Marcel Jaggi 58,700
Guiseppe Gumina 57,700
Clint Jordanou 57,600
James Broom 47,300