2007 Aussie Millions breaking records

The Aussie Millions Main Event, known as the Southern Hemisphere's largest poker tournament, is living up to its name in 2007, growing 80 percent in a year's time and offering a prize pool exceeding $4.4 million.

The main event prize pool jumped to over $4 million American dollars in 2007, guaranteeing the champion a $1.5 million payday and making the second place finisher a millionaire. Third place pays $700,000.

This year's Main Event, currently moving into day-two competition, drew 747 entrants -- a large increase from the 418 players in 2006 and a massive jump from the 263 players in 2005.

Some of poker's biggest names are still alive, including Melbourne's own superstar – Joseph Hachem (Casino City's 2006 Poker Player of the Year).

And for the first time in Aussie Millions history, Crown officials had to split the day one field into two flights, starting 358 players on day 1A and 389 players on day 1B.

After two days of grueling large-stack poker, 300 players will continue to vie for the title on Monday. The tournament is designed to run slow, with players getting $20,000 in chips for their $8,000 entry fee, but that hasn't stopped the chips from flying.

Patrick Antonius, everyone's favorite professional tennis player, turned model, turned poker player, rode a couple of huge sets to take over his table and gather a massive overall chip lead.

His $315,000 in chips is more than $100,000 more than his closest opponents.

Staring up at Antonius are a number of top professional players including Kristy Gazes, John D'Agostino, Jeff Madsen, Gus Hansen, Erick Lindren, Michael Mizrachi, Alex Jacob, Paul Wasicka and Andrew Black.

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E-dog wins the battle of Eri(c)k's

Erick Lindgren started off his 2007 season with a bang, defeating Erik Seidel heads-up in the Aussie Millions $100,000 buy-in tournament.

The massive-buy-in tourney only drew 18 participants, but the prize pool still neared $2 million, paying Lindgren $1 million, Seidel $550,000, and Japan's Masaaki Kagawa $250,000.

The second-place pay-out for Seidel was the second-largest cash in his storied poker career.

Also playing in the tournament was Phil Ivey, Tony G., Jeffrey Lisandro, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, and John D'Agostino.