Sam Trickett is in charge in the $100,000 Challenge at the 2011 Aussie Millions.

To say that Sam Trickett had a good day Saturday would be an understatement. The English poker pro holds the chip lead in the $100,000 Challenge at the 2011 Aussie Millions after the first day of play wrapped up early Sunday morning in Melbourne. 

Trickett will head to Sunday’s final table with 961,000 of the 3,800,000 chips in play . His closest competitor is  David Steicke with 622,000.

Trickett, who has held the chip lead from the first level of the tournament, was one of 38 players to come up with $100,000 to match the field size of the 2011 PokerStars  Caribbean Adventure’s Super High Roller event just two weeks ago.

Australian James Obst is also still in contention. Should the 21-year-old go on to cash it will mark the third consecutive year he’s booked a result at the Aussie Millions. Also still in the field is Erik Seidel. The recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee finished runner-up in this event in 2007.

The first player to hit the rail Friday was Chinese high stakes cash game player Wang Qiang. Coincidentally it was Trickett, who made a healthy profit in the big game in Macau in December, who knocked Qiang out in the first level of play. Other players to bust out Friday included Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Crown Amassador Joe Hachem, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel Cates, Tom Dwan and Tony G.

A total 30 players hit the rail on the first day of the two-day event. The final table bubble-boy was Winfred Yu.

The players are playing for a first place prize of $1,525,000 with the runner-up earning $975,000. The top six places will be paid with the sixth-place finisher earning $150,000. The PCA Super High Roller Event paid the top five with first and second both earning seven-figures.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Sam Trickett – 961,000
2. David Steicke – 622,000
3. Erik Seidel – 619,000
4. James Obst – 571,000
5. Jeff Lisandro – 454,000
6. David Benyamine – 363,000
7. Tony Bloom – 148,000
8. Chris Ferguson – 89,000

Tournament organizers also announced an addition the 2011 Aussie Millions schedule. A $250,000 single table tournament will be played on January 27 with the winner walking away with $2,000,000. By the of the day Friday the event was sold out.

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