Daily Rewind: Record Breaking Aussie Event, NBC's Full Line-Up, Dalla's Reaction

In today's Daily Rewind we review the Aussie Millions opener, get NBC's complete heads-up list and get Nolan Dalla's thoughts on PokerStars' purchase.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

Aussie opener attracts Millions

Hachem's home advantage

The Aussie Millions opening event has broken a record with more than 1,300 entry fees being collected for the $1,100 event.

Three starting days of re-entry action (players were allowed to rebuy a maximum of twice on each starting day) a total of 708 unique players bought into the tournament.

In total, 1,338 entries were collected, which is a record for an Australian $1K event.

More importantly for the players, however, the swell of entries meant the prizepool reached an impressive $1,338,000.

Leading the race for the $250,000 top prize is Iqbal Ahmed with 356,000 chips.

However, with the likes of Rupert Elder, Joe Hachem and Chris Brammer, amongst the remaining 146 players, Ahmed's route to the finale won't be easy.

NBC Heads-Up Championship entrants

Cates in contention

After teasing us earlier in week with the first 32 names, NBC finally released the full list of 64-players.

With a draw party taking place on January 23, the stars in attendance will have just 24 hours to do some research on their first opponent.

While a number of familiar faces will be on display between January 24 and 26, David "Doc" Sands and Dan Fleyshman were less than impressed with some of the choices.

Among the pros taking part, Dan junglemandan Cates will be the lone PokerStrategist competing against the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Dan Smith and Phil Ivey.

For the full list of 64 entrants, click here.

High stakes corner

Blom losing again

Kyle "KPR16" Ray continued the trend of bankroll busting wins in 2013 with a recent profit of $930,112.
 
The Limit specialist managed to top yesterday's high stakes table ahead of Kyle "cottonseed1" Hendon who banked a more modest $233,839.

While the two Kyle's enjoyed rare appearances at the top of the profit leaderboard, Gus Hansen and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom continued their turbulent starts to the year.

Having dragged himself out of minus figures late on Thursday night, Hansen's 2013 total slipped to -$146,686 after he lost $482,018 in the last 24 hours.

A $379,576 loss for Blom also cut his yearly profit even further. However, it's not all bad for the Swede as he's still up by $2,692,119 in the last 19 days.

Dalla's take on PokerStars

Dalla positive

Nolan Dalla has been around the poker industry long enough to know when something is positive or not.
 
Having seen and documented the rise and fall of the industry over the last 20 years, he's well placed to offer his thoughts on PokerStars' recent purchase of the Atlantic Club Casino.

In a recent blog post, the poker writer has outlined why he thinks the move is not only good for PokerStars, but poker in general.

Indeed, as a final point for readers to ponder, he suggests that PokerStars' acquisition signals more than their expansion, but the start of online poker's return to the US.

To read the full article, click here.

Daily Signoff

A lot of people will be in the middle of losing the weight they put on over Christmas, but it seems Marvin 'xcrash154' Rettenmaier thinks Liv Boeree has a few more pounds to lose than most.