Level 19: 6000/12,000 (ante 1000): After losing the first hand of the final table to Ben Savage, Chris Levick quickly made amends by claiming the first scalp of the day in the chase for the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne title. Nursing the short stack, Rodney Burles raised to 30,000, Levick popped it to 80,000, the action was folded back to Burles who pushed all-in.

Levick called and showed [qc] [qs], which were neatly placed against the Tasmanian's [10s] [10c]. The board ran out [qh] [2h] [js] [2c] [4c] to send Burles, playing in his first ever live tournament, out in ninth and Levick up to more than 1.1 million - the first player to break the seven-figure barrier.

The verbal sparring is also underway - in a recent hand, Aristidou called under-the-gun for 12k, Lunardi raised to 38k, Gao called from the small blind, then Savage picked up his big blind, added enough chips to call but decided against it, and returned his big blind to the table.

"What's the ruling? How can you do this, you pick up your chips and then fold?" Aristidou queried as he eventually raked in pot. "I just had to go with my gut," was all Savage could offer.

At the end of level 19, Gao (880,000) has edged ahead of Levick (875,000) with Savage also close behind on 840,000. Aristidou (385,000), Lunardi (375,000), Shillig (350,000), Chick (335,000) and Khouiss (315,000) are all separated by just 70,000 in chips.