Mercier ultimately finished with 93,000 while Channing ended with 80,000. Both are chasing Francis Rusnak who took the overall chip lead with 165,100.
Day 1b drew about 196 runners with Lee Markholt, Neil Channing, Kenny Tran, Van Marcus, Fabian Quoss, Annette Obrestad and Phillip Gruissem amongst the many players who took to the felt.
When combined with Day 1a that brings the overall field size in this year's Aussie Millions up to 353, which is 13 more than last year over the first two starting days.
2010 Aussie Millions winner Tyron Krost also played Day 1b. Krost won the Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions last year, which gave him free Main Event seats at the Aussie Millions for life.
Krost put his first free entry to good use as he finished with about 40,000 chips.
Tough Transition for High Rollers to Main Event
The field also received a late boost from Niklas Heinecker, Tobias Reinkemeier and Vanessa Selbst, who all registered after busting from the $100k Challenge final table just short of the money.
Unfortunately for Reinkemeier, Heinecker and Selbst they wouldn’t see any money in the Main Event either as they all busted in fairly short order. Runner-up finisher Igor Kurganov also played the Main Event but finished with a paltry 13,600.
Fabian Quoss, Philipp Gruissem and Sherrie Krampel were also among the players to bust on Day 1b.
About 105 players made it through the day including Chris "Genius28" Lee, Annette Obrestad, Kenny Tran and Per Linde and will return on Wednesday for Day 2.
Meanwhile Day 1c of the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event is generally the biggest of all the starting flights so tomorrow should be particularly interesting.
There are plenty of big names expected tomorrow including statistician Nate Silver.
Day 1c, the final starting day of the 2013 Aussie Millions, begins at 12:30 p.m. local time tomorrow.
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