On a sweltering summer day in Melbourne, the third and final Day 1 flight of the 2009 Aussie Millions Poker Championships main event got going Tuesday inside the cool air-conditioned confines of the classy Crown Casino.

A massive total of 288 players came to the banks of the Yarra River to try their luck today, bringing the total number of entrants in this year's Aussie Millions up to 681.

Although that number pales in comparison to the 780 rounders here in 2008, the tournament staff still managed to work a little prize pool magic, ensuring first place will pay a whopping $2 million AUD, beating last year's take by $350k.

The top-heavy structure will pay just 64 places and although it really isn't, they managed to make this Aussie Millions at least appear to be the biggest one ever. That's good enough for us.

Big is what the Aussie Millions is about, and the names on the roster today included some of the biggest in the game.

There's no larger figure in Australian poker than Team PokerStars Pro's Joe Hachem. The 2005 WSOP Main Event champ took the felt today with the hopes of an entire country resting on his shoulders.

Sticky wicket.

Publicly stating a title here at Crown was his sole focus this year before the Championships began, Hachem looked as determined as ever when play started. Joe didn't exactly put a big stack together today, but the hometown hero still collected enough clay to ensure his dream of keeping the Aussie Millions crown here in Oz for the first time is far from over.

Much like the Main Event at the World Series of Poker, the Southern Hemisphere's biggest poker tournaments attracts stars from other walks of life, and three Aussie sporting legends made a run at the Millions today.

Cricketer Shane Warne, tennis star Mark Philippoussis and jockey Shane Dye traded in their respective wickets, racquets and whips for $20k in chips, but unfortunately, not a one managed to make it through the day.

Former Aussie Millions champs Lee Nelson and Gus Hansen didn't fare much better either, the latter strangely showing up in the fourth level of play and busting unceremoniously soon after.

As the six planned levels of play marched on, that group was joined on the rail by no less than Full Tilt's John Juanda, WSOP and WPT winners J.C. Tran and Nenad Medic, PokerStars APPT title holders Nam Le, Van Marcus and Edward Sabat, nosebleed online cash-game stud Tom Dwan and a list of lesser-knowns a mile long.

Bada Bing!

Those who booked a seat in Wednesday's day 2 with decent stacks included 2006 WSOP Main Event finalist Michael Binger, 2008 WSOP Main Event Final tablist Kelly Kim, 1998 WSOP Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen and a host of locals looking to make names for themselves as this tournament moves forward.

When play wrapped just after midnight Melbourne time it appeared 143 players survived the day, meaning Day 2 will begin with approximately 320 players still in the hunt.

Play will start around 12:30 p.m. Down Under tomorrow and PokerListings.com will be on the scene throughout as the serious contenders for the Aussie Millions title begin to separate themselves from the pack.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to click right here and follow along as we inch ever closer to crowning a 2009 Aussie Millions champ.