The battle for the Aussie Hold’em Poker Summer Poker Championships Main Event title is into its second day at Club Macquarie in Argenton, NSW. The $110 buy-in Main Event attracted a field of 66 runners, easily covering the guarantee of $5000. Players started with a stack 20,000 with levels at 30 minutes.
Some of the early casualties included Michael Duffy (runner-up at the 2011 Newcastle Poker Championships), Rod Cooper (Team Aussie Hold’em Poker member at the 2011 Aussie Millions) and popular local player Ben Kostrzewski.
Cooper was KOed on the very first hand of the tournament when his (club) flush was beaten by Brad Locking, who skilfully disguised his nut flush which gave Rod the impression that he had hit a straight on the river. Amazingly, a third player had folded to Brad’s all-in because he too had hit the flush! Two other players said they had folded a club meaning that 11 out of the 13 clubs were involved in the hand!
By day’s end, just 15 players were still in contention for the title with Ryan Nichols heading the chip count on 207,700. Nichols was the winner of the $55 Deepstack Event at the 2011 Spring Poker Championships. Along the way he claimed some valuable “scalps” including Mark Nelson, Leanne Haas and Linda Wooster.
Rhys Gregson was close behind with 165,000. He was very successful in Opening Event the 2012 Aussie Millions finishing 19th. Antony Ratzer is in third chip position with 125,800. Ratzer is from the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales where he has enjoyed a great deal of local success. Fresh from a pair of top-two finishes in the opening two events of the Summer Poker Championships, Tameeka Joes was also poised for another deep run holding 121,700.
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