WPPT: Bain is the main man in GC opening flight

The memories of Goa are quickly fading into history for the World Professional Poker Tour (WPPT) after a solid start to the second event at Jupiters Hotel and Casino on the Gold Coast yesterday.

After just 12 players attended the first WPPT event in Goa, India, a respectable turnout of 57 players took their seats in the $3500 WPPT Gold Coast Main Event for day 1A with 29 set to return for day 2.

Melbourne’s Tristan Bain, who final-tabled the ANZPT Canberra Main Event last year, topped the chip count with 467,000 ahead of Minh Nguyen (258,300), Milan Gurung (214,500), Peter Cooper (166,100) and Ricky Kroesen (135,100).

Others who’ll be back on Friday include James Broom (131,500), Jack Drake (119,200), 2011 Aussie Million champion David Gorr (59,500), Liam O’Rourke (57,600), Nauv Kashyap (25,400) and Peter Aristidou (24,200).

Players started with a massive stack of 50,000 meaning it took a while for Lee Holtzapffel to become the first player to be eliminated. With the flop showing 9s-3h-9c, James Broom moved all-in, Holtzapffel called and showed pocket aces. Broom flipped over pocket threes for a boat, improving to quads on the turn.

Milan Gurung’s stack was given a major boost when his flopped set of kings sent Jeff Rossiter and his pocket aces to the rail while last year’s ANZPT Darwin winner Jack Drake watched his aces hold against the queens of Mikel Habb to score his big double-up of the day.

WPPT Gold Coast Main Event day 1A chip count

Tristan Bain 467,000
Minh Nguyen 258,300
Milan Gurung 214,500
Peter Cooper 166,100
Ricky Kroesen 135,100
James Broom 131,500
Jack Drake 119,200
Jeremy Simon 114,500
Mick Glen 100,000
Nicholas Nicolaou 94,000
Kelsey Hendriks 91,600
Steven Bedo 90,100
Alex Rich 85,700
Ting-Yao Chang 82,000
James Whittet 71,900
Josh Barrett 71,700
Craig Trevenna 64,600
David Gorr 59,500
Liam O’Rourke 57,600
Bradley Wilson 53,200
Jarrod Glennon 52,700
Jeff Charnstrom 51,100
Brian Peak 49,600
Omer Silajdzija 46,300
Craig Mathews 36,700
Nauv Kashyap 25,400
Peter Aristidou 24,200
Adam Bennett 22,000
Anton Bertilsson 13,000

• Regular updates are available on the WPPT Facebook page with day 1B kicking off at 11am today (Thursday) in The Poker Room at Jupiters.