MELB CHAMPS: Tsioutas holds narrow lead after Main Event day 1A

The 2012 Melbourne Poker Champs Main Event is underway at Crown with 123 starters taking their seats for day 1A of the $1100 buy-in Main Event.

The line-up included two Aussie Millions champions (Oliver Spiedel and David Gorr) and scores of familiar faces including Aaron Benton, Van Marcus, Jay Kinkade, Peter Aristidou, Jackie Glazier and Tom Grigg along with past winners of this event Haibo Chu and Tony Kondevski.

At evening’s end, Peter Tsioutas had forged a narrow chip lead ahead of Andrew Lock, the ever-popular Bruno Portaro, Ismail Ismail and Ryan Boswell. Didier Guerin, Gorr, Kinkade, Michael Guttmann, Jim Sachinidis, Michael Ryan and John Dalessandri also joined the list of 39 players who’ll return for day two on Sunday.

Meanwhile, several of the eliminated players have already signalled their intention to return to the Crown Poker Room today for the second day one flight thanks to the unique repechage format of this tournament.

$1100 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event day 1A chip count

Peter Tsioustas 150,200
Andrew Lock 145,100
Bruno Portaro 141,000
Ismail Ismail 119,600
Ryan Boswell 119,500
David Griffiths 116,100
Than Huynh 105,400
John Apostolidis 95,000
Didier Guerin 90,000
Jeffrey Sarkis 78,800
Michael Guttmann 73,100
Michael Sinni 73,000
Norah Greer 62,300
David Gorr 58,800
Frank Perich 58,500
Nick Van Engelburg 58,400
Patrick Healy 55,900
Jay Kinkade 55,500
James Giannoukos 55,400
Ralph Parsons 54,900
Kyle Cheong 54,800
Jim Sachinidis 53,300
Michael Ryan 49,100
John Chu 48,600
Geoffrey Mooney 48,500
Jim Andreadis 45,300
Jose Denegri 41,000
Paul Matthews 39,000
Stephen Hansen 38,400
David Seng 37,000
Fabian Craib 35,300
John Dalessandri 34,100
Tamara Volkoff 33,300
Aaron Lim 30,500
Adrian Ong 29,500
Duncan McKinnon 28,000
Stefan Stojkovic 25,100
Duy Truong 21,600
Toan Nguyen 21,000

Melbourne Poker Championship schedule

May 11

10.10am $65 Melbourne Champs Step 1
12.10pm Event 8: $1100 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event day 1 flight 2 (repechage)
2.10pm $65 Melbourne Champs Step 1
4.10pm $65 Melbourne Champs Step 1
7.10pm $250 Melbourne Champs Step 2
10pm $130 Melbourne Champs Super Satellite

May 12

10.10am $130 Melbourne Champs Super Satellite
12.10pm Event 8: $1100 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event day 1 flight 3 (repechage)
2.10pm $100 Terminator Qualifier
4.10pm $100 Terminator Qualifier
7.10pm $160 APPT Melbourne Step 2
10.10pm $100 Terminator Qualifier

May 13

10.10am $100 Terminator Qualifier
12.30pm Event 8: $1100 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event day 2
2.10pm $160 APPT Melbourne Step 2
3pm Event 9: $400 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Terminator
4.10pm $700 APPT Melbourne Step 3
6.10pm Event 10: $200 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Ante up

May 14

2.10pm Event 8: $1100 Melbourne Poker Championship Main Event day 3/final table