9.40pm: Ashley Mason tops day one field
That’s all she wrote, folks.
Another drama charged day here at The Star has seen a huge field of 254 players take their seats in Flight 2, bringing the total number of players at this year’s ANZPT Sydney to an impressive 460.
At last count, 93 progressed today to go with the 86 that survived yesterday which means we will see 179 players return for tomorrow’s Day 2.
Just like Thursday night’s opening flight, today saw a who’s who of the Australian poker community take their seats including the likes of Brendon Rubie, Jonathan Karamalikis, Leo Boxell, David Gorr, Aaron Benton, Jeff Rossiter, Haibo Chu, Tony Hachem, Andrew Hinrichsen, Jarred Graham, Dave Allen, Dale Marsland and Tom Grigg.
Many would perish as the chips went flying throughout the afternoon although there were some notable survivors, including Rubie who boasts one of the bigger stacks in the room with 117,700 and Dale Marsland who sits in second place on the day (third overall) with 172,200.
However they all lag in the wake of a runaway Ashley Mason who stacks up a mammoth 253,800 – well clear of yesterday’s chip leader Gary Benson’s 193,000.
The top five chip counts from today’s flight are:
Ashley Mason – 253,800
Dale Marsland – 172,200
Benjamin Benoit – 140,800
John Thompson – 136,400
Aziz Yousseff – 118,900
We’ll be back at The Star tomorrow from 12.30pm as we look to play down to the final table. Whether that’s achievable, time will tell, but we do know that we’re in for another very long day!
8.40pm: Mason the master
A new overall chip leader has emerged here in Flight 1b of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event. Topping Gary Benson’s effort yesterday of 193,000, Ashley Mason now sits on 233,000 after winning a series of decent sized pots.
The hand that propelled him over the 200,000 chip mark saw Mason get his A-A all-in pre-flop against the J-J of an opponent in an 80,000 chip pot. The board ran out K-8-6-K-2 and Mason put some distance between him and the field as another player made his way to the rail.
8.35pm: Veterans vanquished
We’ve just lost a few of the old-timers in very quick succession with both Leo Boxell and Mike Ivin exiting the tournament area in the past 10 minutes.
We didn’t witness the final stages of Boxell’s demise but a short-stacked Ivin got it in with 10-6 on an A-J-10 flop and was called by an opponent holding A-9. The turn and river came 4-3 and Ivin was eliminated.
8.20pm: Final level
The clock has just ticked over into the final one-hour level of the day’s play with blinds at 500/1000 with a 100 ante. We began the day with 254 starters but have already lost well more than half of the field, with 107 players remaining inside the final 60 minutes.
7.45pm: Rubie climbs to the top
Coming off a very successful overseas trip for the Bay 101 Shooting Star, young poker phenom Brendon Rubie is making his mark here at ANZPT Sydney after raking in a huge pot shortly after dinner to become our overall chip leader.
We caught the action on the river with 35,000 already in the middle and the board reading Q-4-10-Q-2. Rubie had checked to his opponent who announced “All-in.” The count was 34.5k and Rubie went into the tank for a good three minutes before announcing “call”.
Rubie’s opponent turned over K-8 for a complete bluff with Rubie tabling Q-9 for turned trips to scoop the monster 80,000 chip pot.
Rubie now sits with a monstrous 155,000.
7.30pm: Rubie rolling
Brendon Rubie has been grinding a short stack for most of the day but for the last hour has been steadily increased his stack.
His patience paid dividends on the final hand before the dinner break as he rocketed over 70,000.
The hand began with Andrew Ngyuen opening in late position to 1,300. Rubie thought for a moment but before he had a chance to act the player to his left called out of turn.
Rubie requested a ruling and after the ruling was made that the call had to stand, Rubie 3-bet to 3,300.
The out of turn player called the extra 2,000 but when action folded back to Ngyuen he 4-bet to 8,600.
Rubie then announced “all-in”. The player that called out of turn sighed and threw his remaining 5,000 in the middle with Nyguen reluctantly calling as well.
It was Rubie’s Q-Q against the J-J of Nguyen and the K-J of the third player and when the board came A-K-Q-9-9 Rubie scooped a big pot to make his mark on the leaderboard.
7.20pm: Cards are in the air.
Players have returned from dinner and we are into our final two levels of the night. Blinds for Level 7 are at 400/800 with a 100 ante.
6.50pm: Dinner!
Players are on a 30-minute dinner break.
6.20pm: In his Nitsche
Dominik Nitsche has been on a huge heater over the past hour and now sits behind by far the biggest stack in the room with 150,000.
The hand that catapulted him into the stratosphere came at the expense of Ivan Zalac, when Nitsche flopped a set of 6s against Zalac’s A-A.
Incredibly, Zalac didn’t stack off and still sits with a healthy 45,000 but will be ruing the 85,000 pot that was shipped Nitsche’s way.
6.15pm: Payouts
We’ve just been handed the payout list and can tell you that the winner of ANZPT Sydney 2013 will collect a whopping $226,320. The top 54 place-getters will score a minimum of $3,680 while the final table is guaranteed at least $17,480.
1st – $226,320
2nd – $144,440
3rd – $80,040
4th – $62,560
5th – $48,300
6th – $39,100
7th – $29,900
8th – $23,460
9th – $17,480
10th -12th – $11,500
13th-15th – $9,200
16th-18th – $7,820
19th-21st – $6,440
22nd-24th – $5,520
25th-27th – $5,060
28th-36th – $4,600
37th-45th – $4,140
46th-54th – $3680
5.55pm: Notable stacks
Dale Marsland – 60,000
Jeff Rossiter – 55,000
Sheldon Mayer – 51,000
Andy Hinrichsen – 50,000
Jackson Zheng – 47,000
Jarred Graham – 40,000
Michael Pedley – 40,000
Terry Tserdanis – 30,000
Angel Guillen – 28,000
Brendon Rubie – 20,000
Didier Guerin – 16,000
Jonathan Karamalikis – 7000
5.50pm: Blinds are up!
Blind are up to 300/600 with a 75 ante.
5.10pm: Benton, Huang hit the rail
The big names keep falling with Aaron Benton and Bryan Huang both headed to the exits recently. Benton was particularly unlucky, running his set of 8s into an opponent’s set of Aces, while Haung never really got anything going this afternoon.
Down to his last 5950, he shoved over the cut-off’s open with J-J but ran straight into A-A and couldn’t find any help on the 9-5-9-2-8 board.
4.55pm: Blinds are up
Players have just returned from their second break of the day with blinds at 200/400 with a 50 ante.
4.50pm: Mason joins the 100k club
We caught the action on the turn with approximately 40,000 in the middle and the board reading 3-10-5-J and a check-raise all-in from Ashley Mason. Mason’s opponent went deep in the tank and eventually made the call after 2 minutes. Mason turned over K-J and his opponent disgustedly turned over A-10 exclaiming “I knew you had nothing on the flop.”
The river bricked, sending Mason the massive pot which propels him over the 100,000 chip mark. Mason currently sits on 105,000.
4.15pm: Gorr gone
2011 Aussie Millions winner David Gorr has just been eliminated; with blinds at 150/300 with a 25 ante, Gorr moved his remaining 6,825 chips into the middle over an UTG raise and was met with a call by the original raiser.
Gorr held K-K against his opponents As-9s but flop was painful for Gorr, falling A-4-2, the turn produced another Ace and the river was no help to Gorr who made his way to the rail.
3.40pm: Nguyen on the rise
Action was folded to Andrew Nguyen in the cut-off who made it 700 to go. Nguyen received one caller from the small blind and they a saw a flop of 8-2-8. Action checked to Nguyen who bet 750, his opponent called and the dealer burned a turned the Qh, This time his opponent check-raised Nguyen’s 2,000 bet to 4,600. Nguyen thought briefly before putting out the extra 2,600. The river was a 5 completing a very dry board.
Nguyen’s opponent announced all-in. The count was 18,725 and Nguyen took little time before announcing call. His opponent table 8-4 but couldn’t beat Nguyen’s 10-8.
Nguyen now sits on just over 70,000.
3.20pm: So I woke up with Aces …
If there is one hand that no one wants to see crack their Aces it’s A-K, but that’s exactly the fate that has just befallen Martin Stewart.
As he relayed to us, he opened to 800 with 10,000 behind and found a caller before an opponent bumped it up to 3,500. Stewart called and they saw a raggedy, all spades flop. Stewart and his opponent checked to see a red 7 on the turn. With that Stewart shoved but his opponent snapped him off with As-Ks for the flopped nuts!
Stewart’s day comes to a premature end as we continue to lose players at an alarming rate.
3pm: Fast and furious
It took a few levels for things to get going in last night’s flight but the action has been much quicker here today. With two levels down, our starting field of 256 players has already been whittled down to 216.
The most recent player to be eliminated is Michael O’Grady, who four-bet shoved with 8-8 over a button 3-bet and was called by an opponent’s A-K. The Q-J-7 flop didn’t give him much respite and when the 10 landed on the turn O’Grady was drawing dead.
2.30pm: Break time
We’re two levels down which means players are on their first 10-minute break of the day. When they return blinds will be at 150/300.
2.10pm: Iskander is skewered
Mark Iskander is our latest casualty here today after copping a brutal beat in the very first hand he had played.
We caught the action on the turn with around 5,000 in the middle on a board of J-8-K-10 with George Kyritsis leading out, Iskander re-raising and Kyritsis shipping for around 17,000 more.
Iskander snap-called with A-Q for the nuts with Kyritsis’ pocket Jacks needing the board to pair. Needless to say, the river was the repeat K and Iskander beats a hasty retreat with a few choice words along the way!
Kryitsis is up to 45,000.
1.30pm: Grigg gunned down
We just saw Tom Grigg go charging past us with his iPod in hand after being eliminated a few moments earlier. We don’t know the details but it looks like he won’t be winning his first ANZPT title here in Sydney.
Meanwhile we noticed that Bryan Huang and Dave Allen are seated alongside one another in the main poker room while David Borg – who fell one spot short of a bracelet in his one and only WSOP tournament last year – has just taken his seat.
1.20pm: Sheldon doubles early
Sheldon Mayer has just scored an early double-up and crippled an opponent after a bizarre hand on Table 4. The action began with an early position player opening to 350 and receiving two callers before Sheldon bumped it up to 1,100 holding J-J in the cut-off.
The big blind didn’t notice Sheldon’s raise because he was wearing an iPod and announced call, which by house rules meant that he had no choice but to call the 1,100.
The dealer then spread an ideal J-6-4 flop for Sheldon, who continued for 1,950 only to be 3-bet by the big blind to 10,000. Not believing his luck, Sheldon shipped, was called and was laughing all the way to the bank when his opponent showed 6-4.
Sheldon is up to 40,000 after that hand.
1.10pm: Familiar faces
A quick walk around the two groups of tables at The Star – those in the main poker area and the eight located in the Sports Theatre – has located a huge number of seen us stumble across plenty of big names including 2011 Aussie Millions champion David Gorr (who just happens to be seated two seats from good friend Leo Boxell), Tony Hachem, Aaron Benton, Jeff Rossiter and John Maklouf.
Also here are young guns Didier Guerin, Brendon Rubie and Haibo Chu. We’ll keep you updated as spot more familiar faces.
1pm: One gone already!
Play had barely been underway when we had our first elimination of the day! Action began pre-flop with the blinds at 50/100 and a raise to 250 which saw one caller in Athan Bapoulias.
The dealer spread a flop of 10-7-Q the original raiser bet 450 and Bapoulias raised to 1,300. His opponent promptly called. The turn came the Kh and it was checked to Bapoulias who fired a large bet of 5,025. His opponent thought briefly before calling.
The river was the 6c and once again, it was checked to Bapoulias who quickly announced all-in. The dealer gave the count of 11,500 which was enough to put his opponent all-in.
While his opponent was in the tank Bapoulias casually asked ‘Did you flop a set? Queens?’
After a full three minutes had elapsed his opponent slid his chips forward to make the call. Bapoulias wasted no time rolling over A-J for the nuts. His opponent disgustedly mucked and left the tournament area.
12.35pm: Day 1B underway
Welcome back to The Star where Day 1B of ANZPT Sydney circa 2013 is about to get underway.
After a long and exhausting night last night that saw our reporting team finally haul themselves off to bed just after 3am, the impressive starting field of 209 players had been whittled down to 86 survivors with WSOP bracelet holder and Australian Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson leading the charge with a whopping 193,000 – well clear of his nearest rival (Adrien Rosencrance with 138,500).
Benson’s stack will take plenty of catching but there are also plenty of contenders taking their seats today to give it a crack. Already we have a whopping 235 registered players and are on track to crack the 450 mark. Could we even make a move towards the all-time ANZPT record of 493 players from the inaugural ANZPT Sydney back in 2009?
Stay tuned to PokerMedia Australia as we bring you all the live reporting action throughout the day.
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