The first edition of the Star Poker Summer Series Main Event run in conjunction with the National Poker League (NPL) and Asian Poker Tour (APT) has proved popular – indeed, almost too popular. The field topped out at a massive 648 players, creating a prizepool of $1.17 million, after 379 players took their seats for flight two of the opening day at The Star yesterday (Friday). At day’s end, the field had been reduced to just over 50 per cent of the total number of starters, meaning some tables will start day two 11-handed spread across the 34 tables available in the Star Poker tournament area.
NPL qualifier Meveni Tonga (pictured) topped the chip count on day 1B with a monster stack of 221,650. Tonga still trails last night’s chip leader Ricky Lim, who returns tomorrow with an imposing 254,300, but they were the only two to pass the 200,000 mark despite the fact that 356 players remain. Although another recount of the final numbers will be conducted tonight after two players were caught buying in for a second time, we believe the final tally is likely to clock in at 648 – making this easily the biggest main event ever held in Sydney.
Much like day 1A, there were plenty of big names in action on day 1B but not all of them survived. Australia’s 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem couldn’t get out of first gear and was eliminated midway through the day’s play while Aussie Poker Hall of Famer Jeff Lisandro, Brendon Rubie, Leo Boxell, David Gorr and Chad Awerbuch were among those to join him on the rail. However, making it through were the likes of Tony Hachem, Tom Grigg, David Borg, Tobin Ryall, Michel Bouskila, John Caridad and Jesse McKenzie to name just a few.
Caridad in particular will be worth keeping an eye on. The former WPT final table participant doubled up on the second hand of the day and finished on 169,700 to finish only behind Tonga for the session. Andrew Lock (152,175), Michael Martinovic (123,675) and Michael Webb (122,850) are also chipped up heading into day two. At this stage, it appears the Main Event will stretch into a fourth day on Monday due to the staggering support that the tournament has received – a tremendous boost for local poker after a tough year on the local scene.
2013 Star Poker Summer Series $2000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event
(648 players, 356 players remain) end of day 1 chip counts:
Ricky Lim 254,800
Meveni Tonga 221,650
Patrick Healy 183,825
John Caridad 169,700
Andrew Lock 152,175
Tristan Bain 151,475
Joseph Lorusso 150,525
Tony Sama 143,800
Matthew Wakeman 137,475
John Thomson 134,950
Tolly Sakellariou 131,900
Dale Marsland 131,600
Adam Cusenza 130,925
Brenton Nichols 128,400
Tim Kelly-Agius 124,300
Michael Martinovic 123,675
Michael Webb 122,850
Sam Vakili 121,725
Neville Spears 118,400
Michael Davy 116,525
Tony Hachem 116,000
Jordan Kilner 115,750
Antonis Kambouroglou 115,025
Toby Ryall 114,275
Andrew Li 112,575
Diane Collins 111,700
Benjamin Richardson 107,500
Andrew Yam 107,300
Christopher Rowlands 104,700
Minh Hau Nguyen 103,750
Mourad Malki 101,075
Aaron Tran 100,875
Robert Bechara 99,700
Oliver Baux 98,925
Jim Doumit 98,725
Johnny Nguyen 98,125
Sarah Singleton 97,750
Julian Giuliano 97,100
Con Xenos 94,300
David Stefanoff 93,200
Michel Bouskila 93,075
Kirby Marsh 92,825
Jackson Zheng 91,300
Stylianos Makariou 90,725
Andrea Hendley 90,525
Luke Spano 90,100
Andrew Hawke 89,825
Toan Nguyen 88,925
Teresa Natoli 88,825
Eric Wu 88,650
Alan Wilson 88,200
Bassam Habib 86,900
Evan Young 86,800
Elaine Silver 86,400
Patrick Fletcher 85,075
Stewart Scott 85,000
Brendan John Dunstan 84,675
Michael Arieta 83,500
Dylan Sorensen 83,000
Terry Tserdanis 82,525
Sam Russell-Anderson 82,450
Brian Brannigan 82,225
Luke Vincent 80,850
Sasha Davidovic 80,500
Daniel Chevalier 80,125
Stafford Hamilton 79,700
Ali Ghezelbash 78,925
Tamas Frisko 78,450
Shaneel Chand 78,275
Glenn McConnell 78,150
Kwong Phung 76,700
Amir Minagar 76,675
Kahle Burns 76,400
Rami Hakim 76,250
Zeljko Pejasinovic 75,400
Jonathan Karamalikis 75,100
Player did not report 75,100
Julius Tupua 75,000
Gavin Ogilvy 74,925
Tim English 74,925
Ben Gilholme 74,200
Michael Mayar 73,950
Trevor Saunders 73,825
Player did not report 73,675
Stefan Post 73,600
Nyree Hammond 73,300
Sam Khouiss 72,200
Player did not report 72,075
Rafe Aman 71,975
Hoong Leong 71,700
Brett Judd 71,500
Phillip Lawrence 71,125
Andrew Pamphllon 70,025
Seyed Nasab 69,800
Rachael Ward 69,400
Michael Russell 68,750
Leo Wai 68,300
Lei He 68,300
Eli Esber 68,300
James Collopy 67,700
Graeme Putt 67,675
Daniel Kirubi 67,500
Shivan Abdine 66,700
Joel Cohen 66,600
Alexander Antonios 66,400
Mark Abrahim 66,150
David Borg 65,600
Jin-ah Min 65,500
David Allan 65,500
Andrew Scarf 64,800
Wilson Li 64,650
Zachary Tunbridge 64,600
Sam Capra 64,550
Mary Roberts 64,425
Alan Casas 63,900
Hayley Bristow 63,850
David Mahoney 63,800
Kamyar Ekrami 63750
Guang Yan Yu 62,800
Brent Taunton 62,450
Michael Fraser 62,325
Roman Kristek 62,225
Roni Hakim 61,950
Jim Condylis 61,625
Joshua Kelty 60,700
Graeme Mahoney 60,700
Trudie Sultana 60,375
Alex Mastragelopoulos 60,150
Hao Li 60,125
Yi Zhang 60,000
Tony Cheater 59,400
Martin Ward 59,200
Ling Liu 58,875
Daryl Hussey 58,575
Federioco Worobiej 58,525
John Gilberg 58,375
Marwan Naboulsi 57,600
Jordan Westmorland 57,300
Rhys Gould 56,800
Darryl Nagy 56,750
Allan Davis 56,700
Adam Schmidt 56,675
Ivan Ong 56,650
Thibaut Klinghammer 56,500
Ron Faul 56,500
Reza Vakili 56,500
Paul Webster 56,300
Wei Zhu 55,650
Paul Tartak 55,600
Micki Hansimikali 55,350
Dean Yuen 55,275
Peter Simpson 55,000
Rick Solomon 54,725
Sean Todd 53,675
Danesh Kurunathan 53,100
Ronnie Shabtay 52,500
Edward Isaac 51,925
Rene Kodlin 51,625
Brian Johnston 51,550
Nicholas Roth 51,400
Nir Peer 51,300
Laurence Hall 51,200
Adam Picker 50,850
Sheldon Mayer 50,675
Michael Gray 50,650
Martyn Poytress 50,500
Shane de Clifford 50,300
Myles Lattacher 50,000
Brad Livermore 49,300
Obrad Milinkovic 48,675
Ivan Zalac 48,375
Tony Kondevski 48,000
Timote Kaufusi 47,950
Faiilagi Tupua 47,700
Christopher Cowie 47,200
Samuel Johnson 47,175
Ramin Mansour-Seperghan 46,900
Damon Giles 46,900
William Skountzos 46,600
Luca Borreggine 46,450
Leslie Burke 46,300
Conchita Liu 45,800
Samuel Kennedy 45,550
Marcel Mansour 45,025
Joseph Selwyn 44,900
Benjamin Breadsell 44,825
Amin Chehade 44,650
Geoff Mooney 44,600
Henry Tran 44,500
Jesse McKenzie 44,475
David Wang 44,200
Gavin Lake 43,950
Paul Elliott 43,800
Laura Plunkett 43,800
James Cohen 43,375
Julie Braithwaite 43,200
Orlando Imperio 43,150
Ricardo Di Bella 42,900
Jymmi Briggs 42,300
James Bills 42,075
Darryn Fuller 41,975
Ben Whittenbury 41,950
Karen Dufty 41,800
Emanuel Lee 41,700
Mel Judah 41,700
Steven Killett 41,375
David Tam 40,875
Allan Chambers 40,400
Michael Frydman 40,325
Jianguo Ruan 40,250
Robert Spano 40,150
Jin Sheng 39,900
Lee Ladigies 39,750
Russell Smith 39,675
Errolyn Strang 39,600
Martin Kozlov 39,600
Eray Col 39,575
Simon Watts 39,375
Bruce Hall 39,125
Paul Bennett 39,025
Tim George 38,900
Paul Webb 38,825
Nicholae Predescu 38,575
Justin Smith 38,300
David Balkin 38,175
Michael Cawthorn 38,125
Danny Joukhader 38,050
Marc Benjamin 37,825
Christopher Frank 37,750
Tom Grigg 37,425
Christine Ingate 37,400
Tom Rafferty 37,350
David Hirst 37,000
Yuya Nagayama 36,700
George Boustani 36,600
John Manolaros 36,150
Ian Burchell 36,125
Michael Doering 36,025
Mervyn Hughes 35,975
Russell Terrey 35,575
Kayci Hill 35,225
Jamirul Hafiz 35,000
Thomas Yam 34,950
Christopher Duong 34,225
George Karageorge 34,100
Tatjana Zizic 34,000
Bernie Stang 33,900
Andrew Feldman 33,800
Jared Sumner 33,725
Kevin Toner 33,500
Fady Alam 33,325
Player did not report 32,975
Lorraine Cook 32,900
Katie Sekhas 32,650
Antonio Leonie 32,600
Alison Wade 32,500
Bruce Kelly 32,325
Nadia Hammond 32,300
Adam Ratten 32,100
Danial Henry 32,025
Joel Foxall 31,650
James Middleton 31,300
Michael Tran 31,275
Ashkan Shiran 30,950
Rikard Lutkajtis 30,800
Ashley Parkhill 30,550
Peter Skouteris 30,400
Kyra Hutchinson 30,275
John Kelly 30,225
Roland Paul 29,500
Tony Tran 29,475
Daniel Ginnane 29,450
Kevin Makita 29,100
Theodore Dharmasaputra 29,075
Manuel Hansimikali 28,225
Ramy Tadros 28,200
Phillip Shepherd 28,000
Joseph Daher 27,975
Justin Cohen 26,650
Andrew Michael 26,600
Blake Lockwood 26,600
Yusuf Dib 26,275
Lisa Smit 26,200
George Kambouroglou 25,800
Dmitriy Tymoshenko 25,400
Lee Murphy 25,200
Mark Staples 25,025
Martin Comer 25,000
Evan Ryan 24,975
John Shin 24,600
Tom Korhonen 24,500
Bestami Ay 24,400
Thai Tran 24,400
Mark Vetsavong 24,325
Justin Wong 24,000
Beverly James 23,850
Giuseppina Cavallaro 23,675
Andrew Miller 23,250
Hai Bo Chu 23,150
Kevin Clark 22,745
John Sukkar 22,575
Khac Trung Tran 22,375
Carolyn Keosseian 22,350
Ah Ton Lim 22,025
Varunee Minchin 21,500
Li Yang 20,700
Michael Ryan 19,975
Harry Mardoian 19,900
Albert Bonnitcha 19,775
Ben McLean 19,725
Ashleigh (thuy) Quach 19,725
Kane Brough 19,600
Michael Doodson 19,525
Jason Tompkins 19,350
Mile Krstanoski 19,175
David Fotukava 19,125
Dave Fox 18,975
Christopher Ringrose 18,825
Sam Ayoubi 18,725
Royce Lui 18,700
Player did not report 17,925
Matthew Pongrass 17,400
Simon Rea 17,225
Phillip Dong 17,200
Louie Elias Srour 16,900
Nicholas Lee 16,900
Con Angelakis 16,875
Nizar Nakhle 16,825
Douglas Archer 16,625
Cheryl Sills 16,275
Miray Badaoui 15,850
Mathew Rolfe 15,625
Bud Italia 15,375
Tom Pongrass 15,200
Kieran Quaine 15,100
Korissa Naicker 15,100
Iori Yogo 14,725
Diarmuid O’Kane 14,600
Donald Civic 14,600
Ismail Sahin 14,600
Player did not report 13,300
Ayisha Clarke 13,000
Georgian Hodge 12,875
Aaron Stenlake 12,525
Michael Tran 12,300
Mona Isaac 11,975
Anne Doherty 11,650
Anastasia Tyulyakova 11,500
Kym Rowett 10,825
James Economos 10,550
Tracy Baron 10,175
Bowdy Tolhopf 9650
Colin McCamley 8875
Donna Stanford 8400
Eduardo Soares 7950
Daniel Cohen 7300
Terry Langmead 6125
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