2014 ANZPT Sydney – $2200 Main Event / Day 1 / Flight 2

End of Day 1 Flight 2

We have reached the end of Day 1 and today’s flight saw the starting field of 240 whittled down to 95 players. Our unofficial chip leader from Flight 2 is Michael Pinzone (pictured above) who carries 169300 into Day 2.

This means that when play commences tomorrow at 12.30pm Jazz Mathis will be our overall chip leader on 195300.

In total 458 players took their seat in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event creating a prizepool of $916,000 and a first prize of $225,300.

Tomorrow will see the remaining 169 players fight it out for a place in the top 54 and our ANZPT Sydney Main Event Champion will be one of these lucky 169.

Join us tomorrow from 12.30pm as PokerMedia Australia reports live from The Star Poker Room.

Katie Sekhas and her ‘just desserts’

In the last hand of the tournament Katie Sekhas looks at the dealer and says “if you deal me Aces here I will buy you desserts”. Katie takes a peek at her first card and sees an Ace, it just so happens the second card is also an ace.

Katie then proceeds to get into a raising war with her opponent and both players get it all in. Katie is looking good with her opponent holding Kx-Kx but has a sweat when he flops an up and down straight draw. However the turn and river brick and Katie increases her stack to 118000 on the last hand of play.

Katie is now leaving the poker room with the dealer in tow.

Anon E Mous hits the rail.

Earlier in the day a player with a top 5 chipstack would not supply us his name so we decided to name him Anon E Mous. (not pictured anywhere). We can now report that this mystery person is no longer in the tournament.
We arrived at the table to see the board reading 3c-Js-4c and the pot sitting at 21500.
Anon moves all in and is called immediately by Michael Frydman .

Michael has the upper hand tabling Qx-Qx and Anon needs to pull a miracle for his Ax-Jx to win this hand. The turn and river brick out and Anon is no more in this tournament.

We are approaching the end.

There is 20 minutes remaining on the tournament timer however once the clock reaches ten minutes remaining the tournament director will pause the clock and a draw will be conducted. The draw will decide whether 1,2,3 or 4 hands will be played to see out the night.

Four way all in!

On Table 7 we just saw a massive four way all in; the action commences with Nam Lee raising to 2200 from under the gun. The player immediately to his right moves all in over the top for 12600 which receives a call from the dealer button and the player in the small blind then moves all in over the top for 17500.
Nam then moves his stack into the middle, Nam has everyone out stacked and there is only one live player remaining and our player on the button makes the call for a massive four way all in.

Nam is the player in the lead holding Kd-Kh and he finds himself at risk against Jh-Js, Ah-Qh and Ad-Qc however that risk is shortlived as he spikes a King on the very dry board of Ks-8d-4c. The turn and river produce blanks and Nam Lee eliminates 3 players and increases his chip stack to 98000.

Katie Sekhas making moves.

The board reads 6h-3c-9c and Katie Sekhas (pictured above) is on the button facing a bet of 3000 from her opponent in the big blind. The pot is already worth 6400 and Katie moves a stack worth 10000 across the line.
Her opponent makes the call and the Kd falls on the turn. The player checks to Katie who diminutively announces all in. Her opponent folds and Katie shows 6d-6s for the flopped set and claims the pot.

60 minutes of play left!

The tournament director has just announced that blinds are up and players should now be posting 500/1000 with 100 antes. This is the last blind level of the day and we expect the action to pick up as those short stacks look to double up or lose it all before play ends.

Steven Zhou takes a hit.

Our recent chipleader has had some of his stack eroded in a hand where the UTG player raised to 1800. Action folds to Steven Zhou (pictured above) in the big blind and Steven raises to 3100. The UTG players re raises to 6400 and Zhou makes the call.
The flop is Qc-As-Kd and Zhou will check call the bet of 6ooo. The turn is the 2h and again Zhou check calls the bet of 8000. The river is the 9c and both player check.

Zhou’s opponent tables the Ad-Tc for a pair of aces and Zhou mucks his hand.

Last break of the day.

Players have made their way out of the Poker room and are taking their final break of the day.
When players return they will be facing blinds of 400/800 with an ante of 75. There will be two more blind levels played out and then then players will bag their chips and return tomorrow at 12.30pm for Day 2.

We have lost almost half of our starting field and there is now 145 players remaining out of the starting 240 players. The average stack is currently 33103 and below are our chip leaders late in the day.

Steven Zhou – 121000
Katie Sekhas – 91600
Steve Tymms – 85000
Nathan Davis – 83500
Anon E Mous – 80000
Katie Sekhas – 916000

Poker Players – gotta love em!

A loud roar just erupted from table 13 and perhaps they may have been some swearing as well.
We arrived in time to see that two all in players had been called by the table captain who was holding Ax-Ax. Unfortunately for our player holding rockets his opponent holding 9c-9s had hit a four card club flush to crack the rockets.

As we were getting information on the play of the hand it would seem that the two players moved all in before action reached our players holding Ax-Ax. It is at this time that this lovely quote is heard from the player “I swear I was so close to folding them, I knew someone was going to hit their set. I really swear, seriously I was going to fold my Aces”.

It is at this time that this reporter decides to walk away and out of the kindness of his heart not mention any names!

Peco the Magician

We have just been introduced to Peco the Magician, this introduction was preceded by the announcement “ALL IN and CALLED’. We arrived at the table to find Peco all in holding 7x-7x and at risk against Ax-Qx. The board bricked out and Peco doubled up to 15000.

It was as the pot was being awarded to him that Peco introduced himself with the words: “Do you know who I am? I’m Peco the Magician – Make sure you report that”.

Who am I to say no to a self-proclaimed Magician. So it has been reported.

$225,300 for the ANZPT Sydney Main Event Champ.

The prize pool has been announced and we officially have 458 runners in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event generating a prize pool of $916,000.
The final 60 players will all walk away with some portion of this prize pool whilst the champion will walk away with $225,300

1^st           $225,300.00
2^nd          $143,800.00
3^rd           $79,700.00
4^th           $62,300.00
5^th           $48,000.00
6^th           $38,900.00
7^th           $29,750.00
8^th           $23,350.00
9^th           $17,400.00
10^th         $11,450.00
11th – 12^th            $11,450.00
13^th – 15^th             $9,150.00
16^th – 18^th             $7,750.00
19^th – 21^st             $6,400.00
22^nd -24^th              $5,600.00
25^th – 27^th             $5,100.00
28^th – 36^th             $4,600.00
37^th – 45^th             $4,100.00
46^th – 54^th             $3,650.00

And with that announcement we have another two and a half blind level left in todays play.

Sneaky poker players dont like the live reporting team!

With that pot Hijack exclipses the 60000 chip mark.

We have a new chip leader!

In the first hand back from the break we find Marcel Naboulsi involved in a big hand and three betting pre to 6000. His opponent moves all in for 43775 and Marcel will make the call and find himself dominated by Ax-AX. Marcel is holding Kx-Kx

The board rolls out 8x-4x-3x but the turn delivers a miracle as Marcel hits his K and the river blanks. Marcel send his opponent to the rail and he is our first player to break through the 100000 barrier for flight 2.

Current leaders.

With just under a quarter of the field now eliminated we bring you our current top 10 (unofficial) chip leaders.

Dejan Boskovic (pictured above)  71300
Nathan Davis                             67950
Does not wish to be named        67825
Steve Tymms                            67500
Jason Tompkins                        65225
Reza Vakili                               65175
Luke Brabin                              60400
Marcel Naboulsi                        56000
Jake Balsinger                          55000
Pauk Bennett                           54700

Halfway through the day.

The fourth blind level has now been completed and the remaining 186 players have been granted a 30 minute lunch/dinner break.

The average stack is currently 25806 and players will return with blinds at 200/400 with a 50 ante.

Huntly Eliminated

Dennis Huntly raised from the cutoff and faced a re raise to 4200 from his opponent in the big blind. Dennis moved all in for his remaining stack and was quickly called.

Dennis was needing a slight miracle when he found his Ac-Jc behind the Jd-Jh of his opponent.

The flop all but sealed the deal when it fell Kd-8h-Jh. Dennis needed running broadway cards for a straight but the turn was a 3 and the river an 8 to send Dennis to the rail.

Notable chipstacks

We are almost halfway through play of Day 1 Flight 2 and here are some of the more recognizable players in the field and their current chip stacks.

Brendon Rubie – 8975
Joe Hachem – 22000
Gary Benson – 32850
Patrick Healy – 20000
Tony Hachem – 25000
Jake Balsinger – 22000
Matt Rolfe – 15000
Didier Guerin – 30000

Players will go on a break in 15 minutes.

That’s a lot of bricking.

Dean Blatt, our champion from Event 2 the PokerMedia Australia $1100 Six Max, has been eliminated after raising Jh-9h in position and finding one caller.
The flop was as close to perfect as possible for Dean’s hand when it fell 5x-7h-8h but Dean faces a check raise from his opponent on this flop and he moves all in with the gutshot straight flush draw.
His opponent makes the dreaded comments ‘well I have to call now’ and tables 3x-3x for an under pair.

The turn cards gives Dean even more outs when the 5 repeats but the river drops a blank for Dean and he leaves the Main Event after bricking 17 outs on the turn and 25 outs on the river.

Unofficial Top 4 Stacks Day 1 – Flight 2 – 2:30pm

Marcel Naboulsi – 60,400
Matt Kay – 57,000
Alf Martinsson – 50,650
Nam Le – 40,000

First break completed.

The first break has been and gone and the boards are showing 240 entries for flight 2. The final field size is well over 450 but we will have the official field size and prize pool through to you shortly.

Patrick Healy claims a pot.

In preflop action the UTG player limps and action will fold to Patrick Healy in the cutoff who raises the bet to 525. Patrick finds a caller on the button and the UTG player also calls.
We go to a flop of Kd-9s-Qd and the action is passed to Patrick who again bets 525 and both of his opponents call.
The turn is the Qs and this time Patrick leads for 1100 and finds a lone caller with the player in position. The river is the 9h and Patrick bets out 1800 in chips and his opponent makes a quick call.

Patrick tables Ah-Qc for trip queens and the win.

Darbani triples and is back in the game!

We pick up the action on table 26 on a flop of 4h-Kd-2h and 2800 in the pot. Nathan Davis leads out for 1200 in the hijack after Tien Pham checked, followed by Joesph Alvaro who called the 1200. Hauman Darbani took this oppourtunity to shove his remaining 5125 all in. Tien Pham in middle position after a short deliberation flat calls the 5125. Davis folds after getting the action started leaving  Alvaro to push the remainder of his stack for a further 12300 on top of Darbani’s all in, leaving Pham with a decision to make.

Pham goes into the tank for several minutes before a player at the table calls time.

Pham would eventually make the call and all cards are on their backs with Alvaro and Darbani at risk of being eliminated.

Darbani quickly tables his 4c-4s and is in front with a set.

Alvaro Qs-Ks.

Tien Pham Kc-Jh.

Turn – 8d

River – 8h

Darbani fills up taking the main pot and putting him just under start stack and with Alvaro’s Kc kicking it is enough for him to take down a substantial side pot of 24600.

David Borg flops quads!

That is all!

Paul Murray plays it straight.

There are four players involved in a 3800 pot with the board showing Jc-7s-8h-4s. The first to act player leads out for 750 and is raised by Paul Murray to 1650. This provokes a fold from the two other players and Paul’s opponent makes the call and the 7c drops on the river.
The action is checked to Paul who bets out 2100 and after some deliberation his opponent makes the call.

Paul quickly tables 5h-6h for the 8 high straight.

Top 10 Chipcounts (official) from Flight 1

Last Name     First Name Country Chips

Mathers Jazz Australia 195,200
Zhong Yu Liang Australia 164,500
Lee         Alex Australia 148,100
Polias Nicholas Australia 132,000
Morris-Denby Colin Australia 128,500
Zanozn Eugene Australia 124,600
Aston Anthony Australia 117,100
Westmorland Jordan USA 111,600
Kanaan Michael Australia 103,900
Spiegel Karl Australia 89,100 

Flight 2 set to commence at 12.30pm

Last nights flight saw 217 players take their seats and we finished the day with 74 players remaining. The story of the day was that of Jazz Mathis; who made some amazing calls and has a ‘chip and a chair’ type tale by turning 1400 chips after the first break to leading the pack at end of play with 195000.

The field is looking to eclipse the 400 mark for the Main Event and the screen is currently displaying 144 players but there is an up to another 100 players expected to be registered.

Event reporting brought to you by

Play will commence at 12.30pm AEDT on Friday March 21 from The Star, Sydney.