Paul Hockin Leads After Day 1B
The second starting day of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event is done, and Paul Hockin ended as chip leader. He bagged up 120,100 and moves onto Day 2 with 66 other survivors. With the 74 players that made it through yesterday there still will be 141 players who will try to make the final table tomorrow.
A total of 159 players showed up for Day 1B, creating a total field of 345 players. This means 41 players will get paid, and the first place prize will be a hefty A$172,500. Plenty of players will not have a shot at this prize after busting out on Day 1B. Among these we saw plenty of famous faces.
APPT Melbourne winner Sam Razavi made his way down to Melbourne again, but his day was short lived. He got involved in a big coin flip, but his pocket queens could not beat ace-king. Ismaeel Razavi, Sam's brother, also played the event and lasted much longer. After dinner he also had to go when Aaron Benton knocked him out. Razavi five-bet shoved with pocket sevens and lost to Benton's ace-jack. Benton survived the day with 29,200.
The 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Oliver Speidel also came to play. Speidel was unlucky as he busted out when his kings fell to a flush draw, which completed on the river. The two Team PokerStars Pros had swings, but both managed to survive the day. Angel Guillen was doing well after doubling up with a flopped set, but ended the day with just 15,000. Bryan Huang was hovering around 50,000 for a long time, but bagged up 35,300 going into Day 2.
We won't see Oliver Gill, Ben Savage, Will Jones, Luke McLean and Liam O'Rourke back on Day 2 as they all busted out. The latter was seated with Joel Feldman for most of the day and Feldman ended up surviving with 86,900. Two other Australian top players, Kristian Lunardi (44,000) and James Bills (43,700) also made it into the second day of play. Karim Jomeen ended the day second in chips with 118,200 and Luis Arrilucea completed the top three.
The tournament will recommence tomorrow at 12:30 PM local time. It will be a long, tough day for the players as they will chase one of the nine spots at the final table. Click here to take a look at the tournament payouts, Day 2 chip counts and seat draw.
PokerNews.com will be there again from start to finish tomorrow as we bring you all the big hands, chip counts and player interviews. For now, good night from Melbourne!