ANZPT Sydney Day 1b Complete, Mason Towers Over the Rest
Day 1b of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney Main Event attracted 254 players to the Star Casino. This brought the combined number of entries to 460, a mere one short of last year's event. A prize pool of AUD$920,000 was generated with first place paying an impressive AUD$226,300.
Eighty-nine players were left when the day was finished with Ashley Mason atop the chip counts with a monstrous stack of 253,800 in chips. He waited until the last level to accumulate much of this stack, after the short stacks at his table tried to fight against him. He will lead a 175-strong field coming into Day 2.
Recently back from his deep run at the World Poker Tour Bay 101 event in San Jose, Brendon Rubie was in Thursday’s field and will progress to Day 2. His day only went up, with a big hand in the last few levels giving him the chip lead for some time. He eventually finished with a respectable 117,700 in chips.
Snapping at Mason's heels, but a considerable way behind are Dale Marsland (172,200), Ben Benoit (140,800) and John Thomson (136,400). Iori Yogo, Patrick Healy, Jackson Zheng and Joe Cabret were also among the players who made it through Day 1b.
Some of the players who weren’t so fortunate included, Didier Guerin, Jonathan Karamalakis, Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang, Tom English, Tom Grigg, Tony Hachem and 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event champion David Gorr.
Hachem arrived late to the tournament and didn’t last much longer after that. He lost half of his stack when his flopped two pair fell behind to Healy’s turned two pair. He then proceeded to get his remaining chip stack in with the 
on a 
flop with two clubs, and was up against 
. The board ran out with the 
and 
to see his day end.
Gorr was another who played tight throughout the day. He eventually got all his chips in holding the 
and was called by the 
. When the board ran out 
, it saw Gorr exit the building.
ANZPT Sydney Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashley Mason | 253800 |
| 2 | Dale Marsland | 172200 |
| 3 | Benjamin Benoit | 140800 |
| 4 | John Thomson | 136400 |
| 5 | Aziz Youssef | 118900 |
| 6 | Iori Yogo | 118300 |
| 7 | Brendon Rubie | 117700 |
| 8 | Robert Lam | 107200 |
| 9 | Rasmus Buer | 106200 |
| 10 | Donald Jones | 92200 |
Be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting team from 12:30 p.m. local time tomorrow as we bring you all the continued coverage from Day 2 of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event.