Closing Time ...

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Jonathan Karamalikis is all smiles after emerging as Day 1b chipleader!

Well folks, it's that time of the evening down here in the Crown Poker Room. Day 1b of the 2009 PokerNews Cup Main Event has come to a close, with approximately 89 players having bagged and tagged their chips and we're wrapping things up!

Jonathan 'xMONSTERxDONGx' Karamalikis' bag has been dragged back to the cage, containing 211,200 in chips after a dominant display towards the end of the day. Andrew Hinrichsen is in second place on today's chip counts with 159,600; Michael Mifsud (154,400), Linas Leonovas (135,000) and Ash Gupta (125,300) round off the approximate top five.

Other major names to have survived for Day 2 include Rayan Nathan (64,000), Andrew Demetriou (57,000), Emad Tahtouh (50,000), Billy 'The Croc' Argyros (49,000), Tony 'bond18' Dunst (35,000) and Clonie Gowen (24,900).

However it's going to be a long trip home (regardless of distance) as we say goodbye to Kristian Lunardi, Karib Karib, Kenneth Damm, Raj Ramakrishnan, Peter Aristidou, Mark Vos, Tino Lechich, Stewart Scott, Dean Nyberg, Bruno Portaro and Jai Kemp.

2008 PokerNews Cup champion Nali 'Iraqi Nick' Kaselias is no longer in contention to defend his title. PokerNews' head honcho Tony G will also be heading home, while ace reporter Tim Duckworth will be watching from behind the laptop as James Bernard will be the one flying our flag heading into Day 2 with 47,300.

As of tomorrow we're on daylight savings time, so be sure to join us here at PokerNews once again at 12.10pm AEDST (1.10am GMT) for all the action and excitement of Day 2 of the 2009 PokerNews Cup! Until then, as we say down here in the land of Oz, 'Avagoodone!

Tags: Jonathan Karamalikis