- Home>
- Poker News>
- PokerStars ANZPT Melbourne Underway
PokerStars ANZPT Melbourne Underway
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 by admin
  Visit Poker Stars |
Several PokerStars players entered the event including Lee Nelson, Grant Levy, Tony Hachem, Eric Assadourian and Celina Lin. Former ANZPT Champions Paren Arzoomanian and Karl Krautscheider were also among the star studded field of competitors.
The tournament got off to a slow start as players were given 20,000 in starting chips and the tables were stacked heavy. The first to be eliminated from the competition was Leo Boxell after going up against pocket aces. Boxell had taken a hit earlier with pocket queens against pocket queens so he was set up for the downfall.
Paren Arzoomanian the Sydney ANZPT champion would also exit early. Tomorrow will begin day 2 play and only sixty nine of the original 218 players will be returning. Players are competing for the AUD$545,000 prize pool.
When day 2 play begins Jie Gao will be sitting pretty as he is currently in the chip lead. He took down two large pots before the day ended to gain the chip lead with more than 250,000 chips. Gao took down James Brown and then KOing and then two other players in the final hand of play to gain the chip lead.
Second to Gao is Heath Chick who won his seat through PokerStars. Chick is the only other player next to Gao who has over 200,000 chips leading into day 2 play. Chick says his strategy for day 2 is to “fold all the way”.
When play begins on day 2 the players will compete to the final table and the top eighteen players will cash out which includes the $158,050 first place prize.
Top Ten Chip Leaders:
Jie Gao – 257,400
Heath Chick – 214,100
Chris Kittos – 146,000
Tino Lechich – 119,500
John Apostolidis – 113,000
Salvatore Fazzino – 109,900
Trevor Mccarthy – 109,100
Johnny Huynh – 105,100
Jarrod Graham – 103,300
Brent Thomas – 99,800
