We were supposed to make it to the Player’s Party.
There was probably some really nice food, plenty of free drinks and lots of fun to be had.
But sadly, while the party was pumping we were stuck at the blogging desk several hours longer than expected as the players here at the ANZPT Sydney Main Event dug their heels in and fought with everything they had to make it to the final table. It didn’t matter how high those blinds ticked up, the players weren’t going to stick those chips in light. Murray Roach even folded ace-king face up from the big blind to an all-in shove, just to prove to everyone how valuable those chips were.
Finally, at the half-way point of Level 25, with just a 20 big blind average stack, the last hand of the evening was dealt and the final table of nine formed.
Sekuloski. Chand. Rafferty. Psaros. Hsu. Seal. Roach. Liew. Ma.
An eclectic bunch and not household names, but one of these players will be crowned the ANZPT Sydney champion and take home the top prize of $225,000.
Sunday afternoon is traditionally the day of rest, but there was a lot of work to do for the surviving 54 players who returned to the tables on Day 3 of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event.
Ken Demlakian (51st), Tim English (49th), Dominic Coombe (45th) and Aussie Millions final tablist James Rann (43rd) were some of the early casualties, although Rann has collected enough points to jump right into contention in the ANZ Player of the Year race.
The eliminations were steady in the afternoon without setting a furious pace. Last year’s runner up Peco Stojanovski fell in 40th place before Octavian Voegele was denied a second ANZPT title when he fell in 38th place.
Canada’s Xuan Liu was the last female standing and endured a rollercoaster afternoon. Liu was crippled with ace-king falling to Didier Guerin’s ace-queen to be down under a single big blind but she managed to claw her way back into contention before a cooler with jacks against queens ended her run in 24th place.
When former ANZPT Sydney champion Michael Kanaan fell in 19th place, play would hit a massive wall with two tables to go.
Didier Guerin fell in 17th place, Ali Ghezelbash was next in 16th before cult hero Toothpick Tony just couldn’t find a hand as he grumbled his way to the rail in 13th place.
The blinds eventually caught hold and the short stacks struggled for breath under the pressure. However a couple snuck through to the final table when David O’Brien ran his ace-jack into Jim Psaros’ pocket kings to end the day.
That hand was enough to propel Psaros into a commanding chip position when the bags were tagged and sealed. Denis Sekuloski and Murray Roach are both up over one million in chips while the rest of our players will start tomorrow around 20 big blinds or less.
ANZPT Sydney Final Table Line Up
Seat 1: Shaneel Chand – 595,000
Seat 2: Tom Rafferty – 400,000
Seat 3: Emanuel Seal – 810,000
Seat 4: Murray Roach – 1,495,000
Seat 5: Jim Psaros – 2,640,000
Seat 6: Zhi Hong Ma – 625,000
Seat 7: Li-ta “Leon” Hsu – 605,000
Seat 8: Denis Sekuloski – 1,580,000
Seat 9: Chung Liew – 155,000
We’ll have biographies of the final table players for you a little later this evening.
The final table will commence at 2:00pm on Monday to decide our ANZPT Sydney champion and the recipient of the top prize of $225,000.
Thanks for following our coverage this evening. We hope you enjoy your Sunday evening and we look forward to you joining us again tomorrow to bring this ship home. Until then, goodnight from Sydney!
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