At the start of the day we awoke to dark clouds and threatening skies hovering above the city of Auckland, and although the rain held off outside we didn’t have to wait long for it to start pouring in the SKYCITY poker room. Within the first few minutes of play we lost Rewi Emerson, David Borg, 2009 ANZPT Queensland champ Scott Kerr and PokerStars qualifier Pontus Kers who had travelled all the way from Sweden. Kings versus aces and it was all over for Kers after just one single hand as Day 1b of the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Auckland was off to a rocketing start.
129 players took their seat on the felt today with several of the big names starting slowly with Michael Spilkin, Mishel Anunu, Jay Kinkade and defending champion Simon Watt slow out of the gates, before each lost their battle with their short stacks. Watt’s final stand saw his king-jack run into an opponent’s pocket jacks which meant we would be crowning a new champion this year.
Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson was another to struggle, but they don’t call him “Final Table” for nothing, as Nelson recovered to navigate his way through the day with an average stack.
Tony Hachem wasn’t so fortunate.
“It just wasn’t my day,” sighed Hachem after a series of bad beats left the Team PokerStars Pro short stacked and all in with Q♥ Q♦ against Leo Boxell’s A♣ 10♣ . Three clubs on board was enough to give Boxell the pot and send Hachem to the rail.
Another interesting story emerged with the Danish duo of Mads and Soren Smith-Hansen. With Soren hard at work on the APPT Auckland felt, brother Mads was busy upstairs as he was deep in a PokerStars WCOOP event online. After eventually busting in 11th place in the WCOOP, Mads ventured downstairs to join the event on the live felt but was unable to recover from his reduced stack, while Soren survived to reach day two action.
Late in the day, the chip lead swapped hands on multiple occasions with Michael Kroger, Koray Turker and Julius Colman all threatening for the lead, but in the end it was PokerStars qualifier and 2010 ANZPT Gold Coast champion Nauv Kashyap who steadily accumulated through the day to claim the chip lead. Kashyap’s style is one of little fanfare as he flied under the radar with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency. Kashyap earned most of his chips in a big pot when his pocket queens held against an opponent’s ace-queen, and from there he chipped up to end the day with 99,075.
55 players survived the day with Koray Turker (87,075), Michael Kroger (79,400), Julius Colman (78,025) and Kevin Petersen (71,500) amongst the chip leaders. Other notables to make it through to day two include Leo Boxell (64,075), Mike King (58,700), Lance Climo (48,800), Raj Ramakrishnan (41,225), Richard Lancaster (35,275), Jai Kemp (24,200), Joel Dodds (20,925) and Josh Barrett (14,675).
The 96 players will come together in the SKYCITY Auckland Poker Room for the first time tomorrow with the goal of reaching the money. Join us from 12:15pm to watch it all unfold!
Day 2 Table Draw
Table 5
Seat 1: –empty–
Seat 2: Grant Harris – 11600
Seat 3: Ali Ghezelbash – 18275
Seat 4: Tamas Lendvai – 27375
Seat 5: Cole Swannack – 26350
Seat 6: Brian Chesnutt – 46725
Seat 7: Zack Lowrie – 77825
Seat 8: Koray Turker – 87075
Seat 9: Damien Wong – 19575
Table 6
Seat 1: Shaun Gray – 43225
Seat 2: Chris Holmes – 26125
Seat 3: Sal Mawani – 18250
Seat 4: Ray Mccarthy – 23900
Seat 5: John Harman – 94300
Seat 6: –empty–
Seat 7: Raj Ramakrishnan – 41225
Seat 8: Erik Austheim – 16300
Seat 9: Jordan Pearce – 24625
Table 7
Seat 1: Leo Boxell – 64075
Seat 2: Jai Kemp – 24200
Seat 3: Jeffery Bucher – 18700
Seat 4: Carl Gray – 7100
Seat 5: Jessica Hu – 34075
Seat 6: Danny ‘Brotha D’ Leaoasavaii – 23675
Seat 7: Jason Wilton – 52275
Seat 8: –empty–
Seat 9: Ardmore Vakalahi – 67650
Table 8
Seat 1: Dave Mill – 20450
Seat 2: Santi Soriano Ramos – 11975
Seat 3: Terry Brockhurst – 40675
Seat 4: Linh Tran – 49725
Seat 5: James Stanfield – 57300
Seat 6: Morten Boserup Jakobsen – 29700
Seat 7: Sijia Ke – 22250
Seat 8: Rewi Pittman – 65700
Seat 9: Eddie Mascadri – 20950
Table 9
Seat 1: Srdjan Mitrovic – 57600
Seat 2: Geoffrey Fitzpatrick – 36575
Seat 3: Kevin Petersen – 71500
Seat 4: Nigel Brine – 9150
Seat 5: Josh Barrett – 14675
Seat 6: Neil Stewart – 48825
Seat 7: Aaron Sue – 69250
Seat 8: Qi Xu – 34525
Seat 9: Andrew Hinrichsen – 69400
Table 10
Seat 1: Julius Colman – 78025
Seat 2: Marc Wittkopf – 58475
Seat 3: Marc Long – 13350
Seat 4: Søren Smith-Hansen – 30900
Seat 5: Matthew Clark – 24800
Seat 6: Joe Allis – 30150
Seat 7: Nicholas Scaife – 55250
Seat 8: Constantin Harach – 8975
Seat 9: Joel Dodds – 20925
Table 11
Seat 1: Richard Lancaster – 35275
Seat 2: Mike Tyler – 54950
Seat 3: Akshay Nauhria – 49150
Seat 4: Julian Dapena – 34050
Seat 5: Joseph Greer – 28775
Seat 6: Weibo Ye – 12200
Seat 7: Alan Stafford – 29425
Seat 8: Sam Courtenay – 86525
Seat 9: Mike King – 58700
Table 12
Seat 1: Seine Tauia – 14575
Seat 2: Michael Mariakis – 21825
Seat 3: Geoff Smith – 27900
Seat 4: Ian Parnell – 50600
Seat 5: Robert Bell – 12750
Seat 6: Ropati Toleafoa – 63675
Seat 7: Julian Cohen – 22175
Seat 8: Nauv Kashyap – 99075
Seat 9: Siong Hoe Lee – 21660
Table 13
Seat 1: Rengui Chen – 26675
Seat 2: Oliver Schaffman – 58200
Seat 3: Roger Harris – 81925
Seat 4: Kani Edwards – 23400
Seat 5: Ricky Kroesen – 81900
Seat 6: AJ Bertenshaw – 16200
Seat 7: Martin Balaz – 35475
Seat 8: Paul Hockin – 14550
Seat 9: Luke Edwards – 13975
Table 14
Seat 1: Noah Vogelman – 128275
Seat 2: Hung-Sheng Lin – 12025
Seat 3: Peter Jones – 41000
Seat 4: Thomas Grigg – 16400
Seat 5: William Woolsey – 31625
Seat 6: Lance Climo – 48800
Seat 7: Lee Nelson – 39625
Seat 8: Lance Haysam – 41125
Seat 9: Ben Abrahams – 31525
Table 15
Seat 1: Julian Parmann – 61125
Seat 2: Michael Kroger – 79400
Seat 3: Zane Kopua – 26975
Seat 4: Nicholas Lamport – 18500
Seat 5: Tao Luo – 94050
Seat 6: Danny Silk – 76650
Seat 7: Mark Ericksen – 39275
Seat 8: Ross Stevenson – 66300
Seat 9: Victorino Torres – 12125
