One of the great things about the game of No Limit Texas Holdem is that any player can lose all of their chips on a single hand. One mistake, one cooler, one bad beat – that’s all it takes. Even so, when we returned to the Adelaide Casino Poker Zone today, with 36 players still remaining, we were ready to dig our heels in for a long day ahead to reach our final table. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
With the tremendous structures offered by the PokerStars.net ANZPT, we have no real explanation for how we lost 27 players within a little more than four hours of play, but it speaks for how tournament poker has evolved. The aggressive preflop raise and re-raise approach to the game is one that brings great variance, great excitement and potentially great reward.
For some it meant that their day was ended a little prematurely as nine players fell before we reached the money stage. They would go home empty-handed for two and a bit days of effort. There was effectively no bubble as the simultaneously eliminations of Joey Lovelady and Eric Sclavos left our final 27 with a minimum of $4,140 in their back pocket.
Peter Aristidou was first to head to the cashier after Jesse McKenzie got creative with the old deuce-trey to make a wheel straight, and the eliminations continued regularly throughout the afternoon. Stuart McLeod-Smith toyed with the chip lead but fell in 23rd, with Leapin’ Leo Boxell next to follow in 22nd.
One of the defining hands of the day was the clash between Octavian Voegele and Graeme Putt. The two saw a flop of 2♠ K♥ 5♠ and unleashed a series of bets that saw both players all in. Putt held A♠ J♠ for the nut flush draw as Voegele tabled 2♣ 2♥ for bottom set. Putt snared his flush with the Q♠ turn but he was distraught when another lady appeared on the river as the Q♦ improved Voegele to a full house. Putt was eliminated in 19th place as Voegele leapt to a huge chip lead.
PokerStars qualifier Daniel Botta fell to a two-outer to Charles Caris to finish in 17th place, before the largest pot of the tournament led to the elimination of Jeff Chu in 15th place. A preflop raising war between Jesse McKenzie and Chu saw both commit their chips in a race with McKenzie’s jacks prevailing against the ace-king of Chu. It jumped McKenzie back to the top of the counts and he never looked back.
Tim English (14th) and Raj Ramakrishnan (13th) fell in rapid succession before PokerStars-sponsored Paul Khoury was next to go in 12th when his Q♥ 10♦ couldn’t improve against Octavian Voegele’s A♠ 7♠ .
After Graeme Nobbs fell in 11th, all eyes were on the ultra-short-stacked David Hibbott as it appeared a matter of time before he met his fate. With around four big blinds in his stack, Hibbott went with A♥ 8♣ but Jesse McKenzie made two pair with Q♣ 9♣ to take the pot as our final table lineup was set!
Australian-based Austrian Octavian Voegele will carry the only million-chip stack into play tomorrow as he will be looking to go a few places further than his third place result in this same event last year.
Here’s the final table draw:
Seat 1: Oliver Grugjic (Australia) – 281,000
Seat 2: Jeff Rossitter (Australia) – 383,000
Seat 3: John Apostolidis (Australia) – 255,000
Seat 4: Charles Caris (Australia) – 846,000
Seat 5: Ian Parnell (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 289,000
Seat 6: Danny Chevalier (Australia) – 500,000
Seat 7: Andrew Dales (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 484,000
Seat 8: Jesse McKenzie (Australia) – PokerStars Player – 915,000
Seat 9: Octavian Voegele (Australia) – 1,088,000
We’ll recommence at 12:15pm local time (GMT+9:30) tomorrow as the PokerStars.net ANZPT Adelaide Main Event reaches an exciting conclusion. Whether you’re enjoying the T20 Big Bash Final at the Adelaide Oval, grinding the 5/5 tables in the Poker Zone or riding the mechanical bull at the Woolshed, we hope you have a great Saturday night in Adelaide and we’ll see you fresh and firing tomorrow afternoon.
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