The day started with high expectations for 140 entrants to the 2010 ANZPT Gold Coast Main Event and by the end of eight levels of play that number had been reduced to just 69.
It was a field of the highest calibre, with multiple ANZPT champions, an Aussie Millions champion, a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and an Australian Poker Hall of Famer for good measure.
But it wasn’t a day for champion plays, but rather a day of frustration and bad beats, as big pair after big pair was cracked in ruthless fashion. From the first elimination of the day when Tolly Sakellar’s kings were cracked by ace-five, to Jackie Glazier’s crushing defeat of her aces to Grant Levy’s fall from grace with pocket kings. It just wasn’t a good day to get your money in good.
Some of those who also failed to make it through the day included Dale Marsland, Stewart Scott, Hugh Cohen, Simon Watt, Rennie Carnevale and Vesko Zmukic.
However some players were able to dodge the minefield and survive the day in good shape. Joel Dodds started off well with set over set on two separate occasions to give him a buffer to cop a couple of bad beats later in the day. Dodds seems to have a liking for this region. After his third place finish in this event last year, Dodds is well in contention after bagging up 67,975 in chips.
Defending champion Scott Kerr was struggling in the early goings and had one foot out the door when his A♣ K♣ was all in for his tournament life against the K♦ Kâ™ of Bruno Da Silva. Kerr was able to spike an ace on the flop and carried that momentum all the way to a top ten stack of 70,250 by the day’s end.
Ricky Kroesen (81,425), Dave Allan (82,825), Brad Bower (85,550) and Nuno Da Silva (85,600) all had strong days on the felt to be the chip leaders entering day two. Tom Grigg showed his class throughout the day to bag up 86,450 but the end of day chip lead goes to PokerStars qualifier Shivan Abdine.
Abdine quietly accumulated chips throughout the day without too much fanfare to finish with 99,025 at the end of the day. He’ll get to enjoy a day off tomorrow before returning on Friday morning for day two of the ANZPT Gold Coast Main Event.
Others who successfully made it through the day include Andrew Watson (49,050), Maurie Pears (48,675), Tim English (43,650), Liam Moffett (40,625), Julian Cohen (33,475) and Jai Kemp (19,625).
We’re expecting a full house for Day 1B as this event smashes the record for tournament poker in Queensland with a prize pool in excess of $700,000. We’ll be back at 11:30am Australian Eastern Standard Time for all the live action and we look forward to your company then.
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