When we walked into the Crown Poker Room this afternoon, we always knew we were in for a long day. The equation to turn 141 players into just nine was a complex one that would test the patience and endurance of players and media alike. But none of us really expected a 17-hour day that would stretch into the next morning. It took 17 gruelling hours of bad beats, coolers and suck outs, but we’ve finally reached our ANZPT Melbourne final table.
Winding back to the middle of what is now yesterday, and Billy Jordanou entered the day as the chip leader with the goal to first reach the money for the top 41 players before then making a run for the final table.
Luis Arrilucea and Tristan Bain tangled for the chip lead before Kyle Cheong took control after winning a race to eliminate Australian Poker Hall of Famer Leo Boxell as the money approached.
It wasn’t until after the dinner break that the bubble popped in rather unspectacular fashion. There was no fanfare and little to report as simultaneous eliminations across multiple tables saw us race through the bubble in the blink of an eye.
With a guaranteed $3,450 safely in hand, and valuable ANZ POTY points earned, the players started to drop away. James Bills (39th), Amanda De Cesare (37th), Kristian Lunardi (35th), Matthew Wakeman (33rd), Kyle Cheong (29th), Manny Stavropoulos (27th), Billy Jordanou (22nd, Nali Kaselias (21st), Minh Nguyen (20th) and Hugh Cohen (13th) were just some of the notables to head to the cashier.
The two members of Team PokerStars had varying fortunes throughout the day. Angel Guillen was an early casualty but Bryan Huang managed to pull himself into contention. Just as things look threatening, Huang ran pocket queens into pocket kings to leave himself on the ropes. He fought with everything he had to stay alive as the short stack, but shoved ace-ten into Peter Matusik’s ace-king to bow out in 12th place.
Unlike the other bubble earlier in the day, the final table bubble was a little harder to burst with the short stacks defiant. As the hour ticked over to 5am, it was Tam Truong who was the one to succumb in 10th place as our final table line up is now set.
ANZPT Melbourne final table line up
1 Paul Hockin (New Zealand) – 801,000
2 Michael LoGiudice (Australia) – 1,071,000
3 Michael Guzzardi (Australia) – 509,000
4 Peter Matusik (Australia) – 1,058,000
5 Anthony Aston (Australia) – 680,000
6 Igal Augarten (Australia) – 473,000
7 Karan Punjabi (Australia) – 235,000
8 Ashley Warner (Australia) – 1,565,000
9 Ismail Ismail (Australia) – 350,000
Ashley Warner has the chip lead on an interesting final table that features a couple of newcomers, a few veterans and some of the most talented young guns in the region. Peter Matusik will also be gunning to be the first player to win two ANZPT titles. Tomorrow is going to be a beauty!
Thanks for following our coverage this evening. The ANZPT Melbourne final table commences at 2pm tomorrow and we look forward to you joining us then. In the meantime make sure you join our competition to help Danny McDonagh get more Twitter followers!
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