Thursday, 28th March 2024 23:36
Home / Uncategorized / ANZPT6 Melbourne: Chua takes it to overtime on Day 1b

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in Melbourne. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the records were tumbling.

Day 1b of the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event saw a field of 274 come together to swell the prize pool to record-setting proportions for the ANZPT. The total field of 516 is a record for a $2,200 ANZPT Main Event and it’s the first time that we’ve seen a $1,000,000+ prize pool in ANZPT history. It’s an exceptional result for everyone involved in the event.

It was a who’s who of the Australian poker world in action today with the likes of former ANZPT champions Michael Kanaan, Martin Kozlov, Pete Matusik, Dave Allan and Jono Bredin, APPT Sydney champ Aaron Benton, previous ANZ Player of the Year winners Danny Chevalier and Mishel Anunu, WSOPE bracelet winner Jackie Glazier, the “Poker Star” Amanda De Cesare and of course, 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem.

That’s a strong list of champions, but that only scratched the surface with quality players such as Jesse McKenzie, Liam O’Rourke, Ricky Kroesen, David Yan, David Steicke, Anthony Aston, Tony Kondevski, Matt Wakeman, Luke Edwards, Patrick Crivell, Ash Warner, Tam Truong, Jazz Mathers, Dean Blatt and Tony Targalia also among the field today.

There was also a little international flavour, headlined by the lone Team PokerStars Pro in the field in Singapore’s Bryan Huang.

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After winning a side event during the week, Huang was full of confidence heading into the Main Event. That confidence, as well as a flopped set against pocket aces, enabled Huang to rake in plenty of pots on his way to a commanding stack of 123,800 after eight levels of play.

That was an impressive number, but not as impressive as that of Shy Jachimowicz. He might have been shy by name, but there was nothing shy about the size of his chip stack. Jachimowicz shot out to a monstrous chip lead with a rivered full house against two opponents and didn’t look back.

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Jachimowicz shot up to well into triple digits half way through the day and pretty much maintained that position for the entire day. It was enough for Jachimowicz to bag up 170,000 which looked good for the end-of-day chip lead when most of the tables had bagged, tagged and headed off for dinner.

However Table 10 had other ideas.

In a hand that went for a good ten minutes beyond the scheduled close of play, it was Vincent Chua who managed to induce a massive call from Ben Pockett on a board of J-7-5-8-T. Chua had moved all in and Pockett agonized before committing himself with jack-ten for two pair, but Chua’s nine-eight was good for a straight to drag in the massive pot and bag up a tournament leading 210,100 chips.

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A total of 94 players would survive Day 1b with Fabian Craib (129,500), Luke Edwards (115,300), Joe Hachem (93,800), Anthony Aston (76,900), Jazz Mathers (67,500), Martin Kozlov (50,900), Matt Wakeman (50,300), Jackie Glazier (36,000), Liam O’Rourke (30,000) and Aaron Benton (20,900) among those who will return on Day 2. Head to the live reporting section of the blog for the full chip counts and Day 2 seating draw.

A total of 179 players will return to the Crown Poker Room at 12:30pm on Sunday with another nine levels to be played. That will see us well inside the money, short of reaching the final table but out the door just in time to hit the player’s party at Lumia Lounge!

Until then, enjoy your Saturday night if you’re a Richmond supporter, and drown your sorrows if you’re everyone else. We’ll see you again tomorrow!

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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