Thursday, 28th March 2024 23:57
Home / Uncategorized / ANZPT6 Perth Day 1B: Overseas invasion in ANZ POY

The Australia New Zealand Player of the Year award is one of the most prestigious honours in poker in this region. It’s an award that recognizes both success and consistency at major poker events in Australia and New Zealand, with previous award winners including Tony Hachem (2009, 2010), Danny Chevalier (2011), Mishel Anunu (2012) and Japan’s Iori Yogo (2013).

Normally it’s an event dominated by the locals, but this season there’s a slightly different feel as we take a look at the current top ten leaderboard.

1 Ami Barer – 106.88
2 Sorel Mizzi – 97.19
3 Jacob Balsiger – 89.44
4 Darren Rabinowitz – 83.63
5 Vincent Rubianes – 79.75
6 Andrew Phaedonas – 77.81
7 Scott Seiver – 75.88
8 Eoghan O’Dea – 73.94
9 Denny Lewis – 72.00
10 Erik Seidel – 70.06

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Aussie Millions champ, Ami Barer

All ANZPT Main Events qualify for points for the award, but this year for the first time, the Aussie Millions Main Event was also a qualifying event as part of the APPT. This has created a rather intriguing top ten. There are a lot of big names in the list, but only two of them are even Australian – Andrew Phaedonas and Denny Lewis.

Phaedonas has one prior ANZPT cash at the Melbourne Repechage Event last May, while Lewis hasn’t been spotted at ANZPT events as yet. Both Aussies are not regulars on the circuit and it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing either of them here in Perth.

It’s created an interesting situation. Normally the ANZ POY is hotly contested at the top of the leaderboard, but this year the race could be wide open. None of the top ten players are here in Perth, and it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing the likes of international superstars Scott Seiver or Erik Seidel on the ANZPT any time soon.

Canadian Ami Barer has played a few ANZPT events in the past, so if the Aussie Millions champ pops up in Sydney or Auckland later in the year, then he could be very hard to beat. Jake Balsiger is also spending some time in Australia and mentioned that he’ll be playing Sydney next month, so he’s another one to watch.

Outside of the top ten, Pat Crivell (12th) and Sal Fazzino (15th) played Day 1A of the ANZPT Perth Main Event yesterday and are both still in contention, while today we have a few more who would like to work their way up the leaderboard.

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ANZPT Auckland champion, David Lim, in action here in Perth

David Lim (13th), Nathan Gubieski (17th) and Nicolas Oger (31st) are all playing today following up from their final table appearance at the ANZPT Auckland Main Event back in November. However with the heavy points weighting at the Aussie Millions, they’ve been bumped down the leaderboard and will need another big final table result to get back in the race.

The ANZ Player of the Year offers AU$38,000 in prizes to the top two finishers, including sponsorship into major events around Australia and Asia.

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

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