The second biggest field in tour history has been slashed from 461 players to 207 after the opening two flights of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event at The Star.

The total number of Main Event entrants is more than both 2010 (446) and 2011 (373) and second only to the inaugural ANZPT Sydney in 2009 (493).

The day 1B field of 246 players – one of the biggest single-day fields ever seated at Star Poker – helped build the prizepool to $922,000 with the winner set to take home $226,812. A total of 54 players will earn a slice of the prizepool.

After yesterday eight 60-minute levels, Tam Truong finished with the biggest stack of 115,700 but that was only good for sixth overall on the chip count. Other prominent stacks at the end of day 1B belonged to veteran Bill Kennedy (108,775) and Sheldon Mayer (99,300).

Others returning for day two included Raemin Alexander, Vesko Zmukic, Leo Boxell, Gary Benson, Martin Rowe, reigning ANZ Player of the Year Daniel Chevalier, Graeme Putt, Mel Judah, Dennis Huntly and Lee Nelson along with international visitors Maria Ho and Angel Guillen.

As Ben Blaschke reported in the PMA live reporting blog, Boxell should have had more than his almost 70,000 had it not been for a remarkable lay-down by Ciaran Sharp who folded a set of 9s on an A-8-9 flop after correctly putting Boxell on a set of Aces. Incredibly, having faced elimination had he called Boxell’s shove, Sharp finished the day inside the top 10 with 72,325.

Those who were KOed during day 1B included 2011 Aussie Millions champion David Gorr, Mike Ivin, Josh Barrett, Tim English, Mark Iskander, Ali Khalil, Julius Colman and Haibo Chu.

ANZPT Sydney Main Event day 1B chip count

Toby Ryall 138,500
Nabil Edgtton 125,100
Gordon Huntly 121,400
Rhys Gould 119,600
Toan Nguyen 118,200
Tam Truong 115,700
Nicholas Heather 115,300
Justin Cohen 110,625
William Kennedy 108,775
George Marando 104,950
Sheldon Mayer 99,300
Zhixin Yao 99,150
Gerhard Niess 94,900
Daniel Ibrahim 91,700
Adam Bevis 86,775
Luke Edwards 85,150
Ludovic Citerne 85,150
Tommy Yi 83,700
Jason Pritchard 82,000
Dean Yuen 81,700
Daniel Bang Ortmann 81,400
Did not report 81,225
Jonathan Dangio 81,000
Mishel Anunu 80,600
Suzy Khoueis 78,300
Andrew Li 77,600
Nam Le 75,900
Ben Pockett 75,500
Carl Knox 74,300
Craig Blight 73,000
Ciaran Sharpe 72,325
Quoc Nguyen 71,750
Paul Raseta 71,350
Oliver Speidel 70,900
Daniel Kelly 70,600
Michael Kanaan 70,200
Mario Ljubicic 69,250
Damien Walsh 69,075
Didier Guerin 69,000
James Collopy 68,500
Brent Taunton 67,300
Sam Capra 66,300
Paul Whitehouse 65,800
Mark Griffiths 65,350
Jason O’Brien 64,625
Seyed Nasab 64,050
Joshua Foster 62,600
Mathew Rolfe 61,700
Charbel Boustani 60,150
Luke Brabin 58,875
Michael O’Grady 57,200
Jason Hamilton 57,100
Matviy Bilenky 56,925
Chad Awerbuch 55,450
Raemin Alexander 55,050
Manny Stavropoulos 55,000
Theodor Lothman 54,775
Ian Parnell 54,300
Alec Smith 54,200
Luis Arrilucea 54,075
Brett Daphne 53,500
Did not report 53,425
Stewart Ballard 53,000
Peter Aristidou 52,400
Did not report 51,875
Dale Marsland 51,200
Evan Martin 50,700
Rod Meneses 50,000
Todor Kondevski 49,250
Vesko Zmukic 49,000
Tony Hachem 48,100
David August 47,775
Nick Georgoulas 47,700
Stephane Fontes 47,550
Christian Glissmann 47,300
Erich Stadler 47,025
Alan Bustany 46,900
Leo Boxell 45,700
George Cotaidis 45,400
David Campbell 45,050
Martyn Poytress 44,350
Peco Stojanovski 44,275
David S Lloyd 44,100
Scott Ricotta 43,750
Martin Rowe 43,575
Chris Ayoub 43,500
Darren Potts 43,100
Richard Talaber 42,700
Jing Jie 42,400
Matthew Yates 42,350
Kristina Griffiths 42,150
Dean McIver 42,125
Bradley Lancken 42,050
Ronnie Shabtay 41,100
John Parker 40,150
Martin Drewe 39,550
Anthony Aston 39,350
Tony Sama 39,050
Eric Sclavos 38,800
Did not report 38,425
Stephen Lindeblad 38,300
Omer Silatozija 38,150
Daniel Laidlan 37,200
Nicholas Polias 36,900
John Thomson 36,750
Gary Benson 36,375
Robert Sova 35,675
Minh Hau Nguyen 35,650
Jim Sachinidis 35,200
Sean McMahon 34,900
Manuel Hansimikali 34,550
Louie Elias Srour 34,000
Daniel Chevalier 33,775
Andrew Mellado 33,725
Did not report 33,400
Liam O’Rourke 33,300
Trent Flitcroft 33,200
John Jolly 33,100
Ryan Hong 33,100
Con Angelakis 33,000
Graeme Putt 32,625
Did not report 32,450
Sarah Beard 32,100
Wei Zhu 32,000
Robert Turvey 31,900
Jeff Brian 31,300
Gabriel Cafios 31,250
Stefan Post 31,175
Rined Namrood 30,425
Sebastian Pagana 29,675
Christopher Moutzouris 29,650
Jarrod Holmes 29,475
Guang Yan Yu 29,000
Gary Retallick 28,900
Phillip Hiruwai 27,900
Nurlan Boobekov 27,800
Roy Vandersluis 27,775
Did not report 27,250
Michael Fadersen 27,100
Gaetano Scaravilli 27100
Qi Xu 26,550
Steven Lilley 26,400
Michael Schiffer 26,300
Hung Tu Wang 26,175
Gregory Zabawa 25,125
Kevin Clark 25,000
Laurence Hall 24,925
Edgar Montenegro 24,900
Eric Grigaux 24,775
Trudie Sultana 24,600
Jackson Zheng 24,000
Angelo Hamataj 23,500
Angel Guillen 23,475
Paul Elliot 23,425
Victor Fong 22,650
Michael Mayar 22,650
Billy Argyros 22,600
Simon Jeremy 22,375
Jim Condylis 22,100
Kamel Bekhaled 21,850
Nicholas Lamport 21,700
Alexander Antonios 21,675
Peter Skouteris 21,375
Joel Dodds 21,300
Martin Kozlov 21,000
Mel Judah 19,925
Anthony Wright 19,700
Dennis Huntly 19,650
Adam Agresta 19,600
Peter Apostoleou 19,400
Trevor Saunders 19,300
Jonathan Gamerov 19,200
Michael van Vegchel 19,200
Guy Delahaye 18,850
Shane Eastley 18,750
Adam Brown 17,650
David Hulum 17,300
Mike Comer 17,275
Mark Sarkis 17,200
Xiaobo Wu 17,075
Reza Vakili 17,000
Brandon Huynh 16,875
Alan White 16,800
Hun Wei Lee 16,600
Luke Downers 16,600
Kevin Buckley 15,775
Rana Wilkinson 15,700
Vince Galluccio 15,300
Peter Louskos 15,025
Lee Nelson 14,875
Alan Bertenshaw 14,600
Shaun Elliott 14,200
Robert Bechara 14,050
Maria Ho 13,800
Daniel Iwikau 12,500
Travis Moore 11,475
Aaron Stenlake 11,475
Sefehr Naderi 11,400
Sandy Retallick 11,200
Paul Pedersen 11150
Simon Moshi 11,125
Ryan Boswell 9700
Aaron Lim 9675
Manuel Rodrigues 9400
Andrew Stolz 8800
Did not report 7250
Peter Matusik 7125
Did not report 4650

Payouts

1 $226,812
2 $144,754
3 $80,214
4 $62,696
5 $48,405
6 $39,185
7 $29,965
8 $23,511
9 $17,518
10-12 $11,525
13-15 $9220
16-18 $7837
19-21 $6454
22-24 $5532
25-27 $5071
28-36 $4610
37-45 $4149
46-54 $3688

By Poker Media Australia

After an eventful fortnight that has seen seven new side event champions crowned, the long awaited Sydney Championships Main Event finally got underway yesterday with 135 players taking their seats and a shot at winning one of Australia’s most prestigious titles.

The first of two flights lasted just under 10 hours with 48 players surviving the cut to progress through to Saturday’s Day 2 and despite the generous blinds structure the action was fast and furious in the closing stages as the short stacks endeavoured to go hard or go home.

Among those to fall short 2007 APPT Sydney champion Grant Levy, the always dangerous Andrew Scarf, 2010 APPT Sydney fourth-place finisher Peco Stojanovski and Martin Comer.
However there were no such worries for Australia’s top female player, Jackie Glazier, who cruised through with a healthy stack of 106,400 – good for third spot in the chip counts.

“I pretty much sat around with double the average all day which was nice,” she said. “I actually turned up about two hours late but I pulled off a big bluff early on and the pot was fairly big so it all went from there. “I didn’t actually have a lot of showdowns today which is always a good thing. I’m pretty happy with how it all went and the structure is good too.” Asked about wielding one of the big stacks on Saturday, Glazier smiled “Yeah, I’m going to win it!”

Although Glazier is looking good for a deep run this week, she still trails the two monster stacks of the day with Hun Wei Lee and Julian Malki almost doubling their nearest flight one rivals.

Lee currently leads the way with a whopping 212,000 while Malki isn’t far behind on 198,600.

Also through to Day 2 are Michael O’Grady, Justin Cohen, Sheldon Mayer and Aaron Benton who endured a roller-coaster ride through the day before a late double-up allowed him to stack up a very playable 31,000 with blinds at 500/1,000 when play resumes on Saturday.

Flight Two kicks off just after midday today with a big field expected to take their seats including last year’s Main Event champion Andrew Capelin.

Top chip counts after Flight 1:

Hun Wei Lee – 212,000
Julian Malki – 198,600
Jackie Glazier – 106,400
Eamon Lunders – 97,600
Michael O’Grady – 91,100
Honglin Jiang – 90,500
John Donohue – 86,600
Obrad Milinkovic – 85,300
Manase Ova – 83,400
Mark Abay – 83,000
Minh Nguyen – 81,400
Trudie Sultana – 68,800
Justin Cohen – 68,200
Chris Ciardi – 68,000
Sheldon Mayer – 66,900

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

Already known as one of Australia’s top live tournament players, Daniel Neilson added yet another trophy to his rapidly growing cabinet last night with victory in the $550 6-Handed event at Star City.

The sixth event on this year’s Sydney Championships schedule attracted a quality field of 112 players with the likes of Jackie Glazier, Grant Levy, Jai Kemp, John Caridad and Aaron Benton all hitting the felt but none could match it with Neilson.

Having won the High Stakes event at last year’s Sydney Champs for $103,500, he continued his impressive run in the Harbour City as he proceeded to make light work of the final table over the course of three hours last night.
“It’s always good to get another win but it was a bit of a roller-coaster,” Neilson said.

“I kept losing hands at showdown at the start, I couldn’t win one, but I just kept raising and getting chips back that way. The table was pretty tight other than Ciaran (Sharpe, runner-up) so it gave me some good opportunities to build my stack.”

Ironically, Sharpe finished third in this same event 12 months ago – as well as running deep in the Main Event – and went one better this time around but fell agonisingly short of a breakthrough win.

On the final hand, Neilson turned two pair holding K-9 on a 9-6-7-K board and snap-called Sharpe’s 4-bet shove – the latter showing K-10 and unable to catch his three-outer on the river.

“Ciaran was playing pretty well – he took the chip lead at one stage heads-up and he was tough to play against but he got unlucky on that last hand,” Neilson said.

While Sharpe will have to wait a while longer to score his first trophy, Neilson added yet another notch to his belt to take his 2011 earnings to around $130,000.

His deep runs over the past 12 months alone have included his win in the High Rollers event at last year’s Sydney Championships, success in a Turbo NLHE tournament at ANZPT Darwin, sixth in the APT Macau Main Event (good for $30,000), second in the 6-Handed event at the Aussie Millions for $56,175 and another win in the High Stakes event at ANZPT Perth for $50,000.

He joked after his win that it might be time he finally bought himself a trophy cabinet, “because I haven’t actually got one yet”, but more satisfying was matching the feat of good friend and 2010 APPT Sydney champion Jonathan Karamalikis who won a WCOOP (World Championships of Online Poker) event only hours earlier (with Neilson, ironically, finishing seventh in the same event).

The pair have made any number of final tables together over the years – particularly in High Stakes events – and are always quick to let each other know about their own achievements.

“There is a definitely a rivalry there to see who can win the most trophies,” Neilson laughed.

The final table placings were as follows:

1st: Daniel Neilson – $15,260
2nd: Ciaran Sharpe – $10,220
3rd: John Donohue – $7,840
4th: David St Eloi – $5,320
5th: Andrew Scarf – $3,920
6th: Kyle Greenway – $2,940

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

He might not be big on words but his actions spoke volumes last night as Nhon Ta crushed the final table in under three hours to win the $1100 Sydney Special event at Star City.

The fourth event of this year’s Sydney Championships, Ta and overnight chip leader Eddie Saade wasted no time in cutting down the field with the eight remaining players slashed to just three within an hour before Ta took control to claim the $21,450 first prize.

Saade had previously looked set to continue his impressive run through the 66-man field after cracking Nicholas Wright’s Aces when he flopped trip 9s to go into heads-up play on an even keel but Ta was ruthless as he proceeded to chip away at his rival before finishing the deal when his A-8 held on against Saade’s K-9 all-in pre-flop.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “I played very well today. He (Saade) liked to protect his blinds and I was very aware of that so I picked my spots against him and tried to get it in good. I wanted to wear him down and that’s what I did.”
Ta, 33, from Cabramatta, is a regular cash game player at Star City but can now count Sydney Championships tournament winner among his list of achievements.

However, the award for unluckiest player at the final table goes to sixth place finisher Honglin Jiang who got it in good with Queens against Ta’s A-10 early in the day only for an Ace to appear in the window. For those with long memories, Jiang enjoyed a stunning run at last year’s Sydney Championships with a win in the $1100 6-handed event for $19,600 and a third-place finish in the Main Event – good for another $48,461. He added another $3,630 for his efforts over the past two days.

$1100 Sydney Special NLHE Results:

1st: Nhon Ta – $21,450
2nd: Eddie Saade – $13,860
3rd: Nicholas Wright – $9,900
4th: David Sanis – $6,600
5th: Trudie Sultana – $4,950
6th: Honglin Jiang – $3,630
7th: David Menz – $2,970
8th: Wei Zhu – $2,640

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

It was a hectic day in the Star City poker room with two more events also kicking off as the Sydney Championships hit top gear.

The $300 Ladies Event was run and won within the space of around seven hours with the players quickly working their way down to the final table before Cheryl Paton emerged victorious.

Paton bubbled the final table of the Victorian Poker Championships two years ago but went all the way here in Sydney to pick up the coveted trophy for her efforts.
Suzy Khoueis finished runner-up with Ruth Jones third.

And the eight remaining players in Event 4 – $1,100 Sydney Special No Limit Hold’em – return today to fight it out for the $21,450 first prize. A total of 66 players took their seats yesterday including Daniel Neilson, Jackie Glazier and 2010 APPT Sydney fourth-place finisher Peco Stojanovski with the final table chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: Trudie Sultana – 138,000
Seat 2: Nhon Ta – 210,900
Seat 3: David Sanis – 128,500
Seat 4: Eddie Saade – 219,000
Seat 5: Honglin Jiang – 78,000
Seat 6: Wei Zhu – 53,000
Seat 7: David Menz – 52,000
Seat 8: Nicholas Wright – 107,500

Click here to see all the photos

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

An eventful final table almost saw a remarkable comeback win before overnight chip leader Rhys Gould finally prevailed to clinch his first live trophy in the Australian Poker Weekly $550 event at the Sydney Championships last night.

The Sydney student looked set to cruise to victory after dominating early play to build a stack of over 1,000,000 in chips but a bizarre hand that should have seen him reach heads-up play inside two hours briefly threatened to turn the tournament on its head.

With four players remaining, Gould min-raised on the button only to see Yibo Zhou 3-bet out of the small blind. Amit Shahi then shoved from the big blind with Gould shipping all-in over the top.

Zhou tanked for a good three minutes before eventually folding Kings face-up. Gould showed Aces and Shahi Q-Q as the board blanked to cut the field to three. Zhou’s fold almost proved a masterstroke, however, as he proceeded to win a series of flips to take the lead in heads-up play before Gould regained the ascendency for the title. But he admitted afterwards that he was baffled by Zhou’s big fold.

“It was honestly a ludicrous fold – you never fold Kings there – but the previous day I saw him fold Queens twice in similar spots so I wasn’t that surprised,” Gould said. “At the end of the day it was good to pick up the win.”
Gould was by far the most aggressive player at a final table that boasted six players on little more than 10 big blind stacks at the start of play (Gould had more than 100) and his victory was well deserved.

On the final hand, he 3-bet all-in with Kings – Zhou calling with A-9 before a King on the flop all but sealed the deal.

“There were a lot of 10bb stacks so I couldn’t just aggress relentlessly but as soon as people got to 20 or 30 big blinds I started opening every hand to try and pick up every dead pot,” the 24-year-old said.“Everyone was fairly tight so it made it quite good for me.”

A total of 126 players took their seats in Event 2 including Brendon Rubie, Daniel Neilson and tournament host Tony Hachem with Gould picking up $18,270 for his win.

Left to right: Kamyar Ekrami APW champion 2009, Joel Cohen APW Champ 2010
and APW Tournament host 2009 and 2010 ANZPT Player Of The Year Tony Hachem.

APW Sydney Champs Event 2 final table

APW $550 Sydney Championships Event 2

1st: Rhys Gould – $18,270
2nd: Yibo Zhou – $11,340
3rd: Effie Bouyioukos – $7,245
4th: Amit Shahi – $5,040
5th: David Logan – $4,410
6th: Nathan Davis – $3,780
7th: Vlastimil Kral – $3,150
8th: Simon Palmer – $3,520
9th: Obrad Milinkovic – $1,890

Click here to see all the photos

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker

Kristina Jeney overcame illness, a monster field and an aggressive final table to score arguably the biggest result of her burgeoning poker career by taking out the $330 Sydney Championships Opening Event at Star City.

Buoyed by a breakthrough year in which she has cashed for well over $100,000, Jeney showed tremendous composure to build a big stack early and then dominate the latter stages of a final table that boasted the likes of 2010 NPL 500 champion Terry Tserdanis, noted tournament pro Patrick Fletcher and overnight chip leader Michael Ryan, who finished fourth at this year’s Aussie Millions.

She collected $37,408 for her win.“I played really solid,” she said. “I started Day 2 with about 30,000 in chips which was right on average but made it to the final table third which was really good. “It’s great to win but I’m exhausted now. I’ve been sick the past three days and wasn’t even supposed to play so I’m pretty happy to get this one.”

Jeney won a big pot early when she flopped a full house holding pocket Jacks but it was a massive flip against fellow big stack Michael Ryan with three players remaining that set her on the path for victory.

The pair had tussled throughout the day with Jeney at one stage calling time as Ryan tanked to consider a shove from a shorter stack with five players still in the hunt. Ryan, in disbelief, replied ‘Are you serious? You’re out of line’ before eventually folding but it was Jeney that had the final say when she later called Ryan’s shove to be racing with A-10s against his 3s.

The flop was a safe one for Ryan but running diamonds gave Jeney the nut flush and saw her take a huge 7:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Kris Nestorovic. Facing such a deficit, Nestorovic barely put up a fight as Jeney steamrolled her way to victory.

On the final hand, the chips all went into the middle on a 3-4-6 board with Jeney holding 10-5s for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw and Nestorovic with 4-7 for middle pair.

The 8 on the turn didn’t change anything but the river 2 gave Jeney the straight and the win. “I felt like I played heads- up pretty solid – I put the pressure on him,” she said. “I didn’t have amazing cards but I had the stack so I thought I could use that to put him to some decisions.
“Also, he was very aggressive so he was an easier player to play back at. “But I think I played the final table really well and I picked my spots. There were a few hands when I got a bit lucky but to win any tournament you’ve just got to play the best you can and hope that your hands hold. You can’t do any more than that.”

A total of 510 players – including Aaron Benton, Grant Levy, Brendon Rubie, Sam Khouiss, Andrew Scarf and Martin Rowe – stumped up the $330 entry fee for the Opening Event, creating a prize pool of $153,000 and setting the tone for a huge week ahead.

2011 Sydney Championships Opening Event Results

1st Kristina Jeney – $37,408
2nd Kris Nestorovic – $23,485
3rd Michael Ryan – $12,928
4th Yek Goky – $10,021
5th Patrick Vartuli – $8,109
6th Patrick Fletcher – $6,579
7th Marcial Dias – $5,049
8th Terry Tserdanis – $3,825
9th Joseph Deguara – $2,754

By Ben Blaschke
Sponsored by Star City Big Game Poker