A glorious Saturday greeted Melbourne this morning. The sun was shining bright, providing some nice natural light and a little Vitamin D for those who had spent a large part of the last two days stuck inside the confines of the Crown Poker Room. But while the temperature was rising outside, the World Series of Poker (APAC) was also warming up as the $1,100 NLHE Accumulator Event approached the money stage.
A total of 93 players would start the day, but when the official prize pool was announced, just 54 of those would finish in the cash. A total of 611 entrants created a $611,000 prize pool. A min-cash was worth $2,346 and reaching the final table of nine would earn $12,189. However the top prize they are all gunning for is $131,365 and the treasured WSOP bracelet.
Click here for the complete prize pool information
Some early casualties on Day 2 included Andrew Scarf, Henry Szmelcer, Slade Fisher, Oliver Gill, Darian Tan, Scott Peel and Jonathan Karamalikis. After finishing runner-up in this event last year, Karamalikis was unable to better that feat this year after his pocket nines were outdrawn by the of Luke Brabin.
The action burst through the bubble phase with a couple of rapid simultaneous eliminations which wasn’t good news for Aussie Paul Sharbanee. After starting the day as the short stack, Sharbanee was able to battle back into contention before he lost a race with against to earn the unwanted distinction of bubble boy.
Brandon Shack-Harris (53rd), Sam Cohen (50th), Gary Benson (47th), Antonio Esfandiari (45th), Danny Mountt (42nd), Daniel Levy (39th), Rory Young (36th), Toothpick Tony (32nd), Dan Heimiller (31st), Ali Ghezelbash (28th) and Jamie Pickering (27th) were some of those to take home a profit as 26 players survived to reach the dinner break.
The final three tables were very heavily weighted towards the Australian contingent with George Danzer and Jeff Madsen the main threats towards stopping the host nation from taking the first bracelet of the series.
Leading the way at this was point was none other than Didier Guerin who held close to 10% of the chips with 26 players remaining. Luke Brabin, Steve “The Jeweller” Lindeblad and Piyush Gupta were also among the chip leaders, while Australia’s first WSOP APAC bracelet winner, Aaron Lim, was also in contention.
Lim ultimately finished in 14th place and was followed out the door by fellow Aussie Bruno Portaro in 13th. Lindeblad, Gupta and Guerin, meanwhile, all made it to the unofficial final table of ten, which is when play stopped for the day.
WSOP APAC Event 1 – ‘Unofficial’ Final Table (by chip count)
Luke Brabin - 336,000
Ryan Hong - 308,000
Brian McAllister - 233,000
Stephen Lindeblad - 218,500
Didier Guerin - 205,000
Daniel Murphy - 153,000
Zane Ly - 121,500
Kahle Burns - 120,000
Piyush Gupta - 67,000
David Profaca - 62,500
The final ten is an all-Aussie affair as Australia is guaranteed to keep the bracelet on home soil. As you can see, 2013 ANZ POY runner-up Luke Brabin is the chip leader with 336,000 followed by Melbourne’s Ryan Hong with 308,000. Kahle Burns is also at the final table and looking for redemption and a bracelet after finishing 5th in the 2013 WSOP APAC Main Event.
The ten players will return 12:10pm local time in the live streaming studio at the Crown Casino. Once the official final table of nine begins you will be able to find the live stream by clicking here.
While Event 1 was busy getting down to a final table the second event of the WSOP APAC got under way with a field of 215 players taking part in the Event 2: $2,200 No Limit Holdem Event. Of that field, the top 24 will make the money and the champion will pocket $107,500.
After an action-packed ten levels, Event 2 was down to 31 players and it was Sam Ruha who lead the way. Some of the other players who made it through the night include Michael O’Grady (82,200), Dan Heimiller (65,200), Martin Kozlov (55,000), Steven Zhou (48,000) and Kitty Kuo (45,400). WSOPE bracelet winner, Andrew Hinrichsen, is the short stack with 10,200.
WSOP APAC Event 2 – Top Five
Sam Ruha - 122000
Tim O'Shea - 100200
Michael O'Grady - 82200
Bill Zaharis - 82100
Sam Chuan – 68400
Click here for Event 2 chip counts
Event 2 recommences at 12:30pm local time on Sunday where they will play down to a final table of nine, or ten levels, whichever comes first. While that happens, a new batch of players will be at the tables for Event 3: $1,650 PLO which begins at 4:10pm local time.