Friday, April 5, 2013 3:02 PM Local Time
Antonio Esfandiari found the last of his stack in the middle holding a powerful against an opponent’s
Unfortunately for the WSOP all-time leading money earner, the board would see his pocket jacks run down on the turn when his opponent turned two pair.
Simultaneously we saw Daniel Negreanu heading to the rail. Negreanu pushed his short stack holding K-3 and was called in two spots with players holding A-K and A-Q. Although spiking a three on the turn, the river would see both his opponent’s complete a straight to send Negreanu to the rail.
Friday, April 5, 2013 2:55 PM Local Time
On a flop of we found Aaron Lim betting out 825 only to have Daniel Levy bump it to 1,800. Lim moved all in and Levy made the call.
Lim:
Levy:
With Lim flopping the nuts but wary of the Levy’s flushdraw, the on the turn would complete Levy’s flush and send Lim to the rail as the meaningless completed the board on the river.
Friday, April 5, 2013 2:30 PM Local Time
The players are back from their break and ready to play another couple of levels. Late registration is open until the next break!
Friday, April 5, 2013 2:28 PM Local Time
Erik Seidel made a late appearance but his stack shrunk rather quickly.
When the tournament comes back from the break, Seidel will be returning to 1,200 chips. Seidel did not accumulate any chips yesterday and is facing an uphill battle.
Fitness guru Jason Koon also failed to finish Day 1a with any chips, but he's currently in good shape with about 7,200 chips.
Koon has been steadily rising despite taking a few hits.
Before level 2 ended, Koon re-raised to 350 from early position. Action folded to the UTG player --who initially raised to 150 -- and he called. The flop came and the initial raiser checked. Koon bet 400 and then the UTG player thought.
He shuffled his cards and thought some more. Then, shakily, the player grabbed a pile of chips from his stack and threw in 1,400.
Koon peeked in to see how much this left the UTG player: about 1,425.
Koon folded and took a hit. Koon started the hand with about 6,300 and by the end of the level he worked back up to 7,200.
Play will resume shortly as players are now flowing back to their seats, fully armed with headphones, iPhones and all sorts of YouTube-ready electric things.
Friday, April 5, 2013 2:14 PM Local Time
The first two levels have been completed for the day with players now being sent on their first 15-minute break.
Grab a snack, a drink or a smoke and see you back here shortly.
Friday, April 5, 2013 2:11 PM Local Time
Catching the action with the flop reading and a locked pot of 800 in the middle as Mike Watson was all in, it would be left to Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Chad Brown to battle it out.
Negreanu checked and Brown bet out 300 only to have Negreanu check-raise to 700. Brown called before Negreanu moved all in for his last 1,200 when the landed on the turn. Brown mucked his face up to see Negreanu table his to be drawing against Watson’s
Fortunately for Watson, the river landed the to see him remain alive while Negreanu moved to 2,600.
“Sorry Chad!” stated Negreanu.
“I thought you may have had clubs” responded Brown.
“Yeah it was just too big of a draw!” continued Negreanu.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:40 PM Local Time
On a flop of we found the small blind leading out for 200 into Daniel Negreanu in the big.
Negreanu made the call before he was met with a check when the landed on the turn. Negreanu bet out 200 and as his opponent thought about his action, Negreanu stated, “C’mon, I’ll give you a chance to hit your straight!”
The small blind called before tossing in 300 when the fell on the river.
“So that three helped you huh?” uttered Negreanu before eventually tossing in the necessary chips to make the call.
The small blind tabled his for a turned full house to prompt a nod of the head from Negreanu before he folded while slipping to 3,300 in chips.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:38 PM Local Time
While it is no surprise that today is made up of dozens of prominent local poker players, Australia is also privy to hosting some of the biggest names in poker this week. Not only are players like Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu in town, but a few other big names have recently been spotted in the Crown poker Room.
One of the players we are referring to goes by the name Greg Merson. If that name is familiar to our readers, that’s because it should be. He is after all, the reigning world champion of poker. Just less than a year ago, Merson stood tall over the poker world after winning the WSOP Main Event for a cool $8,531,853. Merson has never graced the Australian poker shores with his presence, but he is in today’s field and will be looking for more WSOP success over the coming days.
Some other familiar faces have also taken to the tables here on Day 1b include Melanie Weisner, Scott Clements and last night’s chip leader Dan Kelly. We haven’t seen him take a seat today, but the one and only Erik Seidel was spotted at the tournament booth. We’ll keep an eye out for the eight-time WSOP Gold Bracelet winner and let you know if he hits the felt today.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:23 PM Local Time
While the night sky is different in the Southern hemisphere, some stars shine all over the world.
A few minutes after the tournament started, we heard a familiar voice at the buy-in cage. He was slightly hidden by the large floor men around him but the voice was unmistakable.
"It's Daniel Negreanu," said Bernie Frazier, one of Australia's big Negreanu fans. She went up and snapped a picture before the pro took a seat.
"I became a fan four or five years ago when I saw him on 'High Stakes Poker.' The way he reads people, I don't know how he does it, he's amazing."
Frazier's fascination with Negreanu even extends outside of poker.
"I've even watched Millionaire Matchmaker when he was on it," Frazier added. Now that's true dedication.
As we stated before, Negreanu got some action early on and then had another run in with Paul Birman.
Paul Birman raised to 100 from middle position and the button called. Negreanu re-raised to 400 from the small blind and both players called, bringing a flop. Negranu bet 625 and Birman raised all-in. The button folded and Negreanu called after some deliberation.
Then came the showdown. Birman showed and Negreanu laughed and flipped over
The players split the pot and then Negreanu learned a little Australian. A player pointed to a pencil sharpening banana sitting atop a player's stack.
"Banana," the player said to Negreanu. "That's your donkey"
"Is that racist?" Negreanu asked.
"No no," the player laughed. "It's how we say donkey."
They then coached Negreanu until he got the Australian accent down. There's no exteded "a" in the first "na."
All "na"s are equal.
Banana.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:22 PM Local Time
For any poker tournament around the world there is always that one stacked table that make people say, “Damn! Lucky I’m not on that one!”
Unfortunately for Alexander Falon he is probably repeating that statement over and over again as he looks around his table. Here is how it lines up:
Seat 1: Antonio Esfandiari
Seat 2: Kitty Kuo
Seat 3: Shoshiro Karita
Seat 4: Octavian Voegele
Seat 5: Alexander Falon
Seat 6: Bryan “theczar19” Piccioli
Sear 7: Eric Assadourian
Seat 8: Martin “Tiny_molester” Kozlov
Seat 9: Ben “bennybunny18” Richardson
Seat 10: Benn “risk2Dupside” Skender
Most of you may only know one or two of those names, but here is a little summary to show how daunting of a table this actually is.
Kitty Kuo has amassed close to $420,000 in lifetime winnings while Shoshiro Karita ($95,000), Octavian Voegele ($295,000), Bryan Piccioli ($390,000), Eric Assadourian ($645,000), Martin Kozlov ($330,000), Ben Richardson ($17,000) and Benn Skender ($35,000) all have somewhat impressive poker resumes that sees them have collective earnings of close to $2,227,000.
However there is almost $10,000,000 in tracked earnings online between Kozlov, Voegele, Richardson, Skender and Piccioli - $5,400,000 of which belongs solely to Piccioli.
So when those numbers get crunched we see Falon facing a table with earnings of close to $12.3 million … oh and then there is Antonio Esfandiari who has over $24 million in live lifetime earnings. That’s a whopping $36.3 million that Falon is facing everytime he is dealt a hand. And for those wondering how Falon fairs … he unfortunately doesn’t have any tracked results … yet!
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:13 PM Local Time
Last night wasn’t a happy ending for the members of Team888. Taking part in the action were four members in Sam Holden, Jake Basliger, Russell Thomas and Jesse Sylvia. None of these players managed to survive the night. We have already seen Holden, Thomas and Balsiger at the tables having another crack today, one of which we just caught winning an early hand.
We arrived at the table with the action having folded to Holden in the hijack, with the former November Niner opening it up to 75. Only the player in the big blind made the call and the dealer turned over a flop. Checked to Holden, he made it 100 to go and his opponent made the call. Both players opted to check the turn, at which point the dealer completed the board with a on the river. This time when the action was checked to Holden, he led out for 300 and after checking his cards, Holden’s opponent made the call.
At showdown, Holden tabled – enough to scoop up the pot and now sit with a handy little amount more than what he started the day with.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:06 PM Local Time
Our early chip leader on Day 1b might be Daniel Levy who excitedly told us about his recent elimination of an opponent. Levy’s pocket aces did the damage, proving too strong for his opponent’s pocket queens when the board ran out 7-8-9-8-8.
It seems that Levy is a bit of a maths whizz, as before play, he told us that he’s actually the author of a mathematics text book. Just to prove the fact, Levy produced the brand new book, still wrapped in plastic, from his backpack. Perhaps following in the footsteps of Barry Greenstein, Levy is considering whether to sign the maths book and give it to one of his opponents today? How much is a maths text book signed by an unknown Aussie worth nowadays?
Levy is up to 7,000 in chips.
Friday, April 5, 2013 1:05 PM Local Time
More players have been trickling into today’s flight during this first level. Repeat offenders from yesterday include Frenchman Antoine Saout, Jason Koon, Rupert Elder, Jonathan Karamalikis, Joe Cabret, Antonis Kambouroglou and Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin and Angel Guillen.
Another player taking his seat is Alek Givotovsky who bagged an impressive 65,600 to sit second overall from yesterday’s flight.
Friday, April 5, 2013 12:44 PM Local Time
It is no surprise that on the way into the Crown Poker Room, Daniel Negreanu was swarmed with fans wanting photos. After all, it’s not often that one of the most famous faces in poker comes to Melbourne, Australia.
“Sorry guys, I gotta go to work,” Negreanu said to a few railbirds. “I’ll get you on the break!”
And go to work he did.
We have already noticed that Negreanu is sitting behind a stack of around 4,500 (having started with 3,000) and it turns out a large portion of those chips came from local punter, Paul Birman.
Apparently, the hand that sent some chips to Negreanu started when four players took to a flop which featured two tens and two clubs. At this point all four players checked. The turn brought about a red ace and this time when Negreanu checked, Birman led out with a bet. The other two players got out of the way and it was back on Negreanu, who check-raised to 600. Birman called and a six completed the board on the river. At this point Negreanu moved all in and Birman decided to let his hand go.
“Did you have ace-queen?” asked a chatty Negreanu, showing his before raking in the pot.
Friday, April 5, 2013 12:30 PM Local Time
Although today’s flight is expected to be of a smaller size then yesterday’s and tomorrow’s, plenty of notable poker players have already made their way down to the Crown Poker Room – a few of which are backing it up after a 3:00 a.m. finish early this morning.
Jonathan Duhamel is looking to add to his 41,850-chip stack as is Barry Greenstein (41,050), Will Jones (19,525), Mike Watson (18,450), Mike Leah (13,850) and Paul Birman (5,100) who have all arrived for the early kick-off. Many more are expected to take their seats in an effort to add to their stacks while the likes of 888Poker Pros Jacob Balsiger, Russell Thomas and Sam Holden are back for round two.
Joining them are WSOP bracelet holders Dominik Nitsche and Antonio Esfandiari, Team PokerStars Pros Chad Brown and Bryan Huang, 2012 November Niner Jeremy Ausmus and a host of local players such as Leo Boxell, Bruno Portaro, Grant Levy, Daniel Neilson, Aaron Benton, Sam Khouiss, Benn Skender, Daniel Laidlaw, Didier Guerin and Brendon Rubie.
So far only one notable has been spotted that didn’t make an appearance in Day 1a, and that is Kitty Kuo who we interviewed just a few days ago. Check out the interview with Kuo here
WSOP APAC Player to Watch: Kitty Kuo.
Friday, April 5, 2013 12:24 PM Local Time
The players are in their seats and the dealers are doing what they do best here on the second of three Day 1 flights in Event 1: $1,100 No Limit Holdem Accumulator.
Already we have spotted plenty of players who were eliminated last night, a few new faces, and of course, those who already made it through to Day 2. Let's go have a good look around the tournament floor!
Friday, April 5, 2013 11:31 AM Local Time
Welcome back to the Crown Poker Room and the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific for Day 1b of the Event 1: AU$1,100 No Limit Hold’em Accumulator!
Thursday’s Day 1a flight saw a whopping 329 players take to the felt to give the first event of this inaugural series a great push in reaching the expected AU$1,000,000 prizepool. After a grueling eight levels on the felt, it would be WSOP bracelet holder Dan “djk123” Kelly topping the remaining 47 players with a stack of 66,250. Also bagging chips at the end of the day were 2010 World Champion Jonathan Duhamal, 3-time bracelet winner Barry Greenstein and 13-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
With the unique format of an accumulator event, the players that managed to bag chips early this morning can re-enter today in an effort to build upon their stack along with all those already eliminated and players yet to take a seat.
The PokerListings Live Reporting Team will be on hand in the Crown Poker Room throughout today and the entire World Series of Poker Asia Pacific providing continuous live updates. Make sure to join us at 12:10 p.m. local time for the commencement of all the Day 1b action!