Dontcha love it when time flies? You’re so busy that before you know it, the day has left you in its dust. Today was one of those days.
111 players took to the felt of the Adelaide Casino for Day 2 of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Adelaide Main Event. There was a good mix of live players who adopted a survival approach but there were plenty of aggressive young players who gave us their full repertoire of maneuvers which made for a high-action day of poker. In the end it took just seven levels of play to reach our final 36, and when the dust had settled it was Ian Parnell who claimed the honour of chip leader.
Chatting to Ian this afternoon, he shared an interesting story about how he came to find himself at the ANZPT in Adelaide. He was never intending to play this event, but found himself in one of the online satellites on PokerStars where he reached heads-up play. His opponent was a talented young player by the name of Jesse McKenzie. The two are actually friends and they struck a deal that the winner would give the other 25% of their action. Parnell was victorious that night.
Fast forward to the present day and McKenzie and Parnell found themselves on the very same table. So there was no one happier than McKenzie to see Parnell spike a two-outer jack to crack the pocket kings of uber-aggressive Alec Smith to surge to the chip lead.
McKenzie himself has also had a memorable tournament. He entered today as our chip leader, but his aces were cracked in the first level of the day to send him back into the pack. McKenzie recovered nicely and when his set of sevens held against the straight draw of Patrick Whelan, McKenzie was back in front. In fact if McKenzie’s ace-king had held against the deuce-three of Alec Smith, then it might be McKenzie heading for a coast-to-coast victory. As it is, he bagged up the second largest stack, and if you factor in another 25% of Parnell, you could say that McKenzie is the end of day EV leader.
While 36 survived the “All In! Call!” carnage, there were many who fell along the way. We lost the effervescent Michael Haddad early on, and he was soon followed by Van Marcus, Tom Grigg, Brendon Rubie, Chris Levick, Rennie Carnevale, Julian Cohen, Eric Assadourian, Jonathan Karamalikis, Aaron Benton and Joe Serock.
We also saw a rare sight on the ANZPT – that is, the elimination of the ultra-consistent Tony Hachem. Looking set for another cash result, Hachem in his own words “lost focus” and tried a stop and go with ace-king on a baby flop, but it backfired when Oliver Grujic called with pocket jacks. Hachem will now be keen to head to Perth for a strong showing in defence of his title.
There were some other great stories during the day, such as the rise and fall of Yann Dion, the remarkable comeback from both Fayez Boulos and Graeme Putt from overnight short stacks, and the survival of PokerStars sponsored player Paul “The Voice” Khoury. The tonsils will be rested tonight and we expect to hear more dulcet tones from Khoury tomorrow as he continues to harness the inspiration, and nametag, of good mate Tony Hachem.
Official end-of-day chips counts and Day 3 draw can be found below:
Day 3 Table Draw
Table 12
Seat 1: Stephen Crotty (Australia) – 86,400
Seat 2: Jeff Rossitter (Australia) – 131,700
Seat 3: John Apostolidis (Australia) – 237,400
Seat 4: Charles Caris (Australia) – 150,200
Seat 5: Leo Boxell (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 104,000
Seat 6: Andrew Dales (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 176,700
Seat 7: Paul Khoury (Australia) – PokerStars Sponsored Player – 135,200
Seat 8: Ian Parnell (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 335,200
Seat 9: Tim English (Australia) – 141,500
Table 13
Seat 1: Jeffrey Field (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 54,200
Seat 2: Oliver Grugjic (Australia) – 212,700
Seat 3: Joey Lovelady (United Kingdom) – 146,400
Seat 4: Michael Sellars (Australia) – 75,000
Seat 5: Sebastian Pagana (Australia) – PokerStars Player – 50,200
Seat 6: Fayez Boulos (Australia) – 62,000
Seat 7: Jeff Chu (Australia) – 144,800
Seat 8: Graeme Nobbs (Australia) – 92,600
Seat 9: Sam Steindl (Australia) – 75,300
Table 14
Seat 1: Daniel Botta (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 256,700
Seat 2: Octavian Voegele (Austria) – 178,200
Seat 3: Frank Tripodi (Australia) – 58,900
Seat 4: Martin Rodwell (Australia) – 55,700
Seat 5: Danny Chevalier (Australia) – PokerStars Qualifier – 211,300
Seat 6: Graham Putt (New Zealand) – 172,000
Seat 7: Eric Sclavos (Australia) – 100,000
Seat 8: John Gallagher (Ireland ) – PokerStars Qualifier – 126,200
Seat 9: Raj Ramakrishnan (Australia) – 180,300
Table 15
Seat 1: Robert Goodwin (Australia) – 111,800
Seat 2: Will Dunn (Australia) – 76,100
Seat 3: Peter Aristidou (Australia) – 101,200
Seat 4: Jesse McKenzie (Australia) – PokerStars Player – 281,400
Seat 5: Ray Ellis (Australia) – 69,300
Seat 6: David Hibbott (Australia) – 186,700
Seat 7: George Vassilopoulos (Australia) – 85,700
Seat 8: Peco Stojanoski (Australia) – 46,700
Seat 9: Stuart McLeod Smith (Australia) – 273,500
The 36 will return tomorrow but thankfully, we get a sleep in, as play is scheduled to recommence at 12:15pm local time (GMT+9:30). Until then, behave yourselves in Hindley Street, and we look forward to your company tomorrow!
(Image courtesy of Tourism Australia)
