An entertaining day of play has come to a close on the Sydney, Australia Grand Final leg of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, chips are bagged and players have departed for a welcome night’s rest before day two on Friday.

Of the 172 players who started at Star City and heard Michael Carr deliver his unique version of Waltzing Matilda/The Gambler at the start of play, only 83 will return. In that line-up will be two of the three Team PokerStars Pros in action today. The fortunes of Gavin Griffin and Lee Nelson differed greatly today – Griffin flew from the stalls, cruising to an evening finish camped around the 130,000 mark.

Nelson suffered though, making it past the dinner break before his stack’s health turned for the good. Perhaps it was the buffet because Nelson finished strongly, above average on 41,445. Good to keep alive his hopes of a second consecutive APPT final.

Gavin Griffin is ideally placed for day 2

We bid farewell thought to Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Rahme. The South African busted midway through day 1b, matching his performance here last year which saw him take the chip lead early on day 1 but not enough to avoid elimination.

Two PokerStars Sponsored players were also in action today – defending champion Grant Levy and Eric Assadourian. Levy just couldn’t get anything going and hit the rail before the dinner break, while Assadourian kept under the radar, finishing with just under 40,000.

It was another Sydney-sider in Jason Gray who topped the chip count with 180,000. The quietly spoken but fiercely determined Australian pro built his stack at the expense of Singapore young gun Nathanael Seet. Gray opened with a raise, there was a call, Seet made it 9,000 and Gray was the only caller.

Day 1B and overall chip leader Jason Gray

The flop came 10c-9d-7h, Gray called Seet’s bet and the turn was Js. Seet checked, Gray bet 13,000, Seet check-raised all-in for 54,000 and Gray called.

Seet showed pocket queens for an over-pair and open-ended straight draw, but Gray had a made hand (8d-5d), and sent Seet to the rail when the river came a repeat ten. That pot gave Gray more than 170,000, that he kept strong to the finish.

Vince Ha is in third chip position

With 280 entrants already confirmed for the event we’re expecting the biggest line-up of the three day 1 flights tomorrow, headed by Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker, 2008 WSOP main event winner Peter Eastgate. There will also be a host of PokerStars sponsored players looking for glory down under. Tony Hachem will be playing along with Daniel Craker, Bryan Huang, Ivan Tan, Eddy Sabat, Masa Kagawa, Van Marcus, Yoshihiro Tasaka and Emad Tahtouh.

It should be a terrific day. Check in on the blog for the latest news.