Working at a poker tournament isn't normally the healthiest environment - lots of late nights, too much junk food and very little exercise. Thankfully, the day-two field in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event have put that last one right, as we've been bolting from one end of the Star City poker room in an attempt to keep up with the flood of eliminations.

A total of 40 players were KOed during the opening level, with the departures including PokerStars Freeroll winner Russell Jeffrey (barely 30 seconds after the start of play), Martin McNicholl, Jeff Timko (coming off two cashes and a win in the preliminary events), Elton Muzha, Nathan Hill, Tim luckyshades Horan and Adam Galea.

In a monster hand at table 16, Zac Boustani committed his chips with A-6, Tim Eduard followed with pocket queens before PokerStars qualifier Yue Wang slammed straight over the top with pocket kings. The cowboys were good, and Wang became the first player to crack 300k.

In-form local Ray Sukkar claimed the scalp of NZ Champs final table participant Shaun Gray while another big stack, Swedish PokerStars qualifier Ola Jernberg, has snared the chip lead after his jacks took down the 10s of Allan Truong to climb above 200,000 in chips.

The big name to tumble in the early going was Australian Poker Hall of Famer Jeff Lisandro. He took a hit with Q-10 against the pocket sixes of PokerStars qualifier Dennis Hanshew, before his 8-7 never improved against the A-K of Damien Griggs.

Crown poker supervisor Matt Burgoine is making the most of his opportunity to play some cards and has powered through the first level, thanks mainly to a double-through Jason Brown's pocket jacks with A-K.

As the first level is about to conclude, players have been dropping at an average of about one every 90 seconds, and it's unlikely that the carnage will cease for some time. "Waiter, oxygen please."