John Guthrie is the chip leader heading into the final day of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event after a dramatic end to day two at SKYCITY Casino. The local winery owner and property developer holds more than 20 per cent of the chips in play (more than 650,000 with 2.5 million in play) with the business end of the tournament to come.

Proudly wearing the colours of Panorama Poker (named in honour of a local home game played in Panorama Terrace, Queenstown), Guthrie celebrated his 60th birthday last week and is firmly on target for quite the birthday present.

After eliminations had proceeded at glacial pace for much of the evening, they came thick and fast at the end with PokerStars Sponsored Player Ray Sukkar, and PokerStars qualifiers Mick O'Grady and Josh Egan among the last to be sent to the rail.

But the brutal beat of the evening came when Guthrie called Andrew Scott's all-in after they'd each popped it twice on a flop of [5c] [as] [qs]. Guthrie showed [ad] [10d], which trailled Scott's [ac] [jh] ... until the [10s] landed on the turn.

The normally affable Scott was clearly gutted by the beat, but returned to the table to shake Guthrie's hand before leaving the tournament area in 21st position. After a lean WSOP, the Hong Kong-based Aussie looked primed for a deep run here until Guthrie, who's ridden his luck all evening, intervened to win another massive pot.

The bubble burst early in level 15 (with blind at 2000/4000 and a 500 ante) in amazing circumstances. Poker Stars qualifier Tim Clarke shoved all-in on a board showing [js] [7c] [3h] [2h] with Guthrie making the call. Clarke's pocket aces looked in great shape against Guthrie's [jh] [10c], but the [jc] sent the rail over the top as the local hope scooped up the final pot of the night, worth more than 150,000.

Notable players to finish in the money included PokerStars.net Team Australia pro Tony Hachem, who celebrated a remarkable fourth successive ANZPT cash, Raj Ramakrishnan, John Pye and David Bradford.

The remaining 18 players, who are all guaranteed a payout of at least NZD $3015, will be back at 12.30pm tomorrow for the race to the first PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown championship trophy.

End-of-Day 2 chip counts:

John Guthrie, New Zealand, 683,500
William Mauga, Australia, PokerStars Qualifier, 229,500
David Bradford, New Zealand, 213,000
Daniel Chevalier, New Zealand, 185,000
John Pye, New Zealand, 171,500
Andrew Hinrichsen, Australia, PokerStars Qualifier, 169,500
Steven Smith, New Zealand, 112,500
Mark Measey, Australia, PokerStars Qualifier, 94,500
Glenn Maiden, New Zealand, 93,000
Mark Walker, New Zealand, 86,500
Paul Chisnall, New Zealand, 68,000
Sam Williams, New Zealand, 67,000
Robert Wang, New Zealand, 59,000
Rajkumar Ramakrishnan, Australia, 55,000
David Bonham, New Zealand, 54,500
Cesar Cavagnero, Argentina, 46,000
Tony Hachem, Australia, Team PokerStars Australia, 43,500
Aaron Golledge, Australia, PokerStars Qualifier, 41,000