That’s it – the day two field is in place for the APPT Grand Final in Sydney. A total of 207 will return to Star City tomorrow in pursuit of a top 48 finish, then a shot at the AUD $1 million first prize.
Over the past three days, 477 players have taken seats in one of three day one flights. As it stands now more than half have been eliminated.
Of the earlier chip leaders it’s Jason Gray faring best. He takes a stack of 184,000 into tomorrow. After yesterday’s lop-sided finish, today’s chip count was more even with 11 players finishing within 25,000 of the biggest stack.
Among those returning tomorrow will be Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker, who looked at ease today, amassing an impressive stack of 65,000.
Other notables to secure a day two berth include well known Melbourne players Jimmy Siu (70,000), Michael Guzzardi (56,000), David Gorr (46,000), Dory Zayneh (33,000) and Julius Colman (22,000).
Frank ‘The Bank’ Bianco (42,000) is aiming for another cash after sneaking into the money at the APPT Macau main event. Sydney-siders Scott ‘Punty’ Smith (58,000) and Patrick Fletcher (41,000) performed well as did our Big Brother contestant Nobbi Tanaka (38,000).
Carter Gill, who finished 28th here last year, remains in contention with 51,000 while WSOP Europe winner John Juanda is still in the hunt to add an APPT title to his four WSOP bracelets. He faces an uphill battle though with just 13,000.
PokerStars Sponsored players Ivan Tan (53,000), Masa Kagawa (48,000) and Van Marcus (11,000) progressed, but Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem, his brother Tony, Emad Tahtouh, Eddy Sabat, Bryan Huang, Daniel Craker and Brian McFadden were all eliminated.
Moneymaker joins Lee Nelson and Gavin Griffin as the only Team PokerStars Pros to return tomorrow, while PokerStars Sponsored player Eric Assadourian will also be waving the flag for the event sponsor.
We’ll be back tomorrow as the race starts in earnest for the final title on season two of the PokerStars.net APPT.
