Home / Poker News October 2009 / APPT Auckland Day 1B – starting field smaller than last year
APPT Auckland Day 1B – starting field smaller than last year
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2009-10-17 10:42
Day 1b of the APPT’s Auckland stop saw a further 128 players start, a number which took the overall field to 263 players. The organizers were probably not delighted as it represented a downswing from last year’s numbers, but the prize-pool was still big enough to offer the winner a whooping NZD 209,085.
Australian players were once again massively present, with Tony Hachem (Joe’s brother) and Eric Assadourian wading through the field valiantly to finish the day among the top ranks. Hachem’s story was one of the highlights of Day 1B, as he hit a Royal flush, a hand so rare one can be an active player for years and not see one, let alone hit one.
Hachem’s monster hand failed to clinch an equally large pot, but it did earn him some chips.
Jai Kemp and Bruno Portaro were among those forced to head to the rail early on. With so many
Team PokerStars players present, it was inevitable for some of them to join the early casualty list. Brian Huang was one of these PokerStars pros. He got crippled by Wendy Cook first, who called his river bet with a true bluff catcher (a pair of 8s). A few hands later, he went all-in and got bounced.
Rajkumar Ramakrishnan on the other hand had an excellent day. At about the midway mark, he managed to surpass the 100,000 chip threshold and looked poised to overtake the chip leader of the previous day, Emad Tahtouh.
Eventually though, he faded into the field as he’d apparently used up all his gunpowder at that stage and had none left for the second half of the day.
Lance Climo emerged as the chip leader in the late stages of Day 1B action. Tony Dunst donated his chips to him to give him one hell of a thrust, thus when the action was called, Climo sat on a 134,400 chip stack, which was well ahead of Gerome Guitteau’s 99,300. Soren Eriksen, Tamas Lendvai and Richard Lancaster rounded up the top 5.
Ramakrishnan eventually finished with 59,700 chips, and despite the
Royal Flush he’d landed, Tony Hachem only managed to accumulate 53,400 chips. With 63 players surviving day 1B, day two will see a field of 130 belly up to the tables of the SkyCity Casino.
