When we saw Kiwi Kani Edwards up out of his chair giving a big fist pump and a little bit of a “Woo!”, we knew he must have made a big hand.
We rushed over to Edwards’ table to find a board on the felt, with Edwards all in holding for a flopped full house. Edwards’ opponent’s were being taken into the muck and with that Edwards was one of the chip leaders with a stack of just under 50,000.
Tom Grigg had a big stack earlier in the day but he’s quickly given it back and a recent clash with Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang hasn’t helped his cause.
Grigg opened with a late position raise to 600 and Bryan Huang made the call in the blinds to see a flop of . Huang check-called for 700 as the hit the turn.
Huang tapped the table again and Grigg fired again for 1,550. This time however Huang put in a check-raise to 3,600. Grigg took his time contemplating your decision.
“Have you got a monster?” posed Grigg. Huang gave a shrug as the dealer, rather inappropriately, snapped his hands up and down, motioning in the shape of some sort of monster.
Grigg called and the river was the . Huang led out with a bet of 5,000 with Grigg again giving it plenty of thought before making the call. Huang opened for a flush draw that rivered top pair and that was enough to scoop the healthy pot.
Huang is back up to 25,000 with Grigg slipping to 17,000.
Prominent Kiwi poker player Jackson Zheng has just been eliminated in pretty brutal fashion.
We arrived at the action on the turn of a board, with around 8,500 in the pot and with Zheng leading out for 3,600. Zheng’s lone opponent made the call and a was dealt on the river.
Zhen had around 9,000 behind and took his time before betting 5,000 here. His opponent fumbled out 8,000, intending to raise and then had to make it at least 10,000. Zheng leaned back in his chair, facing a call for his tournament life.
“Flopped a set and have the queen of spades,” said Zheng as he tanked.
We then heard Zheng mention that his opponent must have ace-king with the king of spades before continuing to tank. Zheng counted out his chips a couple of times and made the call.
Zheng’s read was correct as the player turned over . Zheng turned over his and made his way out of the tournament.
It has been confirmed that Day 1c of the ANZPT Auckland Main Event has had 103 entries. Added with the 44 from Day 1a and the 66 from Day 1b, we have a total field of 213 - six players better than last year's event.
Once we receive the prize pool information we will be sure to let everyone know what they are playing for!
There is still one table set up away from the main poker room. That table is set to be the first to break, but until then we thought we would let you know a couple of hands we recently watched.
First it was Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang who was involved in a hand against one opponent on a board. We arrived on the turn to find Huang leading for 1,350 and his opponent calling. The river would see both players check and then Huang let out a sigh and mucking his cards face down instead of showing, therefore sending the pot to his opponent.
We then watched Paul "KingPaulie" Hockin open a hand to 500 from the button and recieve a call from the player in the big blind. On the flop, the big blind check-called a bet of 500. The turn would see the action again checked to Hockin and this time he took it down with a bet of 1,100.
We are sorry to tell the Tom Grigg fans out there that he has already lost a huge portion of his giant stack. Apparently there wasn't any really big hands that did it, Grigg just bled chips slowly. The Full Tilt Poker ANZPT Ambassador does still have over the starting stack though, so things aren't all that bad.