That's A Wrap; Emad Dominates!
![[user67765]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
135 players took to the felt and we started in rather dramatic fashion as home-town hero Lee "Final Table" Nelson didn't quite live up to his nickname as he was incredibly eliminated from his first table on only the second hand of the day.
From that early spike in action, play was methodical for most of the day with Emad Tahtouh putting in a dominant performance. Back-to-back pocket aces was useful to send two opponents to the rail, and from there Tahtouh applied relentless pressure to his opponents and padded his stack all day.
His nearest rivals from today's play include Michael Shinzaki (109,800), James Ciurlionis (105,600), Danny Hall (93,600) and Jacky Tastavin (73,300).
In all, 67 players survived the day including PokerStars Pros Grant Levy (35,600), Celina Lin (16,300) and the defending champ Daniel Cracker (37,000).
Join us again tomorrow from 12:15pm local time (GMT+13) as we do it all again with a new batch of hopefuls as the PokerStars.net APPT Auckland Main Event continues!