2012 PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Day 2: David Allan Leads Heading Into Day 3
The 2012 Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Queenstown Snowfest Main Event continued with Day 2 action on Friday. It took two separate Day 2 flights to get there with the starting 87 slowly whittled down to 31. Of those players, David Allan emerged as the chip leader heading into Day 3.
It all began at Friday morning when 43 players participated in Day 2a. Of those players, only 23 survived the three levels of play, with Michael Kanaan amassing the largest chip stack. Some of the players who hit the rail on Day 2a were Danny Chevalier, Ben Richardson and World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen.
While the remaining Day 2a players waited patiently to get back to the tables, the 44 players from Day 2b began their quest for survival early on Friday afternoon. At the end of another three levels, 24 had survived, with no player from Day 2b managing to get close to Kanaan’s stack. A few of the players who didn't survive this flight included James Honeybone, Leo Boxell and PokerStars Team Online Pro, Roy Bhasin.
Forty-seven players from the combined Day 2 flights joined to play another three levels on Friday evening. Some of those who made an exit during the evening were Jarred Graham, Day 1c chip leader Nurlan Boobekov and current ANZ Player of the Year leader Anthony Aston.
Another player who couldn't secure a Day 3 berth was prominent Australian pro Kristian Lunardi. The last hand of Lunardi's tournament happened to be the largest pot of the day, and it occurred on the last hand of the night. Lunardi's opponent was David Zhao and all the chips went in preflop, with Lunardi putting in a five-bet shove to create a pot of more than 200,000 in chips. Zhao called holding Q♣Q♦ and was up against the at-risk Lunardi holding A♠K♥. No help came for Lunardi, who was sent home just shy of making Day 3.
After the evening's play was over, 31 had survived, with Allan the end-of-day chip leader for the second time of the week. Allan will begin Day 3 with 280,000 in chips and will be in good shape to start making his way toward the final table. Plenty of Allan's chips came late in the evening when he managed to turn a flush holding J♥10♥ on a 5♥Q♥10♣K♥A♦ board. His opponent was Justin Huege de Serville, and Allan managed to get full value against Heuge de Serville's AxAx.
Not far behind Allan on the leaderboard are David Zhao, Ricky Kroesen and 2011 ANZPT Sydney Main Event winner, Michael Kanaan. Also returning for Saturday's Day 3 will be Billy Argyros, Michael Fadersen, Yvo Molin, Joel Feldman, Richard Lancaster, Matt Wakeman and Team PokerStars Pro, Bryan Huang. The top ten chip counts heading into the penultimate day of play can be seen below. Interestingly, only one local player is part of the top ten, while eight of the spots are filled by Australians.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| David Allan | Australia | 280,000 |
| David Zhao | Australia | 242,300 |
| Michael Kanaan | Australia | 239,100 |
| Ricky Kroesen | Australia | 201,000 |
| Jordan Westmorland | Thailand | 184,000 |
| Ivan Zalac | Australia | 158,200 |
| Bill Argyros | Australia | 120,400 |
| Ken Demlakian | Australia | 119,100 |
| David Wonson | Australia | 117,200 |
| Chiu Yeung Lee | New Zealand | 115,900 |
All of the surviving players will be looking to capture the glory, the ANZPT title and the NZ$110,600 first-place prize, but first they will need to play down to a final table. Who will be part of the final nine? Make sure to follow the PokerNews live reporting team from 1230 NZST Saturday (Sunday 1700 PDT) to find out!
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