The main section of the Crown Poker Room is the most jam-packed.
Just a handful of the 'notable' players in this are include ANZPT Perth final tablist and ANZPT Canberra runner-up James Broom, Australian Poker Hall of Famer Leo Boxell, Oliver 'SwoopAE' Gill, ANZPT Queenstown runner-up Ken Demlakian, APPT Melbourne runner-up Phillip Wilcocks, Alex ' lynskey99' Lynskey, Antonis 'Toothpick' Kambouroglou, ANZPT Perth final tablist Dale Marsland and 2011 ANZPT Adelaide champion Octavian Voegele.
Day 1a of the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event is split up into two areas. This first area is the closest to the main entry and the tournament booth. Over in that area we found players such as Aussie Millions gold ring winner Adrian Attenborough, WSOP APAC Main Event final tablist Kahle Burns, Steve 'The Big Show' Topakas, ANZPT Auckland final tablist Pravin Harji and Benn 'risk2Dupside' Skender.
Also seated in this area is Australian comedian and former TV star Trevor Marmalade. This funny fellow used to be big part of the AFL Footy Show, but in more recent times has been seen at the poker tables, including over in Las Vegas at the WSOP.
The players have been informed there will be eight 60-minute levels today, with ten-minute breaks after every two levels and no dinner break. That will have us out at the door at around 10:40 p.m. local time.
Dozens of players have taken their seats and the cards are now in the air for Day 1a of the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event.
Players start with 20,000 in chips and levels last 60 minutes each. The early mail is that we will be playing eight levels here on the first Day 1 flight.
Time to go check who some of the notables are in today’s field. Stay tuned for some of the early action, chip counts updates, and all that fun stuff.
Welcome to the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia!
Today sees the beginning of the next stop on Season 6 of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour. It’s the $2,200 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event, and by all accounts, it’s going to be massive. How do we know? Well, because APPT President Danny McDonagh told us so! You see, there have been just under 200 online qualifiers. That means $400,000 in the prize pool before you even begin to factor in the live qualifiers here at Crown and of course, the direct buy-ins.
The last time ANZPT Melbourne took place (at this buy-in level) was in 2013. There were 345 players in the field and Paul Hockin was crowned the champion. The largest ANZPT Melbourne, by prize pool, was when it was the ‘Grand Final’ and a shared APPT event with a buy-in of $5,000. There were 257 players, which meant a prize pool well over $1 million. If we manage the number we are expecting this weekend, then the 2014 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event could also very well once again reach seven figures.
Today is the first of two Day 1 flights and it will begin at 2:10 p.m. local time. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews today, and all weekend long, as we bring all the live updates, end-of-day chip counts, recaps of the action and all that important stuff.