Former ANZPT Queenstown champ has just pushed a player around on a flop. Allan was in the hi-jack position, while his opponent was on his direct left in the cut off. There was plenty already in the pot, with the action clearly being at least three-bet preflop.
We watched Allan check and his opponent bet 2,500. After a few moments, Allan moved all in, with the player having what looked like around 15,000 behind. The player tanked, squirming in his chair. Eventually he folded, dejectedly tabling his face up.
Kiwi Jackson Zheng has had plenty of success around the Asia-Pacific poker scene, but has yet to break through with a big result on the ANZPT. That could change here in Sydney and so far Zheng has found a pretty good start.
We arrived at a recent hand Zheng was involved in on the river of a board. There was already quite a large pot in the middle and Zhend led out for 2,100, coming up against one opponent. The player tanked and eventually called, but quickly mucked when Zheng turned over for two-pair.
You don’t generally expect to see a player exiting the poker room this early in a tournament, but that’s exactly what has just happened here on Day 1a of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event – much to the delight of former ANZ Player of the Year runner-up Anthony Aston.
We didn’t catch all the action, we just showed up once all the fireworks had already occurred. What we can tell you is that a board was on the felt and Aston’s lone opponent had checked to Aston, who moved all in. The two players had similar stacks of around 12,000 or so, with the rest of their starting stacks presumably already in the pot. The player called and quickly mucked and exited the tournament when Aston showed for a set of nines.
Just like that, Aston is the early chip leader with more than 35,000 in chips.
As expected there are plenty of notable names at the felt for Day 1a of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event and with the tournament clock now ticking past 200 entries, the familiar faces continue to filter in.
Players like 2012 ANZPT Queenstown champion David Allan, dual APPT / ANZPT champion Grant Levy, 2009 APPT Sydney champ Aaron Benton, Australian poker legend Mel Judah and his fellow Hall of Fame member Jason Gray, Full Tilt ANZPT Ambassador Tom Grigg, WSOP bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen and 2011 ANZPT Sydney champ Michael Kanaan are just a handful of the many names you will recognise in the list below.
We have tried to find out exactly how many levels we will be playing today, but haven't been able to receive a straight answer. The common consensus is that we will be playing eight levels, which seems like a little bit of overkill considering this year's ANZPT Sydney Main Event has added a full day compared to the last couple of years. It does, however, mean either Day 2 or Day 3 will be quite short, so that's the silver lining. If we do play eight levels, Day 1a will draw to a close at around 3.00 a.m. local time.
Now it's time to go see who is playing Day 1a! We have already spotted plenty of notables.
We are in a new poker room here at The Star and boy can we tell you, it’s impressive. There are 30 tables spread over three areas, with great music-themed aesthetics and a couple of nearby bars. The overall ambience in the room is, for lack of a better word, pleasing.
At the moment dozens of players are filtering onto the tables in preparation for the beginning of Day 1a, which kicks off at 6:15 p.m. local time – around 10 minutes from now. A large majority of the around 140 online qualifiers are in tonight’s field, so we expect a packed poker room.
![[user162117]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop. Allan was in the hi-jack position, while his opponent was on his direct left in the cut off. There was plenty already in the pot, with the action clearly being at least three-bet preflop.
face up.
board. There was already quite a large pot in the middle and Zhend led out for 2,100, coming up against one opponent. The player tanked and eventually called, but quickly mucked when Zheng turned over 
for two-pair.
for a set of nines.
