Eric "The Smiling Assassin" Assadourian
PokerStars Team Australia Pro Eric Assadourian is one of the poster boys of this event, but so far he has been rather quiet as he chips up comfortably down at the far end of the SKYCITY poker room. However we just caught him taking a small hit to his stack.
After a limp in early position, Assadourian made it 700 to go from middle position and found calls from the big blind and limper.
They took a flop of and play checked to Assadourian who made it 1,700. The big blind called as the third player stepped aside.
The turn was the and both checked, before again checking down the river.
The big blind was first to reveal, as he tabled which was good as Assadourian mucked. He's still well placed with 26,000 chips.
Dennis Huntly recently eliminated a player after getting it all in with just an overcard.
Preflop, a player from early position made it 800 to go and Dennis Huntly made the call. Action folded to the big blind who moved all in for 3,225.
The early position player folded and action was on Huntly. After taking some time in the tank, the other player got sick of waiting.
"Come on, make a decision already," he huffed. Huntly replied, "I don't have to call here, but I will".
"Ok, let's gamble then," replied the all-in player.
Huntly tabled to have one overcard against his opponent's .
The flop was to give Huntly outs to the straight, and the turn made that an open-ended straight draw. The river spiked the and shipped the pot Huntly's way.
"I knew I had one overcard when I called," said Huntly. He's up to about 8,000 in chips after being down early.
The official numbers are in for the second flight and the prizepool for the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Auckland Main Event has been announced.
We had 128 entries today, which has unusually defied the worldwide trend of more players preferring the last flight of the schedule. That puts the total number of entrants for the Main Event to 263 to create a total prize pool of NZ$789,000.
The top 32 players will finish in the money and be guaranteed a NZ$5,523 payday while the winner will take home a very pretty NZ$209,085.
Preflop, four players including Tony Dunst, Bryan Huang, and Brad Bainbridge took a flop of with a pot of 2,700 in the middle. They all checked off the flop and moved to the turn.
Dunst checked to Huang who fired out 1,200 and both the cutoff and Bainbridge on the button made the call, with Dunst folding.
On the river both Huang, and the cutoff checked and Bainbridge moved all in for 9,700. Huang tanked for a while before announcing call and the cutoff folded.
"You got a flush bro?" asked Bainbridge in his Kiwi accent.
Huang shook his head. "Well I got two pair," said Bainbridge slapping his . Huang looked disappointed as he mucked, shipping half of his stack over to Bainbridge.
Bainbridge is up to about 25,000. Huang drops to 10,800.
Aaron Benton has Tony Hachem in his sights
Three players including Tony Hachem and Aaron Benton limped a flop. On the flop Benton led out with a bet, and Hachem made the call to go heads-up to the turn.
On the turn Benton bet 1,500 and Hachem once again made the flat call. On the river Benton fired 2,100 and this sent Hachem into the tank.
"Have you got a flush draw?" probed Hachem.
There was no response from Benton. A few moments later Hachem was at it again "Is my ace out-kicked?".
Again no response from Benton.
"Aaron has been playing me all morning," said Hachem to no one in particular, "I just need to figure this out".
After a while longer in the tank Benton had seen enough. "Look Tony, if you want to see my hand, just say 'Hey Aaron, I'd like to see your hand'". With this Hachem open mucked for a busted flush draw and middle pair. Benton rolled over two pair .
"You got no idea how I play," said Benton to Hachem.