APPT Sydney Grand Final Main Event Day 1b | 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Sydney Grand Final

APPT Sydney Grand Final Main Event

Day 1b Completed

12-02-2009 20:21 UTC+11

Closing Time

[user38449]

Day 1b of the PokerStars.net APPT Sydney Grand Final main event is officially in the books. The day began with 109 players -- a slight improvement over yesterday's 81-player field. Of those 109 starters, an estimated 69 survived and will return on Friday for Day 2 action.

Leo Boxell and Tom Grigg seemed to be engaged in a day-long game of King of the Hill, overtaking each other atop the leaderboard through seven long levels of poker. While the numbers are not yet official, it appears as though Boxell will finish the day with the most chips, despite a late surge from Grigg, who knocked out 'Sheldon' in the closing minutes of the day to claim a massive pot and move to 145,000 in chips. Our last count of Boxell had him at 147,700 in chips.

Jay 'SEABEAST' Kinkade, Minh Nguyen and Brian Wilson were a few of the more notable casualties of the day, while David Steicke, Emanuel 'Curly' Seal, Aaron Benton, Wooka Kim, Michael 'TheBigSiCkO' Guzzardi, Amanda De Cesare, Simon Watt and defending Champ Martin Rowe all made it to the bag and tag portion of the day and will return to the Star City poker room when Day 2 play commences Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow's third and final Day 1 flight looks to be a big'un as WSOP Main Event Champs Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem are expected to grace the felt along with fellow Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin, Grant Levy, Emad Tahtouh, Tony Hachem, Bryan Huang and Raymond Wu.

Play will recommence at 12:30 p.m. local time (GMT+11) and as always, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand delivering all of the updates as they happen, direct from the tournament floor.

Until then, from the Star City poker room in Sydney, Australia, good night and good luck!

12-02-2009 20:11 UTC+11

Final Six Hands

donpeters

The players are playing their final six hands of the night before they bag up.

12-02-2009 20:10 UTC+11

Rollin' Rollin' Rowlands

donpeters

Letitia Rowlands moved all in preflop and was called by Michael "TheBigSiCkO" Guzzardi. Rowlands held {A-Hearts}

and Guzzardi held {A-Diamonds}

.

The flop came down {9-Hearts}

, putting Guzzardi in the lead. The turn sprung Rowlands back in front after the {Q-Hearts}

fell and then the river completed the board with the {6-Diamonds}

.

Rowlands moved up to 23,000 and Guzzardi dropped to 42,000.

Tags: "TheBigSiCkO"Letitia Rowlands Michael Guzzardi

12-02-2009 20:02 UTC+11

A Big, Sick Flop

donpeters

Michael "TheBigSiCkO" Guzzardi flopped top two pair on a board of {K-Diamonds}

holding

. His opponent Linh Tran flopped top set with {K-Clubs}

. All of the money went in on the turn where Tran was all in.

Guzzardi dropped to 63,000 while Tran doubled to 40,000.

Tags: "TheBigSiCkO"Linh Tran Michael Guzzardi

12-02-2009 20:01 UTC+11

PokerNews Exclusive Video: Michael 'TheBigSiCkO' Guzzardi

[user38449]

We caught up with 'TheBigSiCkO' during a recent break in which he gave us the lowdown on the players at his table (specifically 'The Poker Star' winner Amanda De Cesare) and his snowboarding trip to New Zealand amongst other things.

Tags: Michael Guzzardi

12-02-2009 19:57 UTC+11

Meyer Cracks Aces To Double

donpeters

Simon Watt had an opponent all in preflop with two aces against the player's {K-Clubs}

. The all-in player was PokerStars online qualifier Jacob Meyer.

Meyer flopped the joint when the first three cards in the middle of the felt were the {J-Clubs}

. The turn was the {10-Hearts}

and the river the {K-Spades}

.

Meyer was all in for 17,000 preflop and now has around 37,000 chips. Watt dropped to 31,000.

Tags: Jacob Meyer Simon Watt

12-02-2009 19:54 UTC+11

High Roller Event Breaking News

[user38449]

2-time APPT Sydney High Roller Champ Jarred Graham

For a second straight year, Aussie pro Jarred Graham has won the APPT Sydney High Roller's event.
For his win, Graham will take home $156,000 in prize money. Runner-up George Moussa earned $91,650 for coming second.

Tags: George Moussa Jarred Graham