Nine players will return to the SKYCITY Auckland Casino today.
One will emerge as the APPT Auckland champion.
The player arguable in the best position to go all the way is Brisbane’ Australia’s Minh Nguyen. He’s widely regarded as one of the finest poker talents in the region and with a monster chip lead, he’s going to be hard to beat.
There are eight players, however, who will be looking to stop Nguyen.
The player with the second largest stack, Sam Williams, has proven himself a formidable opponent, while prominent players like Aussies Dean Blatt, Michael Guzzardi and Jesse “On The Mac” McKenzie, along with Kiwi Thomas Ward are also still alive and kicking.
Here is how the final nine stack up:
Seat
Player
Chips
1
Sam Williams
633,000
2
Ben Rendall
545,000
3
Michael Guzzardi
296,000
4
Dean Blatt
142,000
5
Thomas Ward
404,000
6
Jesse McKenzie
477,500
7
Stephen Thompson
32,500
8
William Rogers
238,000
9
Minh Nguyen
1,605,500
You can learn more about each player in the live reporting blog below. It’s there that you will find full biographies. One of those nine players will eventually take home the APPT Auckland title and the NZ$132,000 top prize.
The cards are in the air from 12:15 p.m. local time today. Blinds kick off at 4,000/8,000.
APPT President Danny McDonagh has given some player introductions and made the call to shuffle up and deal! Blinds are 4,000/8,000 and we play until there is a winner.
The third hand of the final table saw Minh Nguyen open to 16,000 from the hijack.
Sam Williams made the call from the cut off before the action fell on Dean Blatt on the big blind.
He paused for a moment before announcing all in for approximately 140,000 in chips. Nguyen quickly folded. Williams took a slight second longer to make a decision before opting to fold.
It was always going to be a hard task for Stephen Thompson to run up his less than five big blind stack and so it’s perhaps not too surprising that he was just the first elimination at the final table.
Thompson waited until he had the button (folding his small blind and big blind to action behind him) before he played his final hand. Michael Guzzardi had opened to 16,000 from middle position and Thompson went well in for 15,000 on the button. Minh Nguyen called Guzzardi’s raise from the big blind and the dealer flipped over a flop.
Thompson watched on as his opponents checked here and with that, a hit the turn.
This time Nguyen led for 25,000 and Guzzardi folded.
With Guzzardi out it was time to see the cards.
Nguyen had for trip eights, while Thompson had .
The board completed with a and Thompson hit the rail with a NZ$12,500 score.
There hasn't been a huge amount of action in the few hands following the first elimination of the day. We did see our first preflop four-bet though. It started with Sam Williams opening to 16,000 from late position. Ben Rendall, on his direct left in the hijack, three-bet to 36,000. The action went back to Williams and he four bet to 91,000. Rendall tank folded and that was that.
Thomas Ward raised to 16,000 from under the gun plus and was called by Minh Nguyen in the cut off as well as Michael Guzzardi on the big blind.
The flop came down and Guzzardi checked. Ward threw out a 22,000 continuation bet that saw the end of Nguyen. Guzzardi made the call before the fell on the turn.
Guzzardi checked once more prompting Ward to slide out another bet of 45,000. Guzzardi thought for a minute before announcing all in for 203,000 in chips. Ward looked down at his cards before mucking his hand.
Michael Guzzardi and Jesse McKenzie have recently rumbled.
It started with Guzzardi opening the cut off to 16,000. McKenzie called out of the big blind and the dealer flipped over a flop. McKenzie check-called a bet of 16,000 here and then check-raised the turn to 86,000 after Guzzardi led for 86,000. Guzzardi opted to get out of the way and the chips went to McKenzie.
![[user162117]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop.
hit the turn.
for trip eights, while Thompson had 
.
and Thompson hit the rail with a NZ$12,500 score.
and Guzzardi checked. Ward threw out a 22,000 continuation bet that saw the end of Nguyen. Guzzardi made the call before the 
fell on the turn.
