2012 PokerStars.net APPT Melbourne Day 2: Bentley Leads; Defending Champ Leo Boxell Close
The 2012 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event continued on Saturday with 167 players returning to the Crown Poker Room for Day 2. At the end of the night, only 44 remained and Wayne Bentley held the chip lead. Amazingly, Leo Boxell, who took down this event in 2011, is second in chips. If Boxell manages to win this year's tournament, he would become the first player to win two of the same APPT events in back-to-back years.
Day 2 began with some of the most recognizable faces in the Australasian region, but as is standard in poker tournaments, not all of them survived. Some of those who hit the rail during the early stages of the day include World Series of Poker bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen, James Broom, Julian Cohen, Van Marcus, Tim English and Team PokerStars Pros Raymond Wu and Celina Lin. Aaron Benton, Jai Kemp, Didier Guerin and Jay Kinkade also found their way to the rail throughout the night.
Some of the players who managed to do better than the aforementioned players were Sam Razavi, James Bills, Billy Argyros, Jarred Graham, Krsitian Lunardi, Gary Benson and PokerStars Team Online member, Roy Bhasin. All of these players survived Day 2 and will have enough chips to scare come Day 3.
The top of the chip leaderboard chopped and changed several times throughout Day 2, with Tom Grigg, Michael Kanaan, Haibo Chu, Bently and Boxell all holding the lead at least once during the evening. All four of these players are still in contention to win the title, albeit with Grigg having far fewer chips than he might have liked.
Grigg had more than 400,000 in chips during the last level of play, but only finished the night with a stack of 77,000. Most of Grigg's chips went to fellow Australian young gun, James Bills. One of the biggest hands of the night saw Bills ship 81,000 into a pot of around 60,000 on the turn of a J♦4♣10♥6♦ board. Grigg tanked for a long time before eventually making the call holding A♣10♠. Unfortunately Grigg was in terrible shape against Bills' K♥K♠ and when the river changed nothing, Grigg was left with a pittance of what he once had.
Managing to do far better than Grigg and joining Bentley and Boxell at the top of the counts will be the Day 1a chip leader Brendon Rubie, Dale Marsland and Benn Skender. These players are in the best shape to make it to the top 28 players who are guaranteed a min-cash, with the money bubble expected to burst during the early stages of Day 3. Of course, it is the $326,125 first-place prize that all the players are looking to score and the 10 players below are in the best position to just that.
APPT Melbourne Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wayne Bentley | 450,000 |
| 2 | Leo Boxell | 400,000 |
| 3 | Brendon Rubie | 314,500 |
| 4 | Michael Kanaan | 311,000 |
| 5 | Dale Marsland | 294,000 |
| 6 | Benn Skender | 285,500 |
| 7 | Sam Razavi | 283,500 |
| 8 | Ted Nguyen | 279,000 |
| 9 | Ashley Warner | 2780,00 |
The remaining players will be back in the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia from 1230 AEST Sunday (1930 PST), so make sure to follow the PokerNews Live Reporting Page as we continue to bring you all the action from the 2012 APPT Melbourne Main Event!
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
