2013 PokerStars ANZPT Auckland Day 1c: Amant Nauhria Takes Overall Lead; 105 Advance
The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) continued on Friday as the third and final Day 1 flight of the ANZPT Auckland Main Event took place at the SKYCITY Auckland Casino.
The biggest day yet saw 103 players enter the NZ$2,200 buy-in event. That made for a total field of 213 players when added with the 44 players from Day 1a and the 56 from Day 1b. That field is six more than last year’s 206 players and is a great effort from the team at the ANZPT.
The eventual champion will lock up NZ$110,760. Of all the players from Day 1c, it was Amant Nauhria who put himself in the best position to go all the way. Nauhria finished with 107,200 in chips after being down to just 3,500 at the first break of the day. Nauhria’s stack is just a little bigger than that of Day 1b chip leader Anesone Bragouits, but nonetheless enough to see Nauhria start Day 2 as the overall chip leader.
ANZPT Auckland Day 1c Top 10
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amant Nauhria | 107,200 |
| 2 | Xibo Zhou | 98,000 |
| 3 | Ia Rimamaki | 72,500 |
| 4 | George Manolas | 69,000 |
| 5 | Michael Ip | 68,000 |
| 6 | Michael Teren | 66,000 |
| 7 | Kani Edwards | 64,300 |
| 8 | Lukas Byrns | 62,600 |
| 9 | Jan Suchanek | 61,800 |
| 10 | Stanislav Chataline | 61,300 |
Nauhria went under the radar on Day 1c. When asked how he got all his chips, he told the PokerNews that he didn’t remember playing one big hand, just winning lots of small pots all afternoon.
Some of the players who will be joining Nauhria on the felt for Day 2 include Steven Zhou, Jan Suchanek, Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang, this year’s ANZ Player of the Year Iori Yogo, and New Zealand’s only WSOP gold bracelet winner, Simon Watt. The 50 total survivors from Day 1c will join the 55 from the previous two starting flights and begin making their way toward a final table this weekend.
While all of the aforementioned players will still be fighting it out to become the next ANZPT champion, some of those from Day 1c who weren’t able to progress include this year’s ANZ Player of the Year runner-up Luke Brabin, 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event champion David Gorr, Alicia Sale, and 2012 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event champion Paul Hockin.
Both Hockin and Brabin ran into coolers at different stages of Day 1c. It was early in the day that Brabin would face his as he got all his chips in holding 8x8x on the turn of a Jx9x7x10x board. Unfortunately, his straight wasn’t strong enough for Tom Grigg’s bigger straight as the Full Tilt ANZPT ambassador held KxQx. Despite winning this hand, Grigg himself didn’t manage to make it through to Day 2.
Hockin’s elimination came late in the day when he ran his K♣K♠ into the A♣A♥ of fellow Kiwi Kani Edwards.
All of the surviving players will return for Day 2 action from 12:15 p.m. local time, and you can once again check out all the ANZPT Auckland live updates right here on PokerNews.
Photo courtesy of Poker Asia Pacific.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
