2015 PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Day 3: Jim Psaros Leads the Final Table
After four days of action, the 2015 ANZPT Sydney Main Event reached a final table. From a starting field of 445 players, the nine remaining players will now fight it out for the AU$225,000 top prize and latest title on Season 7 of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour.
It is Jim Psaros who leads the final nine players. His stack of 2.64 million in chips towers over his nearest rivals in Denis Sekuloski with 1.58 million and Murray Roach with 1.495 million.
ANZPT Sydney Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shaneel Chand | 595,000 |
| 2 | Tom Rafferty | 400,000 |
| 3 | Emanuel Seal | 810,000 |
| 4 | Murray Roach | 1,495,000 |
| 5 | Jim Psaros | 2,640,000 |
| 6 | Zhi Ma | 625,000 |
| 7 | Li-ta Hsu | 605,000 |
| 8 | Denis Sekuloski | 1,580,000 |
| 9 | Chung Liew | 155,000 |
The penultimate day of play ended up taking around 11 hours. The day ultimately drew to a close when the final table chip leader Psaros dealt the fatal blow to David O'Brien in 10th place.
O'Brien shoved around 15 big blinds with the A♣J♥ and unfortunately for him, Psaros woke up with the K♠K♣ in the big blind. There was no help for O’Brien and so he hit the rail as the final table bubble boy with AU$11,500 for his time.
Long before the final table was set there were 54 players all hoping to survive the night. However, dozens of those players quickly hit the rail as the field was whittled down to the final three tables within four hours of play. From there, it would take another seven to eight hours to reach the final table.
Some of the prominent players who got close to final table glory, but ultimately fell short, included Candian pro Xuan Liu, 2011 ANZPT Sydney champion Michael Kanaan, and Australian pro Didier Guerin.
Liu was easily had the most credentialed live tournament resume of any of the returning players, but in the end Liu finished in 24th place after falling short and running her J♠J♣ into the Q♣Q♦ of Ali Ghezelbash preflop.
Kanaan, meanwhile, was eliminated a short while later with his quest to become the first two-time ANZPT champion cut short in 19th place.
Guerin lasted a little longer, but eventually got his chips in preflop with pocket jacks and ended up losing a race against final tablist Sekuloski with the A♠K♣. Guerin managed a couple of pay jumps on Liu, finishing in 17th and pocketing AU$7,700.
It was once Guerin was eliminated that the pace of the action really slowed down. The average stack when 16 players remained was around 40 big blinds and by the time the field slowly whittled down to 12, the average was only 17 big blinds.
Then Rined Namrood (12th), Tibault Klinghammer (11th), and O’Brien hit the rail in quick succession to set the final table.
You can read all about how Day 3 played out, along with a list of full prize pool and payout information so far, on the ANZPT Sydney live reporting page.
The nine remaining players are set to return to The Star Casino in Sydney from 2 p.m. local time on Monday, so be sure to return to PokerNews then and find out who wins the latest ANZPT title.
Photo courtesy of Poker Asia Pacific.
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