2015 ANZPT Melbourne Day 1a: Min Jae Park Leads 93 Survivors
Day 1a of the 2015 ANZPT Melbourne Main Event is in the books!
At the beginning of the day there were high hopes of a big field making their way into the Crown Poker Room with pre-series news confirming this would be the last-ever stop on the ANZPT (the tour is being rolled into the APPT). In the end, 206 players partook in the first of two Day 1 flights. That puts the event on pace to reach close to 500 players, and at the $2,300 buy-in level, that would mean another massive seven-figure prize pool.
As usual there were plenty of familiar faces at the felt to begin the day, but not all of them made it through the evening. Some of those who were eliminated throughout Day 1a included Martin Rowe, Peter Aristidou, Daniel Neilson, Gary Benson, Jackson Zheng, Ricky Kroesen, Hugh Cohen, Didier Guerin and Tony Tartaglia.
Tartaglia was the main focus early on in the day after receiving an award from Danny McDonagh and Sam Dawson for his "loyalty to the ANZPT." In 19 attempts, Tartaglia was unable to cash in any main event over the tour's seven-year stretch. Today he unfortunately made it 20 attempts with no reward.
While the aforementioned players didn't have a good day at the felt, it was a different story for some others, specifically Min Jae Park, who captured an early lead after taking out Tartaglia in the biggest hand of the day.
After turning a set of eights, Tartaglia committed his remaining chips and was called by Park, who held pocket aces. One of the two last aces spiked on the river seeing Park jump up to 100,000 in chips, which left Tartaglia with a chip in the chair, but was followed by his demise shortly after. Park would finish the day as chip leader bagging up 118,500 in chips.
Top 10 Day 1a Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Min Jae Park | 118500 |
| 2 | Nick Morales | 91100 |
| 3 | Evan Mijo | 88500 |
| 4 | Chia-Chang Ku | 86900 |
| 5 | Tristan Bain | 85200 |
| 6 | Ross Grammer | 83900 |
| 7 | Liam O'Rourke | 80700 |
| 8 | Gary Retallick | 79200 |
| 9 | Adrian Indovino | 79200 |
| 10 | Selwyn Austin | 77700 |
Some of the other players who finished Day 1a with plenty of chips include Graham Cowan (100,300), Liam O’Rourke (80,700), Aleks Brkovic (66,900), Peter Matusik (65,500), PokerStars Team Pro Chen-An Lin (60,900), Sam Butters (59,800) and reigning Aussie Million champion Manny Stavropoulos (59,800).
Others who survived Day 1a, albeit with smaller stacks than the leaders, include Stevan Chew (58,700), Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros (33,500), Michael Guzzardi (33,500), Anthony Legg (21,300) and Jesse McKenzie (13,800).
All the 93 survivors from Day 1a will return to the felt at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Before then, the second and final batch of Day 1 players will hit the felt. Day 1b kicks off at 12:30 p.m. local time on Saturday and PokerNews will once again be here providing all the live updates, which you can follow by clicking here.
*Lead photo courtesy of Poker Asia Pacific.
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