ANZPT Sydney Day 1a Complete, Gary Benson Leads
Day 1a of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney Main Event attracted 209 players to The Star Casino. When the day was finished, 86 players were left with Gary Benson atop the chip counts with a stack of 193,000 in chips. Sitting on the other side of the casino, he went relatively unnoticed for much of the day, but was able to win numerous pots to have him top the leader board.
ANZPT Perth Main Event champion [Removed:480] was in Thursday’s field and will progress to Day 2. His day was up and down, but a big hand involving Jie Gao towards the end of the day pushed him back up the leader board. He eventually finished with a respectable 37,500 in chips.
Snapping at Benson's heels, but a considerable way behind, are Jean Pierre Besancon (138,500), Benjamin Zhang (114,200) and Cathal Shine (101,000). Tobin Ryall, Michael Fadersen, Martin Kozlov, Ricky Kroesen and Michael Kanaan were also among the players who made it through Day 1a.
Some of the players who weren’t so fortunate included Liam O’Rourke, Michael Guzzardi, John Caridad, Kristian Lunardi and 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event fifth-place finisher Jarrod Glennon.
Lunardi moved all in on a turn after making a queen-high straight holding 
, but he ran into the 
of Paul Wilson who had the higher straight. Drawing to chop, it never never came, and Lunardi was eliminated.
Glennon picked the wrong time to make a bluff when he forced his opponent all in on a queen-high board holding 
. His opponent had top pair and made the call to take a chunk of chips from Glennon. A few hands later, Glennon was unlucky when he moved all in with his short stack holding pocket kings, but was unable to improve against an opponent who held pocket aces.
Sydney ANZPT Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Benson | 193000 |
| 2 | Jean Pierre Besancon | 138500 |
| 3 | Benjamin Zhang | 114200 |
| 4 | Cathal Shine | 101100 |
| 5 | Carmelo Auditore | 94000 |
| 6 | Sam Capra | 93300 |
| 7 | Adrian Browning | 88700 |
| 8 | Toby Ryall | 81300 |
| 9 | Adam Carlton | 79900 |
| 10 | Martin Ward | 78900 |
Day 1b is set to kick off later on Friday at 12:30 p.m. AEDT, and there are approximately 165 already in the system.
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