Antonis "Toothpick Tony" Kambouris has eliminated yet another player and is now moving into a position to go deep in this tournament. In absolutely scintillating form the past few months, few would be surprised if he goes deep in this event.
In the latest hand, Kambouris' was able to hang on against his opponent's . Toothpick Tony scooped another pot to move over 150,000 in chips and eliminate yet another player.
There will be no further flops, turns or rivers for Jarred Graham in this tournament. He moved all in with preflop and ran into another player's pocket aces. Graham never improved.
At the repeated requests of readers in the Shout Box, late last night we trudged through the tables looking for a young player named David Docherty. We found him in the last level of play, where he was nursing a stack of about 12,000 chips. He finished the night with 10,950, which meant that he would start Day 2 with roughly 12 big blinds in his stack.
Docherty's doing much better today. He just busted Michael Binger with pocket aces. Binger held pocket kings and put his stack at risk by moving all in on a flop of . Docherty made the call and came safely through the turn and river .
By adding Binger's stack to his own, Docherty increased his count to 160,000 chips -- about 130 big blinds. Excellent progress, David!
One of the local hopes and Day 1c flight chip leader Ben Charlton has taken a sizable hit at the hands of an international raider.
Preflop, Annica Ivert opened to 3,600 and Charlton made the call with position from the cutoff. The flop witnessed Ivert check-raise to 14,500, after Charlton bet out 4,000. Charlton made the call.
Ivert again led the turn firing 17,000, once again it was Charlton calling. Finally the river came the and Ivert bet out 22,000. After tanking so long that the floor was called, Charlton eventually mucked his cards. This allowed Ivert to take down a huge pot.
Charlton is now down to 140,000. Ivert climbs to around 200,00.
Mark Phillips is out of the tournament. He opened to 3,500 preflop, then put the rest of his small stack at risk after Manny Stavropoulos raised from the button to 10,000. Stavropoulos called with ; Phillips showed . Stavropoulos made a full house by the river, , to take down the pot. He's up to 125,000.
When the flop of came undercards to both John Dalessandri and Larry Karambis' hands, it was only natural that all the chips would wind up in the middle. Dalessandri opened the betting to 3,500, then moved in for a total of 43,000 after Karambis raised to 11,700. Karambis made the call with but Dalessandri did him one better with . Neither the turn nor the river saved the pot for Karambis. Dalessandri doubled up to 101,000 and moved Karambis down to 64,000 in the process.
Casey Kastle is off to the rail after being busted by Rajkumar Ramakrishnan. A super-short Kastle shoved for the last of his chips with and got a call from possibly the player he least wanted to call. The big stack Ramakrishnan called his all-in with , a hand that absolutely dominated Kastle's.
The board ran out , so without getting any help Kastle climbed from his seat, tipped his swag hat and headed for the rail.
Rajkumar Ramakrishnan is amongst the leaders at 334,000.
Marwan Nassif has slid all the way down to 24,000 after he took a hit holding top pair, top kicker. Nassif had on a flop, against Richard Ashby who had . All of Ashby's stack went in on the flop and the players tabled their cards.
The turn and river were no help to Nassif, who doubled Ashby through to 120,000 in chips. Nassif will have to do a lot of work to keep his dream of being the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event Champion alive.
Dave Phillips is out. He moved all from early position for 6,300 and was called by David Saab. Phillips had Saab dominated, tabling against Saab's . Neither player improved on the flop, but it did give Saab a gutshot -- . The turn was a blank, the .
"A nine on the river," Saab hoped for. He got it. The river was the to fill Saab's straight and eliminate Phillips. Saab is sitting pretty with 222,000.
Bruno Portaro is also out. He bet 8,000 on a flop of and was raised by Martin Comer to 16,000. Portaro reraised to 34,000, then called all in after Comer moved in. Comer showed a set of sevens, , against Portaro's top pair, . The board blanked out.
A short-stacked Chris Parker has been eliminated from the tournament. He moved all in on the flop with a flush draw only to run into the set of Grant Levy.
The turn was a brick and the river improved Levy to a full house to eliminate the Asian Poker Tour CEO from the tournament. See you in Manila Chris!