Mostafa Haidary Leads Final Five as The Trojan Heads for Extra Day
From a starting field of 68 players here at the Australian Poker Open, just five players remain in The Trojan.
With a first-prize of A$220,000 up for grabs, the competition was fierce, with an extra day required to find the winner.
Mostafa Haidary is the end-of-day chip leader, but it's tight in the middle with Bernardo del Toro, Daniel Veljkovic, Ehsan Amiri all on similar stacks, and Marcial Dias bringing up the rear.
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mostafa Haidary | 2,065,000 | 52 |
| 2 | Bernardo Del Toro | 1,485,000 | 37 |
| 3 | Daniel Veljkovic | 1,415,000 | 35 |
| 4 | Ehsan Amiri | 1,360,000 | 34 |
| 5 | Marcial Dias | 495,000 | 12 |
Day 2 Recap
It was always going to be a long day after the field swelled over the course of the first hour. The prospect of 60-minute levels, as well as a repeat of the final level of Day 1, meant that in total there were 31 more entries on Day 2, bringing the field to 68.
Just eight places would be paid, however, and the bustouts would be continuous throughout the evening. Daniel Veljkovic would try his best to hold onto his overnight chip lead, but he was quickly overtaken by Andy Lee.
And as the bustouts continued to fly, it was Mostafar Haidary who broke the seven-figure mark first.
However, he was unable to break away from the field as the tournament neared its final table. Blake Lockwood finished tenth, with Haidary still leading the final nine.
Short-stacked Sean Ragozzini would triple and then double to stay alive, but remained rooted to the bottom of the counts. The unfortunate bubble boy was Sergio Barrios, who ran aces into the king-nine of Ehsan Amiri, who flopped trips to send Barrios to the rail and take over as chip leader.
Benjamin Bottles was eliminated in eighth place by Haidary, before Ragozzini finally ran out of steam — a commendable effort considering how short he was once the final table was reached.
Tournament officials announced that the day would end after Level 22, and Haidary looked like he had done enough to secure the overnight chip lead, chipping up to well over two million chips.
There was still time for Bernardo Del Toro to send Lee to the rail, but it wasn't enough for him to end atop the chip counts and he, like the others, will have to hunt down Haidary to win The Trojan title!
Join us tomorrow for the conclusion to The Trojan from Doltone House Western Sydney at Club Marconi right here on PokerNews!