November 07 2012, Donnie Peters

Day 1 of the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker HKD$100,000 Main Event came to a close after a short day on the felt Wednesday. The buy-in was a fairly hefty one, but a very solid field of 184 runners made the trip to the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex, generating a prize pool of HKD$17,305,200. Topping the pack as the early favorite to take home the HKD$4,240,000 first-place prize was Yue Hin Lam with 122,525 in chips.

Lam’s stack fluctuated early in the day, but he managed to double up to really pick up momentum. From middle position, Marc Convey opened with a raise to 425. Shengqing Zhu called from the cutoff seat, and Richard Chow called on the button. Then, Lam reraised to 1,775 from the small blind. After the big blind folded, things got a bit tricky.

The dealer began to pull in all the original bet amounts of 425. Then, Convey and Zhu called the reraise, and the dealer pulled those in, but Chow was still to act. After a couple minutes of reconstructing the pot, Chow made the call and all four saw a flop.

The flop came down , and action checked around to Chow. He bet 2,300, and the three-bettor Lam moved all in for 11,875. After Convey and Zhu folded, Chow thought for a minute, then called. Chow held the for a combo draw, but Lam had flopped trips with the . The table seemed to be quite surprised with the two hands that were turned over in this big, three-bet pot. The turn was the , and the river was the . Lam’s trips held up, and he won the pot to more than double his stack.

There weren’t a ton of tables in play on Day 1, but there were plenty of notable faces filling up the seats all around the PokerStars Macau tournament room, including several Team PokerStars players. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Raymond Wu, Bryan Huang, Angel Guillen, Viviam Im, Celina Lin and Max Lykov represented Team Pro, while Randy Lew, the defending champion, and Naoya Kihara were sporting the Team Online patch.

Other notables in the field were Joseph Cheong, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, David Steicke and Jeff Rossiter. Cheong and Rossiter played late into Tuesday night in the HKD$25,000 Warm-Up event. Rossiter went on to win the event for HKD$1,777,000, while Cheong took third place. But Rossiter’s luck ran out in the Main Event on Day 1, and Cheong finished with 101,850 in chips while Rossiter made his exit. Juanda and Chan were also eliminated on the day.

Cheong was the beneficiary of an early double-up that really got his day off to a fast start. According to Cheong, one player raised to 275 from early position, and Cheong reraised to 825. The original raiser four-bet to 2,525, and Cheong called.

The flop came down with two diamonds and one heart. Cheong’s opponent bet 2,600, and Cheong made the call to see the land on the turn. With two hearts now joining the two diamonds on the board, the first player checked, and Cheong bet 5,600. The player raised, and Cheong responded by reraising all-in. His opponent called with for top pair, top kicker, but Cheong’s held a hammerlock on the hand with a wheel. The river blanked off, and Cheong doubled up.

With 145 players remaining, play will resume Thursday at 5:00 p.m. local time in Macau for Day 2. PokerNews will be on hand for all of the action, and we hope to have you right here following along on our Live Reporting pages.

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October 28 2012, Remko Rinkema

The second day of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour began at 12:30 p.m. AEDT, but it didn’t end until 5:30 a.m. AEDT. Nine players showed true stamina, focus, and determination and they will get a well deserved eight-hour break heading into the final table. Ashley Warner emerged as the chip leader of the final table, but Peter Matusik, chasing his second ANZPT title, is close behind, in second place.

Day 2 began with 141 players from an original starting field of 345, and right from the start there was plenty of action. Daniel Neilson managed to grab a quick double up, but was eliminated shortly thereafter. Tony Hachem began the day with very few chips and didn’t recover. He ran with pocket sevens into eights and was eliminated; meanwhile, Luis Arrilucea grabbed an early lead.

Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen began the day short on chips and was eliminated when he moved all in with sixes. His hand failed to improve against the pocket jacks of his opponent and Guillen made his way to the rail.

After the players were in the money, Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang clashed with Billy Jordanou, who began the day as the chip leader. The hand against Huang crippled Jordanou, and just a few hands later he busted in 22nd place.

The pot with the biggest impact was played between Ashley Warner and Hugh Cohen. Warner flopped a set and Cohen had a straight. The chips went in, and Warner ended up hitting quads on the turn. He won, and took a commanding lead. Cohen was knocked out in 13th place, getting the field closer to the official final table.

The final Team PokerStars Pro, Bryan Huang, was knocked out in 12th place. He ran ace-ten into ace-queen and just fell short of the final table. The final table bubble ended up taking a long time to burst, but eventually Tam Truong was eliminated and the final table was set.

2012 ANZPT Melbourne Final Table

The final table will begin at 1400 AEDT, Monday (2000 PDT, Sunday), so be sure to keep it locked to PokerNews.com for live updates of all the action at the ANZPT Melbourne final table.

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*Photo courtesy of Heath Chick for PokerAsiaPacific

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