August 26 2011, Josh Bell

After six tough levels of play, Day 2 of the 2011 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Queenstown Main Event came to a close on Friday. The day began with 71 players heading back to the felt and by the start of the third level, over 20 of them had made their ways to the rail. At the end of play, there were exactly 50 players who headed toward the exit on Friday. Ricky Kroesen, Ben McLean, Jesse McKenzie and PokerStars Team Online’s Dale Philip are some of the players who no longer have a chance at APPT glory on this stop.

The player primed with the best chance at making a run at the NZD$94,300 first-place prize is Germany’s Marcel Schreiner. Schriener began the day as one of the chip leaders and even though he had a roller coaster start to the day, by the time his chips went into the bag, his stack was towering over the competition.

A large proportion of Schreiner’s stack came from young Australian Tom Grigg, who is known for crushing online tournaments under the screen name “tollgate.” It looked like Grigg was set to finish the day as the chip leader, but he managed to lose a big chunk of his stack to Schreiner on the third-to-last hand of the day. The two players fought out the massive pot while hand-for-hand play had already ended for the rest of the field.

The pot in question was four-bet preflop, with the aggression continuing onto the flop. By the time the board was showing , one of the biggest pots of the day was building. On the river, Grigg fired out 35,500 into the six-figure pot. Schreiner tanked for several minutes before calling and taking down the pot when his , holding just the high cards was too good for Grigg’s .

Only 21 players will return on Saturday and there are still plenty of familiar names in the field including Andrew Hinrichsen (90,000), Jackson Zheng (121,200) and Hugh Cohen (143,900). Also remaining in the field and returning for Day 3 is 2010 APPT Sydney Main Event Champion Jonathan Karamalikis. Returing with an impressive 192,800 in chips, “xMONSTERxDONGx” is set to give himself a fighting chance at becoming a two-time APPT champion. Below is a look at how all the returning players stack up.

Day 3 Chip Counts

With the small amount of players returning for Day 3 and play not scheduled to finish until Day 4 on Sunday, the tournament will have late afternoon start on Saturday. The action will be kicking off at 1600 NZST (2100 PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will again be on the floor with all the action as the 2011 APPT Queenstown Main Event plays down to a final table.

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August 25 2011, Josh Bell

The final Day 1 flight at the 2011 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Queenstown Main Event came to a close on Thursday with another small field adding 23 more players to Friday’s Day 2 action.

Forty-three players entered Day 1c, but only 36 actually took their seats; however, there were no complaints. The seven no-shows left thousands of dollars of dead money in the prize pool.

After six levels of play, 23 players remained and will join the 20 and 28 players from Day 1a and 1b, respectively, to form the 71-player Day 2 field. Some players from Day 1c who won’t be making an appearance on Day 2 include Julian Cohen, Andrew Scott and Joel Dodds.

After taking down the 2011 APPT Melbourne Main Event a few weeks ago, Leo Boxell was looking good to continue his solid run in the APPT, but his Day 2 hopes in Queenstown were cut short late into Day 1c by the eventual chip leader, Alicia Sale.

Sale managed to work her way up the chip leaderboard throughout the day after falling early to 4,000 in chips. Her rise culminated in the double elimination of Boxell and Joshua Jurcic. Both players were all-in on the flop. Boxell was in trouble holding against Jurcic’s , while Sale held . She managed to hit the on the turn to make the nut flush and send both opponents to the rail.

Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts

Sale not only managed to top the counts after Day 1c, but she will return for Day 2 on Friday as the overall chip leader. Sale adds to the Kiwi domination of APPT Queenstown. The players with the top five chip stacks all hail from New Zealand.

The closest international player to Sale going into Day 2 is Germany’s Marcel Schreiner, while Australia’s Daniel Laidlaw and Austrian Octavian Voegele also sit close by the New Zealanders.

Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

The returning players will take their seats at the felt at 1230 NZST (1700 PDT) on Friday all vying for the $94,300 NZD first-place prize. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as they bring you all the action from Day 2 of the 2011 APPT Queenstown Snowfest.

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