March 23 2012, Josh Bell

On Day 1b of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney Main Event, 246 players took to the felt. In addition to the 215 who entered on Day 1a, this year’s event saw a total 461 players create a prize pool of $922,000. That number has easily surpassed last year’s field to prove that poker is prospering in the land Down Under.

By the end of the night approximately 129 players survived the day, and Tam Truong ended in the best position to make a run at the $226,812 first-place prize. Truong had a very successful late-half of the day and bagged 120,700 in chips.

A big hand for Truong occurred late in the evening when a player shoved all in for 20,000 in chips. Truong was directly on the player’s left when he instantly re-shoved his massive stack. The rest of the table got out of the way and the two players turned their hands over. Truong tabled , well ahead of the of his opponent, and the board ran out blank. Truong continued his rise up the counts for the remainder of play.

That great effort means that Truong will start day Day 2 as the fourth biggest chip stack, with Tobin Ryall, from Day 1a being the overall chip leader.

Joining Truong at the top of the chip counts for Day 1b was Justin Cohen (110,625), George Marando (104,950), 83-year old Bill Kennedy (102,675) and Sheldon Mayer (99,300).

The above players may have had a prosperous day at the tables, but it wasn’t the same story for Josh Barrett, John Apostolidis, Ali Khalil and Tim English, as they each made their way to the rail throughout the day.

Faring better than those eliminated included the likes of Luke Edwards (85,150), Mario Ljubicic (69,250), Raemin Alexander (55,450) and Vesko Zmukic (48,900). Each of these players will be in with a fighting chance come Day 2.

Don’t rule out Maria Ho and Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen as these two international players will also return on Saturday.

Also surviving the day were three Australian Poker Hall of Fame members – Leo Boxell (45,700), Gary Benson (36,375) and Mel Judah (19,925) will each return for Day 2 on Saturday.

Approximately 213 players will return for Day 2 action. A full Day 2 seating draw and official end of Day 1b chip counts will be made available as soon as possible. The top five chip counts going into Day 2 can be seen below.

Day 2 Top Five Chip Counts

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will again be on the floor of The Star Poker Room on Saturday from 1230 AEST (1930 PST Friday), so make sure to tune in to all the live updates from the penultimate day of the 2012 ANZPT Sydney Main Event.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!