It was a miserable day in Melbourne today, but that didn't stop 224 entrants taking part on Day 1a of the historic ANZPT Repechage Main Event.
It's an event that has brought a lot of hype and excitement. It's the first time a repechage format has been employed in an ANZPT Main Event and with a $750,000 prize pool guarantee we were expecting to see a strong field. The lure of the bracelet in Las Vegas didn't stop many of Australia's best from chasing the cash here in Melbourne.
Some of those in attendance included Andrew Hinrichsen, Daniel Neilson, Mishel Anunu, Martin Kozlov, Patrick Healy, Trung Tran, Aaron Benton, Eric Assadourian, Michael Kanaan, Amanda De Cesare, Tony Kondevski, Ricky Kroesen, Josh Barrett, Ashley Warner, Tony Tartaglia, Dale Marsland, Jackie Glazier, Kristian Lunardi, Liam O'Rourke, Tom Grigg, Didier Guerin, Anthony Aston and Ivan Zalac.
The structure encouraged fast action as players looked to accumulate a big stack or come back tomorrow to fire another bullet. That action suited Guatam Dhingra perfectly. We saw him pick up a big pot with a set of eights against Mario Ljubicic to storm to a massive chip lead entering the final session of play.
However the game-changer was about to erupt in the early hours of the morning as Dhingra clashed with Anthony Hachem. Wielding two of the biggest stacks in the room, it took aces versus kings for the fireworks to go off, but a devastating king in the window was a cruel blow to Dhingra as Hachem soared into a massive chip lead.
Hachem seems to be breaking out of the shadows of father Joe and uncle Tony, and making a name for himself in the poker world. Hachem won an Aussie Millions gold ring in January and will now be looking to add an ANZPT crown to his resume here in his home town of Melbourne.
Hachem bagged up 386,000 for the day's chip lead, and rather incredibly Guatam Dhingra was able to recover to amass 203,000 for likely 2nd chip position. Dale Marsland (202,000) and Aron Joyce (190,500) are also among the biggest stacks in the room as approximately 33 players survived the day.
Joining them on Day 2 will be the likes of Michael Fadersen, Luke Brabin, Patrick Healy, Trung Tran and the "defending champ" from the 2012 Melbourne Champs in Jackie Glazier, but she'll have some work to do on Day 2 as she'll return with just 53,500 in chips.
Stay tuned to the live reporting section of the website for complete chip counts of the survivors, which will be published as soon as they are made available.
With a large number of overseas no shows pumping dead money into the prize pool, and whispers of a potential overlay, this event is proving to offer tremendous value to local players. Day 1b kicks off at the sleep-in friendly time of 2:10pm on Friday. According to Crown TD Christian Vaughan there are plenty of cheap flights to Melbourne tomorrow, so jump online, book yourself a weekend getaway and take advantage of the value offered in this event.
We'll be back once again to bring you live updates of all the action as it unfolds in the Crown Poker Room. Until then, you'll find us at the bar.