Obviously you know it can get fairly hot in Australia, but right now we're sweltering in a 43-degree heatwave that has even the most hardy of locals in a sweat.

Outiside everyone is keeping to the shade, trying to stay out of the hot spots. It is the same inside the SKYCITY casino in Adelaide, where the short stacks in the first ever ANZPT event are trying to survive and avoid getting burnt.

Emad Tahtouh and Tony Hachem, both PokerStars sponsored players, got off to good starts. Tony doubled up early when his Ad-9d made the flush against an opponent holding Ah-Kc.

Earlier, Tony had been preparing for today's play at breakfast when fellow combatants, Bruno Potaro and Steve Topakis, challenged him to 100 push ups. Unfortunately he only made it to 80 because he broke into laughter! He's still in a good mood now with
plenty of chips with which to take a tilt at the title.

Emad's double up has put a smile on his face for the first time this year, when he flopped a straight against his opponent's two pair. Shortly after Emad was
moved to his good friend's table - Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem. They believe
this is the first time they have played on the same table in a tournament, and they also have the inimitable Billy the Croc at their table so action should be fast and furious.

Emad Tahtouh

One of the great survival stories from yesterday is Melbourne player Bruno Potaro. Seated at the table with PokerStars sponsored player Ray Sukkar, and Aussie Millions fourth-place finisher Chris Chronis, Bruno Found himself short stacked.

For three hours his stack moved between 2,000 and 8,000 chips until late in the day when he managed to make a late charge. By the start of play today he had 77,000 and is a good chance to make the money.

Ray and Bruno had stayed at the same table for the whole of day 1B, unfortunately short-stacked Ray was one of the early departures this morning, while Chris Chronis was eliminated late on the first day. To prepare for play this morning, Bruno went down to the beach to have a swim and contemplate his strategy.

At the end of level 12 (the third level of today) we are down to 43 runners with an average of about 100,000 chips.

There have been many moves up the list, as James Obst takes the lead on table one with over 245,000. On the same table is Julius Colman, overnight leader, still with an impressive 220,000. These two might sit there all day now as this will be one of the last two tables of the day as we play down to the final nine.

Click here to see the full list and their chip counts.

It's early in day two at the ANZPT Adelaide tournament and the numbers are already dwindling. Of the 77 who started, there are now just 56 left shortly before the end of the day's second level.

Those we have loved and lost include Diego Walsh, Steven Downing, Andrew Demetriou, Joel Dodds, Ray Sukkar, Emanuel Seal and local boy Eugene Juczenko.

Julius Colman and Matthew Jones, from Canada, still hold the top two spots on the chip table, while Toby Meridith (up to 180,000 from his 88,000 start), James Broom and Dean Nyberg fill out the other spots in the top five.

Today's tough table has Team PokerStars Poker Pro Joe Hachem, PokerStars sponsored Emad Tahtouh, Billy "the croc" , Nobbi Tanaka, Matthew Jones and Dean Nyberg.

I heard Emad and Joe musing over whether they had ever sat together on a tournament table before.

Nobbi Tanaka celebrates everyone folding to his all-in play

Table 3: to be avoided

The survivors of Day 1B will now combine with those who came through Day 1A to form a new field for Day 2. That means 77 come back to fight on for the ANZPT Adelaide crown.

Click here to see the latest counts.

The key word for the second of two Day 1 flights of the ANZPT event in Adelaide was calm. Day 1A had a field that included many satellite winners from the casino, and they were not shy in pushing there chips around, often ending in disaster (ie elimination!).

Today, however, things have been a bit slower. In fact, it took a full 90 minutes before we lost our first player (it took two hands yesterday).

There were officially 111 starters today and 104 yesterday who all paid $3,000 AUD, generating a record poker prize pool for the SKYCITY casino of $586,950. The winner will be richer by $170,215.00 AUD, and the money will be paid down to 18th.

There is a bit of work to do before the final table is set but we are left with 77 from the combined two Day 1 survivors, all of the eyeing that bumper pay day.

Some appear to have a little less work than others. Julius Colman usurped James Broom's Day 1A lead with a very steady performance throughout Day 1B. If James' performance was spectacular, Julius must have been more so as he posts a 30,000+ lead over the field for the start of Day 2. Canadian Matthew Jones was just shy of James' total yesterday by some 2,000 in chips.

Chip leader Julius Colman seems pleased with his stack size

Matthew Jones, all the way from Canada, is running third in chips

There is one exception to the calmness of the room today - and that's table one, which is right in front of where we are sitting.

We now get a great view of an entertaining battle of wills between Sydney player Sammy Khouiss and anyone who would bite at his goading. Matthew Jones was in seat one on this table and Sammy two to his left. After the constant Sammy trash talk, Matthew decided to start some of his own.

This normally works in Sammy's favor, but today Matthew was the chip victor and Sam was dispatched to the rails by one of his other opponents who flopped a set of twos and then rivered quads for good measure. Ah, how we ejoyed the tranquility once more.

Another of the big personality players here is Billy "the croc" Argyros. Billy had made a good start to the day and was moved to a table with one of the young chip leaders, Elliot Smith.

The hand I watched drew quite a crowd. Pre-flop, Billy had re-raised in position behind the youngster. The flop of Ks-Qs-4s was checked to Billy who thought for a while and went all-in for just under 60,000. Now it was Elliot's turn to think, and think... and think. He talked to Billy, was ignored, tried again, and again, eventually getting a response.

More thinking, moving of chips, glancing, restacking, cutting down, stacking and finally called, showing A-K. Billy tossed his cards over also - A-K, but his ace was a spade, giving him the freeroll to a 150,000+ pot . No spade, though. Chop, chop!

Two of the three PokerStars sponsored players starting today, Celina Lin and Tony Hachem, survived. Celina has just above average chips with 57,000, while Tony has 35,000.

PokerStars sponsored Celina Lin relaxing between hands

Tony Hachem shares a joke

As I was leaving the poker room at the end of the day, live table action was well under way. Top end tables were a 5-5 blind PLO game and a 5-5 blind NLHE game. The elite game was a 10-20 PLO hosting a mix of the successful young guns of the Aussie poker world and some old stagers, all with mountains of $5 and $25 and an odd stack of $100 chips in front of them.

No names, of course, but a few of those just fresh from successfully completing the day's tournament obviously needed just a little action before calling it a day.

'Till tomorrow, Friday, at 12:15 for Day 2.

As the day proceeds eventually some of the players have to give up their seats so we can get on with finding a winner. With 37 minutes to go in the 6th level we are down to 85 out of the days 111 entrants. The average stack is 26,100

A fairly full chip count can be found here.

The first day of the PokerStars-sponsored ANZPT Main Event began with 104 players sitting down for the 12:15pm "shuffle up and deal" announcement performed by Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem.

The poker room at the SKYCITY casino in Adelaide has 12 poker tables, all of which were initially in use. Players either paid $3,000 AUD or won their way in through various satellite options - 28 of them on PokerStars. A final number of entrants will be known after the second flight begins tomorrow - but it is looking like close to the 200 mark.

Shortly after the beginning the inevitable happened - kings under the gun found aces in the big blind, no real help for the kings and the first departure took place. Steve Tapakas was the beneficiary, taking the early tournament lead. He survived the day finishing on 32,000 chips, so he lost ground from hand two onwards as the starting stack was 20,000.

Of the PokerStars sponsored and Team PokerStars Pro players - Stewart Scott, 2009 Aussie Millions champion, departed fairly early.

Stewart Scott, 2009 Aussie Millions champion

Team PokerStars Pro player Lee Nelson had Sydney-sider Garry Benson at his table, and after a few skirmishes between the two it was Garry collecting the last of Lee's chips with his A-K dominating the lesser A-T hand.

Joe Hachem, who won the World Series in 2005, slowly built his stack today, finishing with an average 43,700. PokerStars sponsored Emad Tahtouh came with his game face firmly intact, and survived with 37,900.

Emad Tahtouh showing the game face

Eric Assadourian, another PokerStars sponsored player, lasted until 10 minutes to go in the final level, calling for all his chips with his A-8 when the board read A-3-5. His opponent, however, turned over A-Q and Eric was on his way to the rail.

Eventually 37 bags of chips were turned in to be collated. Those 37 players get a rest for one day and will front up with tomorrow's survivors on Friday.

By far, the most valuable bag of chips belonged to James Broom who had 183,500. During the evening we had witnessed him time and time again swallowing up the entire stacks of players brave enough to take him on. Things often take a turnaround on Day 2 of large events, but James will be coming back on Friday with a handsome buffer unless someone can kick clear of the pack tomorrow.

James Broom making towers of chips

Following up James is Derren Bullock on 125,000, and the very popular - his entourage on the rail looked near 12 - Robert Goodwin on 108,600.

Robert Goodwin sporting the largest pink shirt ever, looking pleased with his chip count

Two PokerStars qualifiers are next, Karl Krautschneider amassing 107,100 and Michael Guzzardi with 105,300 in chips.

Michael Guzzardi checking rechecking and rerechecking his final chip count

Tomorrow should prove to be equally as calamitous for some and as successful for others.

Of those surviving today it is hard to go past James Broom and Michael Guzzardi as picks to go on both having the credentials. As an outsider journeyman and one of the "old brigade", David Gorr has a bit to do.

You can catch up on all the overnight chip counts right here.

Until tomorrow.

Chris "The Barracuda" Newton

We started with 104 players at 12:20pm today, but the structure is very player friendly and each level is played for one hour. At the dinner break, some 60 minutes, we have completed six levels of play and the remainig entrants number 67. The next level requires a 75 ante and the blinds are 300-600. The average chip count sits just above 31,000.

To see the current leaders and some of those busted out, take a look at our chip counts click here.