It was always going to be a tough ask today. 208 players into a final table of nine within ten levels of play - virtually an impossible equation, but we gave it a crack here on Day 2 of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event. As the players bag and tag after a long day of toil we have 27 players returning tomorrow for their shot at ANZPT glory.

It was a tough day at the office for many, with some of Australia and New Zealand's finest falling into the sea of casualties. Joel Dodds, Leo Boxell, Lee Nelson, Tony Hachem, Vesko Zmukic, Dennis Huntly, Mel Judah, Billy Argyros, Angelo Hanataj, Peter Aristidou, Martin Drewe, Gary Benson and Tony Kondevski are some of Australia's most decorated players but they won't be adding a 2012 ANZPT Sydney cash to their resume after feeling the pain of elimination during the day.

The internationals also didn't fare so well. Dan Kelly went missing pretty early on, while Maria Ho and Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen fought valiantly on the short stack for large parts of this event before finally succumbing just short of the money bubble.

Of course, where there are losers, there are winners, and we had plenty of good luck stories today. You could say that Scotsman Gordon Huntly had a little luck of the Irish today. Not sure if he'll be thrilled to hear it described like that, but he would be chuffed about his day today. Huntly was able to crack the defences of pocket aces on a couple of occasions - both times making a straight to cruise through the day as one of the big stacks.

We also spotted 2008 APPT Sydney champion Martin Rowe progressing well during the day. Rowe had got on a nice run after he made a big call down with a pair of eights to catch his opponent's bluff, before finishing him off moments later. Rowe would love nothing better than another big final table here in Sydney.

One player who seems to go deep in every tournament he plays is reigning Aussie Millions champion Oliver Speidel. This guy is just unstoppable at the moment. He continues to prove that he's the real deal with a dominant performance today, pounding on his opponents relentlessly to end the day as one of the chip leaders.

After enjoying the mouth watering delights of The Star's world-class dining options at the dinner break, we played another four levels before the day reached a conclusion, and the evening session undoubtedly belonged to Nick Heather.

Heather got a little fortunate with pocket sixes against pocket queens before he collected a massive pot when his pocket jacks held against ace-king. From there, he never looked back as he amassed a stack of 953,500 by the close of play which was good for the chip lead.

The Irishman is currently based out of Sydney on a bit of an extended holiday. He said that he'd like to extend if his girlfriend can secure a visa, but if he can secure the first-place prize of $226,812 then he'll have even more reason to call Sydney home. He'll certainly be a huge threat tomorrow with the chip lead and a poker resume that includes four WSOP cashes and a final table in a $1,000 NLHE event in 2010 worth almost $150,000.

Others to end the day in good shape include Oliver Speidel (797,000), Jim Collopy (638,500), Alec Smith (572,000) and Mishel Anunu (434,500).

Also still in contention are 2008 APPT Sydney champ Martin Rowe (294,000), 2010 ANZPT Darwin runner-up Luke Edwards (180,000), 2010 ANZPT Gold Coast 3rd-place finisher Liam O'Rourke (495,000), 2010 APPT Sydney 4th-place finisher Peco Stojanovski (193,500) and 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event final tablist Sam Capra (440,000).

To cap off an exciting day, ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh announced the finalized schedule for Season 4 of the ANZPT.

The next event will be the ANZPT Perth which will run from May 2 to 6 featuring an $1,100 buy-in, while the Casino Canberra Winter Poker Championship has been added as an Australia New Zealand Player of the Year Qualifying event.

"With over 100 players already qualified for ANZPT Perth, we are expecting a player number approaching the fabulous result achieved here in Sydney," commented McDonagh.

Look out Perth, here we come!

With that good news, we'll call it a night here in Sydney, but look forward to your company again tomorrow from 2pm as we play all the way until a champion is crowned!

Being Saturday night here in Sydney, we thought it might be a good chance to take a closer look at some of the exciting dining options here at The Star. The $850 million renovations have provided a wealth of new offerings which are sure to please poker players who love nothing more than to splurge on overpriced appetizers and decadent desserts. And then credit card roulette to see who pays the bill.

One restaurant that may appeal to some players is the appropriately named Balla which according to their website is a "modern interpretation of the classic Osteria Milanese, with a menu built around the heart of traditional Italian cuisine." Sounds good to us! With a wood-fired grill providing plenty of scrumptious seafood and a wide variety of pasta delights overlooking Sydney harbour, Balla is certainly a great option on a Saturday night.

BLACK by ezard hosted by world-renowned chef Teage Ezard provides signature seafood dishes, quality beef specifically sourced for the wood-fired grills, and a seasonal menu that changes weekly to include various combinations to suit all tastes. The bar situated within the restaurant is the ideal location to meet for drinks, with an international cellar boasting roughly 770 labels and the best representation of American wine.

Sokyo is where the buzz of Tokyo meets a Sydney beat. Be seated to the chilled out sounds of the resident DJ, enjoying dishes such as Binchotan Grilled Castricum Lamb Chops, Maple Miso, or Tuna Sashimi with Plum Wine Jelly thanks to chef Chase Kojima. We know of a few players who enjoyed the Japanese Omakase menu with eleven tasting courses! Yum!

Finally we couldn't neglect to mention one of my personal favourites in David Chang's Momofuku. The Momofuku pork bun is one of my all-time favourite dishes anywhere in the world, so I was thrilled to learn that Momofuku Seiōbo was opening at The Star - the first time the brand had opened a restaurant outside of New York. The menu is inspired by Australian ingredients and Sydney's diverse food culture with the $175 dinner tasting menu sure to impress.

For dessert, how can we go past Zumbo's!

We've been watching that dessert train go round and round all week, and thankfully, have been able to sample some of its delights. A self-confessed sweet tooth and chocolate addict, Adriano Zumbo is Australia's best and most popular pâtissier, aiming to 'caramelise' the nation, injecting humour into his exotic sweet desserts. His croquembouche, macaron tower and V8 cake are world famous.

The Star has certainly recreated itself as one of the country's most exciting locations with mouth-watering restaurants to compliment a world-class gambling location.

We love the bubble. It scares a lot of players, but for the media, it's great fun. Poker tournaments aren't everything that you see on TV. There are plenty of lulls, which we do our creative best to make sound exciting for you at home. Fortunately when it comes to the bubble, there's no need for us to exaggerate, as it is one of the most exciting stages of a poker tournament.

We've talked in the past about the fine line between pleasure and pain that is endured by players on the money bubble. Quite simply, it's the difference between 3,688 Aussie dollars and zippo.

However within the bubble itself there are many games within the game.

The game of cat and mouse played by the short stacks is usually what we associate with the bubble. Everyone is watching the shorties, and praying that they will bust. These guys are desperately clawing their way from one hand to the next with survival their only goal. They will tank, stall, fold and occasionally be forced to move all in to steal the blinds to stay alive. They know all they have to do is outlast the other shorties to reach the glorious cash. And if they can do that, then it will feel as good as winning the whole damn thing.

Dean McIver is one shorty who is a bit nervous at the moment as he commented to us, "I hate this time of the tournament. All this for nothing..."

At the opposite end of the scale are the big stacks. They love the bubble because they can flex their considerable muscle to bully pretty much everyone. Unless they are met with resistance, they will pillage and plunder relentlessly to build their empire. Many tournament victories have been won with super-aggressive bubble play and we can expect the likes of Oliver Speidel and Liam O'Rourke (pictured below) to push their edge to the max around this time.

In between those two we have the medium stacks. They are sitting back in their chair smiling down upon the shorties. Of course, they know they should make it into the money, if they don't do anything silly, so they will often stay out of the way of the big stacks. But if the opportunity to attack a shortie arrives, they can then play the role of the bully.

Two players who didn't have to worry about the bubble were our international stars in Maria Ho and Angel Guillen who were recent casualties just a few places short of the cash. Our Mexican PokerStars Team Pro was all in with pocket jacks against the pocket aces of Tony Kondevski. Guillen was hoping for a repeat of his WSOP Main Event bubble hand from a few years back where his opponent spiked a jack to crack his own aces, but once again it wasn't meant to be, as the board bricked out.

And just as this piece hits the airwaves, it appears that the bubble has now officially burst. The unfortunate sole was Luis Arrilucea who actually finished runner-up in this event last year. I guess that's little consolation.

When thinking of a story to write for my next piece here at the ANZPT Sydney Main Event, I turned to colleague Josh Bell who has been bringing you all of the live updates at this event. Without missing a beat, Josh said, "What about Oliver Speidel? He's a beast and goes deep in every tournament ever..."

Hmmm, I guess he had a point there...

The 2012 Aussie Millions champion is the hottest player on the tour over the last twelve months with success throughout Asia. After winning an Aussie Millions side event last year, Speidel went on to final table a Macau Poker Cup side event before winning another title in an event in Manila in the Philippines. He came to Melbourne full of confidence where he landed two Aussie Millions final table results before claiming victory in the big one.

We'd recently come back from Seoul where Speidel had put in another deep run at the APPT and looked particularly threatening before falling during Day 2 play. It's a similar story here today, so we decided to venture out into the Oasis Lounge to check on his progress.

Speidel entered today well-placed with an above-average stack of 70k but really got his day going when overnight chip leader Toby Ryall sat down to his direct right. Since then, the chips have slowly found their way to the stack of Speidel. Just as Josh had described earlier, Speidel was in beast mode.

We watched for a while and witnessed Speidel pretty much in control of his table. He twice raised it up preflop and found a single call, before taking down the pot without further resistance with a continuation bet on the flop. Next hand, his opponents gave him a walk in the big blind. It's the ideal formula for a tournament player, especially in the middle stages of the tournament where the antes are significant.

The antes are now up to a healthy 300 which means that every pot earns the winner more than a stack of black chips. Looking at Speidel's stack, it contained ten full stacks of blacks, as further evidence of his dominance.

The only recent hiccup came for Speidel when he called the all-in shove of Kristina Griffiths. Speidel held pocket fives as Griffiths had her tournament life on the line with pocket nines. The flop was bare but Speidel caught a five on the turn to take the lead, only to see a nine fall on the river in a classic suck, re-suck!

Speidel sits with 240,000 to be in the top five stacks in the tournament with 80 players to go. Liam O'Rourke is the current chip leader after snatching a big pot recently while Michael O'Grady, Gordon Huntly and Tam Truong are others in good shape as we head towards the dinner break.

As poker reporters we do our very best to cover as much action in the tournament as humanly possible, but unfortunately we're not omnipresent and we do very occasionally miss some action. That's why we love it when we we're wandering tables and get stopped by friendly railbirds who share with us an interesting story that we might have missed. It makes our job a lot easier!

So a shout out to my new mate on the rail who stopped me to let me know about the recent adventures of 2008 APPT Sydney champion Martin Rowe.

To be honest, Martin Rowe is a tricky man to spot. He's a no-nonsense, no-fanfare, regular kinda guy. Dressed in a casual shirt and low fitting cap, he easily flies completely under the radar. We've struggled to pick him up in this big field but he's starting to make some noise now after eliminating an opponent much to the delight of his tablemates.

As our friend on the rail recalled, it all started a few hands earlier. Apparently the player in question had only showed down the nuts all day before Rowe arrived at the table and the two tangled in a big hand. It was a three-bet pot and a nine-high board, as Rowe sustained a flop check-raise and a couple of barrels on the turn and river with just a pair of eights which was somehow good enough to defeat Mr.Nit who was firing with air.

Mr.Nit then turned into Mr.Tilt and a few hands later overbet shoved all in from the small blind into Rowe's big blind - seemingly in an attempt at extracting some revenge. Rowe snuck a look at his hole cards and instantly called with [jc][js] to be well ahead of his opponent's [7c][8c].

We felt a bad beat coming but it didn't happen as the board ran out [9s][ks][4c][qh][3c] to see Mr.Tilt head to the nearest exit as Rowe moved up to a very healthy 160,000.

Since his million dollar win in 2008, Rowe only has a couple of other results to his credit from a limited playing schedule, but perhaps this will be the event that sees Rowe return to the top. At the moment he has 115 other players standing in the way of himself and the exclusive APPT+ANZPT winners club as we approach the end of Level 12.

With the second level of today's play approaching a conclusion, a couple of big stacks have started to put a bit of a gap between themselves and the rest of the field.

Scotsman Gordon Huntly appears to be the first player to crack 200,000 and we decided to wander over to find out a little about how he got those chips, but Huntly was a little tight-lipped.

Usually that's a sign of a bad beat story.

Speaking to a few railbirds we believe that Huntly inflicted some pain on popular West Aussie Vesko Zmukic when Huntly flopped a straight with king-queen to crack Zmukic's pocket aces. We later spotted a furious Zmukic on the rail who confirmed the story through clenched teeth with the steam still rising from his forehead.

Meanwhile Huntly, who is based out of Thailand, is sitting pretty, although he does have to deal with the verbal barrage of boisterous Queenslander Steve Lindeblad seated at the same table.

"Steve The Jeweller" as he is known, has been on fire with lashings of sharp one-liners at pretty much everyone on his table.

"When are you going to come out of the castle at the bottom of the tank and play?" Lindeblad spat at Andrew Li.

Then moments later Li responded with a cold four-bet from the blinds to 14,800. It followed an open to 3,100 and a three-bet to 6,700 from Lindeblad himself in position. The initial raiser five-bet to 35,100 which caused Lindeblad to fold in disgust.

"Nice hand you cookie! I hope you choke on it!" he declared before slamming his cards into the muck. Li was also quick to follow with a fold as Lindeblad went off again.

"What hand are you messing around with you kookaburra?" spouted Lindeblad.

"I had a hand," defended Li.

"Could you beat jacks? No, you couldn't. I folded jacks!" exclaimed Lindeblad, all with a wry smirk on his face. Most of the table are pretty tolerant of Lindeblad's antics although Huntly did comment that he was starting to think about reaching for the headphones.

"I have headphones. I couldn't be bothered removing the sim card from my phone to listen to music, but I'm starting to reconsider!" laughed Huntly.

Meanwhile overnight chip leader Toby Ryall has increased his stack to now sit with 280,000 for the largest stack in the room.

"I've been playing good and running bad," laughed Ryall with tongue-in-cheek as obviously his good form from day one was carrying into today.

At the moment we have 140 players still alive as we approach the first break of the day.

We've seen some remarkable achievements in the poker world. Brunson winning back-to-back WSOP championinships in 1977 and 1978. Chan doing likewise in 1987 and 1988. Ungar winning it all in 1980 and 1981 before returning sixteen years later to do it all again in 1997. More recently, there's Hachem's breakthrough win for Australia in 2005, and then the immortal one, Phil Ivey, reaching the WSOP Main Event final table in 2009.

Today we may see an achievement of equivalent magnitude. Somehow we are trying to turn 208 players into 9 by the end of the day. It would be one of the greatest achievements of the modern poker era if we can possibly reach that elusive final table. Somehow I don't think we'll get there as our story will be lost forever, lumped into the category of "what might have been".

"You'll be surprised how fast things will go," said ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh last night when we asked him for his thoughts on today's proceedings. It was at the player's party and we know that Danny does his finest work after midnight, but we would definitely be surprised if today wasn't a long day.

It's unlikely we'll reach the final table, but if we can get somewhere near the final two tables, after 10 levels of play, then that's about as good as we can hope for.

Leading the way will be Day 1a chip leader Toby Ryall with 138,500. Ryall's rise to the top supports a little theory I have that the Day 2 chip leader more often comes from the opening flight with the smallest number of players. I'm yet to figure out the science behind this phenomenon, but be assured, it happens more often that you might think.

In fact the top five chip stacks from today all came from Day 1a with Nabil Edgtton, Gordon Huntly, Rhys Gould and Toan Nguyen all well placed at the top of the leaderboard. Day 1b chip leader Tam Truong will have to be content with sixth chip position as the day gets underway.

With Oliver Speidel, Tony Hachem, Leo Boxell, Martin Rowe, Gary Benson, Danny Chevalier, Billy Argyros, Mel Judah, Lee Nelson, Peter Matusik, Maria Ho, Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen and the defending champ Michael Kanaan all still in contention, it looks like we're going to have some quality at the pointy end of this event.

Stay tuned into the PokerStars Blog coming to you live from The Star in Sydney as the ANZPT Sydney Main Event continues.

The final hands have been dealt and the players have bagged, tagged and called it an evening with approximately 129 surviving the day. For some, it was a long day with eight levels and a dinner break, while others could take their time over dinner down on the Sydney harbour after being eliminated earlier in the day.

We started out with another massive field as 246 players took to the felt for Day 1b. This took the total number of entrants to 461 which was much-improved on last year's number. PokerStars were able to satellite in over 140 players and when you consider the event was only announced on February 1st, it's a very impressive number.

The total prize pool reached $922,000 with the top 54 players to be paid. A minimum cash is worth $3,688 while reaching the official ANZPT final table of nine will net $17,518. However the prize they are all chasing is the first place of $226,812 and the title of ANZPT Sydney champion!

While yesterday brought a younger field for the twilight start, we couldn't help but notice the old schoolers representing today with decades of poker experience spread around the tables. We spotted five members of the Australian Poker Hall of Fame in action today, and if you include Jason Gray and Billy Argyros from yesterday's flight, and throw in ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh running the floor, then we had a total of eight Hall of Famers who were part of this event. That's a record that APHOF Chairman Maurie Pears will be pleased to hear.

David Gorr was an early casualty while Gary Benson shot out to the early chip lead. Leo Boxell was consistent as ever, while Mel Judah and Lee Nelson battled on the short stacks for most of the day.

One player who enjoyed the benefits of the "Star snap" today was PokerStars qualifier Luke Edwards.

Edwards surged out to a big lead during the sixth level of the day and by the time the dinner break was taken, he already had amassed a stack that was the equivalent of the leaders of yesterday's flight.

We also had a couple of interesting international players grace us with their presence this evening. Poker starlet Maria Ho was a welcome addition to the field while the red spade was represented by Mexican Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen.

Guillen had travelled from the APPT Seoul to the EPT Berlin and then back down under for the ANZPT Sydney event, which we are guessing is one of the longest and most diverse poker trips ever undertaken. Guillen had a few days to explore the city, but on the felt it appeared that jetlag had taken hold as he was unable to get anything going at all during the day. After slipping into dangerous territory in the final level of the day, Guillen was able to steal some blinds to end the day with 23,500.

It probably didn't help that Guillen had to contend with the giant-killing Tam Truong on his direct right. Truong went on a tear late in the day as it seemed his opponents were gifting chips, with a large portion of Truong's wealth coming when a tilted player overbet shoved preflop with jack-nine and Truong picked it off with pocket kings.

This catapulted Truong into the chip lead which he held until stumps as his stack of 120,700 was good for the chip lead with Justin Cohen (110,625), George Marando (104,950) and Bill Kennedy (102,675) the only other players we could spot with more than 100,000 chips as approximately 129 players survived the day. We'll have confirmation of chip counts of the field available later this evening but we can confirm that Sheldon Mayer (99,300), Luke Edwards (85,150), Leo Boxell (45,700), Gary Benson (36,375), Danny Chevalier (33,775), Mel Judah (19,925) and Mario Ho (13,800) will all live to fight another day.

We'll be back tomorrow from 12:30pm local time with a big task ahead of us to reduce a 200-plus field to something near a final table. It's going to be a marathon so we better get hydrated - off to the Player's Party! See you tomorrow!

As we entered the sixth level of the day, we scoured the room for the big stacks and spotted a runaway chip leader as PokerStars qualifier Luke Edwards had steamrolled his way to an impressive stack of 110,000.

We wandered past the table of the 2010 ANZPT Darwin runner-up to have a chat to see how he'd picked up those chips. He recalled to us that there was some four-betting action which had gone down a few hands earlier which led to the following hand.

Edwards opened with a raise from early position before his opponent three-bet an additional 1,150.

"Do you have to bring the bets in?" Edwards asked the dealer.

"Yeh it makes it easier for you to count," explained the friendly dealer.

"It actually makes it harder for me to count!" chucked Edwards before tossing out 4,500 for a raise of an additional 3,350. His opponent made the call and they saw a flop of [9d][7h][6c].

Edwards led out with a bet of 4,000 before his opponent tossed out two yellow chips to raise to 10,000. Edwards didn't take long to respond as he grabbed his stack of yellow chips and plonked them forwards to put his opponent to a decision for his last 30,000 chips.

After a few minutes of thought, the player folded and Edwards raked in yet another pot.

"I guess ace-king was good," chirped Edwards which raised the eyebrows of tablemate Tony Kondevski (pictured with Edwards below).

"If he had ace-king, I'll change my name!" declared Kondevski. "He had aces or kings (pointing to Edwards) and he had queens or jacks...one hundred percent!"

Edwards chuckled and padded his stack which now sits at around 135,000 - almost as much as our chip leader from yesterday and there's still two levels to go!

Meanwhile the official numbers are in and the prizepool has been announced. With 246 runners today and 215 from yesterday, our total number of entrants for the ANZPT Sydney Main Event is 461. The top 54 will finish in the money with payouts as follows:

1st $226,812
2nd $144,754
3rd $80,214
4th $62,696
5th $48,405
6th $39,185
7th $29,965
8th $23,511
9th $17,518
10th - 12th $11,525
13th - 15th $9,220
16th - 18th $7,837
19th - 21st $6,454
22nd - 24th $5,532
25th - 27th $5,071
28th - 36th $4,610
37th - 45th $4,149
46th - 54th $3,688

In a further twist to proceedings here it's just been announced that we will be taking a 40-minute dinner break at the end of this level. That's not normal for the ANZPT/APPT where we tend to like to solider on and then eat later, but The Star tournament staff have made the decision to ensure that everyone's stomachs are satisfied. After dinner we'll be back to play two more levels. That's clearly going to throw a spanner in the works for those hoping to get to the PokerStars player's party which kicks off at 8:30pm tonight! (sigh)

Nothing frustrates players more than slow dealers. It's the thorn in the side of live poker. Slow hand rates, cards flying off the table, exposed cards, misdeals. It doesn't happen online, but also doesn't happen (often) here in The Star Poker Room.

The dealers here are a pretty friendly mob and they're also pretty efficient at their job, thanks to a handy little device that is similar to a Blackjack dealer shoe.

Once the shuffle machine does its thing, the cards are loaded into the shoe and slid swiftly across the felt to each of the players. The cards barely kiss the surface as they are accurately pitched every time without a hint of any flash of the card face. Some of the more experienced dealers can do this extremely quickly which ensures that hand rates are maintained at a consistently high rate.

"I'm a big fan of the shoe," said gaming consultant and Baccpo extraordinaire Rob Huxley who we spotted on the rail. With decades of experience working with dealers in casinos across Las Vegas and around the world, "Hux" is a man in the know.

"They never expose any cards like sometimes happens when dealers pitch at an angle," he added before we went on to take a look at the other unique dealer act that we see here at The Star.

"I'm not such a big fan of the 'snap'," said Hux.

You'll find famous Star 'snap' echoing through the poker room when many of the poker dealers deal the turn and river. The card is squeezed between two fingers and then released face up onto the felt which gives an impressive snapping sound as the bent card extends when it lands on the felt.

As a poker fan, I find the snap pretty cool and adds a nice bit of flare to the dealing without affecting any of the play, but as Hux explained the snap has a soured history.

"Many of the old school players don't like it. The snapping sound resonates with the days of card mechanics who dealt in back room games, where that sound was a sign when someone wasn't dealing the top card from the deck," Hux explained.

Hux had raised an interesting point, but that is obviously never a problem here in the casino where a single card is removed from the shoe before its snapped into place.

Hux also admitted that the snap did alleviate his pet dealer peeve - that is when a dealer slowly reveals the river, showing the card to himself first before the table. Basically the dealer's version of the slowroll. With the snap, the card is exposed to all players and the dealer at the very same time.

While there are a few mixed opinions, the 'snap' certainly adds something different to the usual, monotonous dealing routines.