Having devoured our body weight in risotto, we're back for what promises to be a dramatic evening session on day two of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne event. After an extremely tense level 15 in which only two players were eliminated, the moves are now coming thick and fast with the blinds now at 3000/6000 with a 500 ante.

Having had his stack slashed by Heath Chick just before the dinner break, New Zealander Robert Wang committed his remaining chips with [2s] [3d] on a flop of [6s] [3c] [4d], with David Zhao making the call after a long deliberation .

It proved an astute play, as he found his [6c] [9c] marginally ahead, where it stayed as the board ran out [ah] [7h]. That left Zhao well placed to make successive ANZPT final tables with more than 300,000 in chips.

Next to go was Ben Barclay, who ran [ac] [ks] into the [8s] [8d] of Jie Gao, only to watch his pair of aces overtaken on the river as the board fell [10d] [jd] [6d] [as [7d]. It was another impressive showing from Barclay, who cashed 14th in the ANZPT Sydney main event.

Matthew Konnecke is still pacing through the tournament area, replaying the circumstances of his stunning elimination. The 2008 APPT Auckland runner-up hit a dream flop of [jh] [jc] [6h] holding [js] [6s] against the [ad] [ah] of "Irish" Trevor McCarthy. The turn was harmless [3h], but [ac] on the river set both players screaming - McCarthy in ecstasy, Konnecke in agony. Tough beat fella.

The points bubble burst when Marc Des Anges was KOed in 23rd. His [ah] [6c] was narrowly pipped by the [ad] [8h] of Kristian Lunardi as the board ran out [qc] [2h] [ac] [qd] [7h].

Speaking of points, the man atop the ANZPT leaderboard Tony Hachem is set for another big haul after he doubled through John Joannou to break through the 150,000-chip mark for the first time today. Ticking down to the end of level 16 just four spots short of the money, four players hold more than 300,000 in chips - Brent Thomas, Heath Chick, Jie Gao and David Zhao.

By Landon Blackhall

The inaugural season of the PokerStars.net ANZPT has already produced some fantastic stories - Karl Krautschneider's first major tournament victory from out of the shadows of the poker giants who shared the final table; and Paren Arzoomanian's triumph in Sydney in the wake of his cancer battle.

Could the ANZPT Melbourne event produce another rags-to-riches story? Amanda Simpson could be just that Cinderella as she continues her charge to the final table.
Already assured the title as the highest placed female player in this event, Simpson was born and bred in the spiritual home of poker, Texas.

She arrived in Australia nine years ago with her partner, and after watching her man from the rail playing cash games and tournament poker, she was inspired to take up the game herself.

"I started playing free games with my church group every Sunday after Mass," Simpson said. "I've also played a lot of small buy-in tournaments here along with my partner. I only decided to enter this tournament for fun!"

She may still be learning the ropes when it comes to the finer points of tournament poker, but her rivals are taking her very seriously as she continues to take down pot after pot, always having the best hand and taking advantage of the opponents who dare doubt her ability. As a result, Simpson's stack of 320,000 towers over those of her rivals on table 32.

At the other end of the scale, Tony Hachem's stack is on life support but he just received a slice of divine intervention to keep his hopes of a third successive ANZPT cash alive.

The overall points leader called Jarrad Graham's all-in and found himself in good shape with [ad] [kh] against the South Australian's [ah] [6s]. But Hachem reeled when the flop came [6d] [6c] [kc], and the turn [3c] also brought no joy. Sure enough, Hachem hit a two-outer [ks] to propel his stack above 65,000 and a shell-shocked Graham to the rail.

As we tick down to the dinner break, it's Amanda Simpson leading from Sam Khouiss (285,000), Brent Thomas (250,000), 2008 Western Classic winner Marc Des Anges (235,000) and David Zhao (225,000). There are 27 players remaining, nine short of the money.

Much is made of the rivalry between Australia's biggest cities Melbourne and Sydney. Nowhere more is the difference between the cities reflected than in Australia's two most popular soap operas.

Home and Away is archetypically Sydney - set in the idyllic Summer Bay where the sun shines everyday, the waves are always perfect and the never-ending death toll barely raises an eyebrow.

But ask any backpacker worth their salt, and the king of soaps resides in Melbourne. Neighbours is one of the most successful shows in Australian TV history, appearing in 50 countries and watched by an estimated 100 million viewers around the world each day.

Scores of tours run daily from the city to Ramsay Street, Erinsborough AKA Pinoak Court, Vermont South - in the heart of Melbourne middle suburbia.

While car crashes, natural diasters and serial killers wipe out the cast of Home and Away at a greater rate than the Ebola virus, the most pressing issue you're likely to find in Ramsay Street is whether the evening roast has been overcooked, or if a brown belt is appropriate with black shoes.

The show has been a launching pad for several actors to cross over into film and music careers including Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pierce, Natalie Imbruglia, Daniel MacPherson, Holly Valance and Delta Goodrem. Now you know who to blame.

• Meanwhile, our very own version of Harold Bishop, ANZPT commissioner Danny McDonagh, has just informed us that the race for the ANZPT Overall Points Championship is really heating up.

The top three players at the end of the season will win a share of an estimated AUD $100,000 sponsorship package from PokerStars.net, with the winner being given the chance to play all season four PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour events and the 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event.

"We've created a unique points structure that is based on the number of players in the tournament and not weighted by the amount of the buy-in so as to encourage as many people as we can," McDonagh said.

"All players receive 10 participation points by simply entering any ANZPT event and the payout structures are also on fixed percentages based on the number of entries. From there, either the top 18 players or 10 per cent of the field (whichever is the greater and to a maximum of 45) are awarded bonus points.

"We believe that the added bonus of becoming a PokerStars.net sponsored player is really drawing the players in. Plus we're seeing many more playing multiple events as everyone starts to realise just how much more they're playing for.

"For all our players the inaugural season of the ANZPT is an education process, but to have the bragging rights of being the first ANZPT champion would be fantastic for anybody!" Check out www.anzpt.com for more details.

We're getting down to the business end of things here at Crown Casino with only 33 players in contention of the 218 who started the chase for the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne title. In the last level, we saw Andy Meldrum, Michael Guzzardi, Sam Youssef, John Apostolidis, Mario Doria, Jimmy Siu, Rodger Heath and Grant Harris join the list of eliminations for the day.

Siu's stack was decimated when Nikolaos Haidaris made a gutsy all-in call at showdown with the board showing [10c] [2h] [8s] [7c] [7h]. Haidaris held [ad] [10d] to just nose Siu's [kh] [10h], and he departed soon after.

Former chip leader Kristian Lunardi is in freefall after losing two big pots - first when Sam Khouiss hit a set of queens on the river against his kings, then David Zhao flopped a wheel to leave Lunardi with barely 100,000. Queens were again the weapon of choice for Khouiss when he KOed Tino Lechich, who held A-J.

Those hands left Khouiss, a controversial omission from the first intake of players into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame, in outright second chip position behind Brent Thomas and ahead of ANZPT Sydney ninth-place finisher David Zhao, Ben Barclay and Peter Aristidou.

PokerStars freeroll qualifier Jack Stewart is also hanging tough, having just KOed fellow PokerStars qualifier Andrew Hinrichsen when he flopped a set of sevens.

Our last remaining PokerStars.net Team Australia man Tony Hachem is still in contention for a third successive ANZPT but holds one of the smaller stacks in the room.

Players are taking their second break for the day and when they return, blinds will be up to 1500/3000 with an ante 500 (level 14) with just 15 spots remaining until the bubble bursts.

By Landon Blackhall and Sean Callander

The PokerStars.net Team Australia challenge is down to one after the elimination of 2007 APPT Grand Final winner Grant Levy from the ANZPT Melbourne field. Levy's [4s] [4h] was counterfeited when Tino Lechich's [as] [js] played on a board of [qd] [5d] [9c] [qh] [9s] to send the popular Sydneysider to the rail.

We've also lost ANZPT Adelaide champion Karl Krautschneider after he committed his remaining chips with [3h] [3c], only to find Brent Thomas waiting with [7h] [7c]. The board ran out [2c] [8c] [9h] [4d] [kh] to leave Thomas above 140,000 in chips and Krautschneider with a free afternoon.

Meanwhile on table 29 fellow Aussie Johnny Huynh found his money in the middle against Kristian Lunardi. It was the ultimate showdown of the two big stacks, both with premium hands.

Huynh turned over pocket kings, only to cringe as Lunardi as he rolled up [as] [ac]. The board bricked out and after the stacks were cut down, Huynh was sent home, leaving Lunardi to rake in 270,000 in chips, good enough for the chip lead.

Another man on the move is Sydney's Chris Levick. Fresh from his 13th-place in the ANZPT Sydney Main Event, Levick used [ah] [ad] against the [10h] [10d] on a board of [2s] [2d] [4s] [kc] [kh] to end the tournament of Raj Ramakrishnan.

Other departures in the first two levels today have been Jim Sachinidis, Jimmy Siu, Darko Balaban, Julius Colman, Sam Higgs, Ray Sukkar, Dennis Huntly, Joel Dodds and Michael Pinzone.

By Landon Blackhall and Sean Callander

We're used to hearing crap from poker players, but the smell from a burst sewerage pipe that is wafting through the Crown poker room is adding a whole new challenge for the remaining 52 players in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne event. But our sole international player is bravely forging ahead amid the odourous assault.

We started the day with two PokerStars qualifiers from abroad. Tzahi Degampur, hailing from Israel, found himself all-in early holding [as] [kc] against Aaron Tran's pocket sevens. The board ran out [jh] [2s] [8s] [2d] [3d], sending Degampur back to his hotel room to pack for an early flight home.

Nearby on table 32, our other visitor, Hein Kristiansen, is faring much better after returning to the tournament today with 92,100 in chips. Kristiansen has had plenty of online experience - not difficult when you're working in information technology.

"I made my way through to this event playing a 500 FPP rebuy event," he said. "The action is always good here at Crown; I've been here four times but this is one of the best tournaments I've played so far."

The 39-year-old Thailand-based Norwegian has taken a sabbatical from his IT career to focus on poker and hopes to play in more ANZPT events.

On the other side of the poker room, another one of our Australian qualifiers continues his charge. Melbourne's own Mark DeMartino is a 39-year-old financier who qualified via PokerStars.net. He has plenty of online miles under his belt, but the ANZPT Melbourne Feature Event is only his first live poker tournament.

"It's interesting but refreshing to watch how different the strategy is between playing live and online," DeMartino said. "But I'm having a great time and I've been meeting a lot of great people, so I'm definitely looking to play more events on the circuit - I've heard great things about Queenstown!"

In the latter stages of level 11, Kristian Lunardi is the new chip leader on 260,000 ahead of Jie Gao (230,000), John Joannou (150,000), Heath Chick (145,000) and Chris Kittos (135,000). Blinds will soon be up to level 12 (1000/2000 with an ante of 300).

Players are beginning to file into the Crown poker room for the start of day two in the battle for the first PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne title.

Sparked by a latte or two and hearty breakfast at one of the many riverside restaurants here at Crown, the 69 remaining players (including 21 PokerStars qualifiers, pros and players) will be shooting for a spot in the top-18 money positions, and ultimately, the AUD $158,050 first prize.

Crown director of poker operations Jonno Pittock has just asked players to take their seats. We expect to play down to the final table of nine today, with the structure as follows:

Level 10: 600/1200 (ante 200)
Level 11: 800/1600 (ante 200)
Level 12: 1000/2000 (ante 300)
Level 13: 1200/2400 (ante 400)
Level 14: 1500/3000 (ante 500)
Level 15: 2000/4000 (ante 500)
Level 16: 3000/6000 (ante 500)
Level 17: 4000/8000 (ante 500)
Level 18: 5000/10,000 (ante 1000)

Top 10 chip count

Jie Gao (Australia) 257,400
Heath Chick (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 214,100
Chris Kittos (Australia) 146,000
Tino Lechich (Australia) 119,500
John Apostolidis (Australia) 113,000
Salvatore Fazzino (Australia) 109,900
Trevor McCarthy (Australia) 109,100
Johnny Huynh (Australia) 105,100
Jarrod Graham (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 103,300
Brent Thomas (Australia) 99,800

Day 2 table draw

Table 25

Seat 1: Mark Martino (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 30,300
Seat 2: Ben Barclay (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 81,700
Seat 3: Kris Nedanovski (Australia) 87,100
Seat 4: Dennis Huntly (Australia) 24,400
Seat 5: Jack Stevens (Australia) PokerStars Freeroll Qualifier 48,100
Seat 6: Miles Bellman (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 67,400
Seat 7: Gregory Shillig (Australia) 21,700
Seat 8: Heath Chick (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 214,100

Table 26

Seat 1: Adam Kane (Australia) 13,800
Seat 2: Brendan Mitchell (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 21,600
Seat 3: Darko Balaban (Australia) 25,500
Seat 4: Mounib Youssef (Australia) 87,500
Seat 5: Jim Sachinidis (Australia) 29,300
Seat 6: Xin Zhao (Australia) 95,900
Seat 7: Matthew Konnecke (Australia) 83,300
Seat 8: Dean Nyberg (Australia) PokerStars Player 38,100

Table 27

Seat 1: Rajkumar Ramakrishnan (Australia) 31,800
Seat 2: Tony Hachem (Australia) Team PokerStars Pro (Australia) 71,600
Seat 3: Mario Doria (Australia) 46,000
Seat 4: Julius Colman (Australia) 15,300
Seat 5: Chris Levick (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 51,900
Seat 6: Antonio Casale (Australia) 54,400
Seat 7: Emanuel Seal (Australia) 56,200
Seat 8: Trevor McCarthy (Australia) 109,100

Table 28

Seat 1: Peter Skouteris (Australia) 30,000
Seat 2: Grant Harris (Australia) 48,100
Seat 3: Chris Kittos (Australia) 146,000
Seat 4: Daniel Laidlaw (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 40,500
Seat 5:Robert Wang (NZ) PokerStars Sponsored Player 32,300
Seat 6: Anthony Lavalle (Australia) 51,400
Seat 7: Ismail Sahin (Australia) 33,900
Seat 8: Petros Aristidou (Australia) 89,700
Seat 9: Simon Taberham (UK) PokerStars Player 33,500

Table 29

Seat 1: Samuel Higgs (Australia) 1200
Seat 2: Con Angelakis (Australia) 57,300
Seat 3: Rodger Heath (Australia) 47,000
Seat 4: Grant Levy (Australia) Team PokerStars Pro (Australia) 46,400
Seat 5: Kristian Lunardi (Australia) 84,500
Seat 6: Samir Khoueis (Australia) 66,900
Seat 7: Johnny Huynh (Australia) 105,100
Seat 8: Tino Lechich (Australia) 119,500
Seat 9: Rodney Burles (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 51,100

Table 30

Seat 1: John Apostolidis (Australia) 113,000
Seat 2: Michael Pinzone (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 72,400
Seat 3: Karl Krautschneider (Australia) 94,000
Seat 4: Peter O'Mara (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 34,600
Seat 5: Brent Thomas (Australia) 99,800
Seat 6: Ray Sukkar (Australia) 34,700
Seat 7: Jie Gao (Australia) 257,400
Seat 8: Joel Dodds (Australia) 14,400
Seat 9: John Joannou (Australia) 76,700

Table 31

Seat 1: Danny Joukhadar (Australia) 59,000
Seat 2: Aaron Tran (Australia) 72,600
Seat 3: Marc Desanges (Australia) 54,400
Seat 4: Salvatore Fazzino (Australia) 109,900
Seat 5: Jarrod Graham (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 103,300
Seat 6: Tzahi Degampur (Israel) PokerStars Qualifier 42,100
Seat 7: Andrew Meldrum (Australia) 34,000
Seat 8: Nikolaos Haidaris (Australia) 76,300
Seat 9: Lance Patison (Australia) 39,600

Table 32

Seat 1: David Penny (Australia) 30,100
Seat 2: Jimmy Siu (Australia) 34,100
Seat 3: Greg Manning (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 57,500
Seat 4: Peter Kotsiris (Australia) 23,500
Seat 5: Hein Kristiansen (UK) PokerStars Qualifier 92,100
Seat 6: Ben Savage (Australia) 55,400
Seat 7: Amanda Simpson (Australia) 65,400
Seat 8: Michael Guzzardi (Australia) 28,600
Seat 9: Andrew Hinrichsen (Australia) PokerStars Qualifier 97,200

By Landon Blackhall and Sean Callander

It was a day of firsts at Crown - the first time a PokerStars.net tour event was played in Melbourne; a rare Monday tournament start and a player came from the clouds to snatch the chip lead in the final two hands.

The chips have been bagged after the opening day in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne event at Crown Casino, with 69 of the 218 starters set to return for tomorrow's race to the money. The field will be battling for a share of the AUD $545,000 prizepool, and the AUD $158,050 first prize.

Jie Gao took down two massive pots at the death - first, eliminating James Broom, then KOing another two opponents on the final hand of the day to bolt to more than 250,000.

Second in the chip count at day's end was well-known poker reporter Heath Chick, who would have been covering this very tournament until he won a seat on PokerStars.

Clearly, watching scores of poker tournaments has paid dividends for the "Tassie Devil" as he dominated play to finish with the one of only two stacks above the 200,000-mark. His strategy for tomorrow? "I'll value fold all the way!"

Other prominent stacks were in the possession of Chris Kittos (146,000), vastly experienced Aussie pro Tino Lechich (119,500), Salvatore Fazzino (109,900), APPT Grand Final High Roller champ Jarred Graham (103,300), UK PokerStars qualifier Hein Kristiansen (100,000) and ANZPT Sydney ninth-place finisher David Zhao (95,900).

But they'll be keeping an eye over their shoulders tomorrow with players the likes of Peter Aristidou, Sam Khouiss, ANZPT Adelaide winner Karl Krautschneider, Chris Levick, PokerStars.net Team Australia man Grant Levy and 2009 Aussie Millions fourth-place finisher Raj Ramakrishnan still in contention.

Special mention to PokerStars.net Team Australia's Tony Hachem, who again impressed to finish on 73,000. Hachem leads the ANZPT overall points race, and is on target to make it successive cashes in the first three ANZPT events; a stunning achievement.

Players to have been eliminated on day one included PokerStars.net Team Australia trio Eric Assadourian, Emad Tahtouh and Celina Lin, PokerStars Sponsored player Lee Nelson, ANZPT Sydney winner Paren Arzoomanian, 2009 Aussie Millions winner Stewart Scott, 2008 APPT Manila champ Van Marcus, top Aussie online stars James Andy McLEOD Obst, Minh Nguyen, Andrew adgee Jeffreys, Jonathan Karamalikis, Ben Delaney and Matthew OnMyVPlates Pearson, Jay SEABEAST Kinkade; veterans Leo Boxell, Sam Korman, Gary Benson, Martin Comer, David Gorr and Billy "The Croc" Argyros plus hometown hopes Julian Powell, Bruno Portaro, Tim English, Nali "Iraqi Nick" Kaselias, Steve Topakas, Peter Ling, Marwan Nassif, Bill Jordanou and Haibo Chu.

Play resumes tomorrow at 12.10pm (3.10am GMT). Good evening from the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia.

By Landon Blackhall

Things are never predictable in poker. Chatting with two of the PokerStars qualifiers in today's ANZPT Melbourne field (whose names we didn't immediately recognise), we expected to find a couple of tournament poker greenhorns.

Instead, we found genuine players with plenty of online experience under their belts and looking to take the big step in the daunting live arena of Crown.

Jack Stevens is a 34-year-old chef and father of three from the beachside suburb of Frankston, 40 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. His love of poker wasn't born of the glitz and glamour of the World Poker Tour on television, or Joe Hachem's 2005 WSOP victory.

"I actually started playing poker online five years ago," Stevens said, after he took the time to compose himself after taking down a massive pot with pocket jacks against an opponent's A-10. "My friends were already into it, so I thought would give it a go and I love it!"

Despite having qualified for his first ANZPT event through a series of PokerStars.net freerolls, Stevens has played in 11 previous live tournaments over the past three and a half years.

"My next goal is to qualify for the ANZPT Queenstown event, then see how I go from there. Though I'm not sure about my partner Leanne, she's nervous enough watching from the rail as it is!"

We also caught up with Daniel Laidlaw, a former university student from Adelaide. The 26-year-old started playing low-limit cash games online four years ago and has since capitalised on his success, becoming a full-time cash game player. But he doesn't lack for tournament poker experience.

"I played the ANZPT Sydney event and finished 145th out of 493 runners. No cash, but still really happy with how I went and hope to go one better here in Melbourne," he said.

Laidlaw said that he earned his degree in international studies, which led us to ask if he had plans to stretch his poker experience beyond the shores of Australia.

"Sadly no. I had plans to play the WSOP but I've got other commitments, so I guess I'll just grind it out on the online cash games for the rest of the year!"

Players will soon take their final break for the evening, after which blinds will be up to 500/1000 with an ante of 100. More than half of the 218 players who started the day have been eliminated, with 102 remaining.

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer," was a piece of sage advice passed from Vito Corleone to his youngest son Michael. It could have also been written for PokerStars.net Team Australia duo Eric Assadourian and Emad Tahtouh, who'd spent much of the day seated next to each other.

In the early stages of level seven on day one of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Melbourne event, Tahtouh picked a spot to commit his short stack, with Assadourian coming to the party in this battle of the blinds.

Tahtouh showed [3c] [4s] while Assadourian revealed [8s] [4d], and one of the Melburnian's outs. The board ran out [as] [ad] [8h] [10s] [6d] sending Tahtouh for an early shower and Assadourian to a smidge under 25,000.

Two of the region's other rising stars have also departed in the early stages of the evening session. After having his stack slashed by ANZPT Adelaide winner Karl Krautschneider, Julian Powell was KOed by Peter Aristidou when his queens wandered into the path of kings.

Then young Kiwi James Honeybone found his [ad] [qc] up against the [as] [kc] of Sam Higgs, with the 10-high board sending Higgs to almost 95,000 in chips and Honeybone in search of the evening's first cleansing ale.

But the story of the day continues to be the rise and rise of PokerStars qualifier Heath Chick. Nicknamed "Tassie Devil" in honour of the fearsome marsupial with which he shares a home state, Chick is a runaway chip leader on 145,000.

Other prominent stacks belong to Adam Kane (100,000), Sam Youssef (75,000), ANZPT Sydney 13th-place finisher Chris Levick (70,000), PokerStars.net Team Australia pair Grant Levy (60,000) and Tony Hachem (58,000) and Sam Khouiss (54,000).

Hachem is aiming for a third successive cash in the ANZPT, which would put him in the box seat to take out the first prize in the overall points race - a PokerStars.net sponsorship package for the APPT and Aussie Millions. Joe who?