The bubble has burst on George Moussa to leave us with fifteen very happy players. Of course Moussa wasn't so thrilled especially considering his elimination hand.
Moussa opened from the cutoff to 11,000 before Tristan Bain shipped it all in from the small blind to put maximum pressure on the short stacks. Moussa made the call for his tournament life with [ad][kh] as Bain held live cards holding [8c][6s].
With the second table sweating the action and praying for a bad beat, the board delivered [5h][6h][9c][3h][7s]. Bain paired the flop and improved to a straight on the river to leave a distraught Moussa heading for the nearest exit.
That wraps up our live coverage. It's difficult to know our chip leader but Tristan Bain, Khiem Nguyen and Leigh Warne are the most likely suspects. We'll have exact counts and a full wrap of the day's activities for you shortly.
10:20pm: Swan busts; We're on the bubble!
Oliver Swan has been eliminated to leave ourselves on the money bubble. In a raised pot, Swan moved all in for his last 31,100 from the big blind on a flop of [2d][5h][9h]. James Broom thought for a moment before folding but Leigh Warne snap-called with [tc][th]. Swan had plenty of outs with his [kh][qh] for flush draw and overcards, but couldn't connect on the [9c] turn or [9s].
The next player eliminated will go home empty-handed while the remaining fifteen will bag up their chips with a minimum $4,690 in their back pocket.
10:10pm: Moussa stays alive
George Moussa has collected a very timely double up when his [qc][qd] held in a preflop clash with Tristan Bain's [jc][js]. The board ran out [4c][kh][9h][3d][9d] as Moussa doubled his stack of 39,800.
Bain wasn't too happy as he tossed out the chips one at a time, to the annoyance of floor staff. Bain slips to 145,000.
10:00pm: Broom stays aggressive
David Gorr opened with a raise to 11,000 on the button before James Broom three-bet to 27,000 in the small blind. Gorr quickly called and they saw a flop of [qc][9d][4d]. Both players checked and the turn was the [7d]. Again it went check, check, to the free [9s] on the river.
Broom slid out a stack worth 20,000 and Gorr took a moment before making the call. Broom opened [7c][6h] for nines and sevens which was enough to collect the pot.
9:55pm: Level up, blinds 2,500-5,000, ante 500
9:50pm: Vandersluis vanquished
Roy Vandersluis is the next to go after he moved his short stack into the middle with pocket sixes against the ace-queen of David Gorr.
Another lady spiked on the flop to pair up Gorr and eliminate Vandersluis from the tournament. The Aussie Millions champ is the only player in the ANZ POTY top ten still alive as he is on track for his third cash of the season. He's up to 180,000 chips.
9:35pm: Slow going
It's been very slow going over the last half an hour, with no action to report. There are no real short stacks under pressure so it looks like we could be here for a while yet.
Much of the slow going has come from Toothpick Tony and his antics with his stacks sitting mixed and unorganized. This resulted in a very slow hand against Khiem Nguyen.
Toothpick opened to 15,500 before Nguyen raised to 43,000. Toothpick stood and declared himself all in, and it took three mathematicians to work out his stack size. 169,100 was the tentative amount agreed upon and after the clock was called on Nguyen he let it go. Ninteen players remain.
9:10pm: Maklouf picked off
Last year's ANZPT Canberra runner up, John Maklouf has put in a great repeat performance but fallen just short of reaching the cash.
He was the short stack of the field with just 21,800 in chips which he committed with [as][6c]. Toothpick Tony made the call with [kd][5s] and connected on the board of [kh][9d][tc][qd][4h].
On a nearby table, Lee Holtzapffel was also eliminated to leave ourselves with 19 players remaining.
8:55pm: Play resumes
The 21 remaining players are back on the felt with six more eliminations required until we reach the money and the end of the day's play.
At the end of the last level Khiem Nguyen reclaimed his spot on top of the chip count leaderboard with the elimination of David Steele. Nguyen holds 350,000 to be well out in front.
Source: http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/anzpt/2011/anzpt-canberra-day-2-level-15-blinds-200-082545.html
