Dan Kelly Leads Inaugural WSOP APAC Event

American Dan Kelly holds a narrow chip advantage in the first ever World Series of Poker Asia Pacific bracelet event after the first of three Day 1s.

Dan Kelly must love his visits to Australia. His first ever trip in 2012 saw him take home more than A$112,000 ($125,000) from two Aussie Millions Events, and this year he was runner up in the Aussie Millions HORSE Championship before appearing on the final table of the ANZPT Sydney Main Event just two weeks ago.

Yesterday he enjoyed the best of the cards to win a three-way pot towards the end of the evening (K♠ K♦ > A♥ Q♥ > 10♠ 10♥ – Kelly making a set on the flop)) before making a runner-runner flush to eliminate Didier Guerin (8♦ 7♦ > 9♦ 9♣) in the last hand of the night. Kelly bagged up 66.250 chips at the close of play, less than two big blinds ahead of compatriot Alex Givotovsky (65,600 chips) with Australian Minh Phuc Nguyen (43,950 chips) heading the chasing pack.

The Accumulator – A Different Strategy Required

Event #1 of the WSOP APAC has a unique format. Players are allowed to enter on all three of the Day 1s – even if they have qualified for Day 2 – and the chips they win on each of the Day 1s is carried forward to their starting stack on Day 2. Therefore, should Dan Kelly or any of the 46 other players who survived Day 1A wish to re-enter the event today, they could have a significant advantage going forward in the A$1,100 buy-in event.

This is certainly the strategy being adopted by Phil Hellmuth, who nursed his starting stack of 3,000 chips up to 20,650 without once getting all-in, but was still able to bust Australia´s top woman player Jackie Glazier (Pocket Sevens holding over A♠ Q♣) and crush Cameron Bisset when flopping a Full House with J♠ J♦.

Those Using a Second Bullet

While players of the calibre of Phil Hellmuth, Jonathon Duhamel and Barry Greenstein all got their strategy right and played to get through the day, re-enter and build a bigger stack on Day 1B, some other poker pros were not so fortunate and will have to start again from scratch today at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

None of the Team 888Poker players managed to get through Day 1A and, with such a big presence in online poker in Australia, Sam Holden, Jake Basliger, Russell Thomas and Jesse Sylvia will all be trying again on Day 1B. Also showing his face in Australia for the first time since December 2010 will be Daniel Negreanu, and other anticipated Day 1B entries include Brandon Cantu, Dominik Nitsche and Melanie Weisner.

WSOP APAC #1 Chip Counts