The bubble is always a dramatic period of a poker tournament and the APPT Auckland Main Event has been no exception with massive confusion on one table over the antes and building tension over the complexities of the ANZ Player of the Year race.
After the recent elimination of Luke Brabin, who ran his ace-queen top pair into a set, the ANZ POTY race was down to three with the clubhouse leader Edison Nguyen looking to hold off Dean Blatt and David Lim.
Over the last level or two Lim had clearly tightened up ship to try and nurse his stack into the money. He got down to his last 10,000 in chips before finally finding pocket aces to secure a triple up.
However moments later, Lim was all in again, this time with A♣ Qâ™ against Dean Blatt’s Q♥ Q♦ . Blatt would’ve been more than happy to eliminate a POTY rival but incredibly the board would run out 10♥ 4♣ 3â™ 2♦ 5â™ to see Lim make a backdoor straight to survive! If Lim min-cashes he locks up the POTY award, so that was a bad beat for both Dean Blatt and Edison Nguyen!
Meanwhile drama was unfolding on Table 5 after a rather confusing ante situation. It required the cameras to be called after Angela Brewster was adamant that she was owed 500 change from the pot.
As the tournament staff were checking the cameras, play continued and things got even more complicated a few hands later when Brewster bluffed off her stack to Minh Nguyen and was felted. At that same moment, tournament staff returned with the news that indeed she was owed 500 change from the earlier mistake, but rather than give that 500 to Nguyen who had just caught the all-in bluff, it was ruled that Brewster would receive the 500 chip! To make it worse, it was Nguyen who would provide the refund after he had also won the earlier pot.
Chip and a chair!
With a second chance at life, Brewster was all in for her single ante and somehow won the pot. Then she did it again. She was back to almost 10,000 in chips and had a pulse, but while she was able to rise from the dead, Brewster was unable to complete a fairytale comeback story for the ages. Moments later she was all in with her Q♦ 9♣ failing to improve against Brotha D’s A♣ 10♥ .
The players have now headed off to a 30-minute dinner break. We’re still three places off the money so we expect to see some more nervous moments when we return!
Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.
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