Big Grigg eyeing another title

By Ben Blaschke
05 December 2009

LAST week he won the $1650 Semi-Shootout event and now Tom Grigg could make these Championships his own after racing to the chip lead after Day 2 of the Pokerstars.net APPT grand final at Star City.
Twenty-four-year-old Grigg cut a swath through the field to stack up a monstrous $598,600 with just 66 of the 396 starters remaining heading into today’s Day 3.
“Everything has just been hitting,” the Sydneysider said.
“I would raise with K-7 on the button and the flop would come down K-7-7.
“Some days you just run like that so I was definitely given a lot of gifts like that.
“There were a lot of spots where someone would have a big hand and I would just happen to have a bigger one.”
Already $35,000 richer following his shootout win, another final table in the APPT grand final would be quite an achievement although Grigg laughed at the suggestion that he could be the form player of the Championships.
“I could put my sister at this table where I’ve been and she would have the same chip stack,” he said.
“But I’ve been in this situation before in tournaments even if it hasn’t been for this much cash.
“I’m not really that scared of busting out or anything.
“Hopefully I just play well.
“I don’t care if I get unlucky, that really doesn’t worry me, I just want to play good.”
Today will see 66 players return to the felt to play down to the final table of nine, with 48 making the money.
Among them are Team Pokerstars Australia pros Eric Assadourian with 338,600 in chips and 2007 champ Grant Levy who has managed to grind his way through two difficult days and sits on $123,900.
Other notables include High Rollers champion and reigning Sydney Championships winner Jarred Graham, veteran Leo Boxell, ANZPT Adelaide champ Karl Krautschneider and Daniel Neilson.
A total prize pool of $2,376,000 has been created for this event with the eventual winner taking home a cool $594,000.
The top 10 chip counts heading into Day 3 are:

1. Tom Grigg - $598,600
2. Jimmy Tran - $541,300
3. Ernst Hermans - $398,800
4. Joseph Allis - $398,000
5. Kitson Kho - $394,300
6. David Saghabi - $386,500
7. Mike Ivin - $371,100
8. Sander Aalders - $349,000
9. Lars Anders Martin Pettersson - $345,200
10. Michael Wong - $340,100