By Sean Callander

If Cory-Ann Joseph’s grin gets any broader, the top of her head is going to snap off! She is one of two female players still in the hunt for the APPT Seoul crown (along with Isabelle Mercier) and one of only two Australians still in the field (there’s also chip leader Jo Berec).

But the main reason for Cory-Ann’s joy is happening thousands of miles away at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia. For sports fans out there, it’s the biggest weekend for Aussie football followers, with the grand final of the Australian Football League being played.

Cory-Ann’s favourite side, the Geelong Cats, haven’t won a premiership since 1963, but they ended the 44-year drought with the greatest winning margin in League history in a one-sided game against the Port Adelaide Power. A quote Cory? “Go the Cats!”

As if to celebrate, Cory-Ann just took down a nice pot against Swedish player Roger Spets, when her pocket kings held firm against Spets’ K 10. She’s now third in chips, trailing only Daniel Schreiber and her countryman Berec.

Other big movers in the first two levels on day two of the APPT Seoul main event include James Honeybone, who’s up to 125,000 after taking a slice of Jo Berec’s stack. However, Berec quickly made amends by eliminating young US player Alex Fitzgerald. Honeybone also claimed the scalp of Isaac ‘The General’ Galazan, who’s K Q failed to improve on a board of Jd 6c 5d 10d Js against the Kiwi’s pocket sevens.



We’ve also lost Jimmy Cha, a local poker icon who proved a popular addition to the line-up for this event. Cha’s pocket kings ran into Ryan Collett’s pocket aces, and the board provided no favours. We’re down to 30 players, just 14 short of the money.

Day 2 chip count (approximate):

• Jozef Berec (Australia) 180,000


• Daniel Schreiber (USA) 132,000


• Cory-Ann Joseph (Australia) 98,000


• Bachar Ziv (Israel) 82,000


• Heige Vatne (Norway) 78,000


• Roger Spets (Sweden) 73,000


• Kent Justice (USA) 70,000


• Ryan Collett (USA) 70,000

Latest placings:

• 37 - Ruizhong Chen (Switzerland)


• 38 - Anthony Rafter (Ireland)


• 39 - Jonny Vincent (Australia)


• 40 - Shannon Hudson (USA)


• 41 - Naohiko Yamazaki (Japan)


• 42 - James Potter (Australia)


• 43 - Tomonaga Masaaki (Japan)


• 44 - Jacques Zaicik (France)


• 45 - Jimmy Cha (USA)


• 46 - Michadel Walker (USA)


• 47 - Paul Roper (Ireland)


• 48 - Karsten Jensen (Denmark)