By Adam Ulick | November 25, 2008

The first day of Party Poker Premier League III concluded yesterday with JC Tran leading Heat 1 and Tony G leading Heat 2. Tran’s road to the top of Heat #1 was completed after he defeated Peter Eastgate in heads-up play while Tony G beat Tom “Durrrr” Dwan heads-up to win the first day of preliminaries in Heat #2.

The match-up between Eastgate and Tran was particularly interesting since Eastgate is coming off an incredible heads-up performance against Ivan Demidov in the WSOP Main Event; Eastgate soundly defeated Demidov over the course of their poker hands to win the $9 million first place prize. However, things were much different for Eastgate on Monday since Tran overcame a big deficit at the start of heads-up play to defeat him. 

Annette Obrestad finished third in Heat #1 while the defending champion Andy Black and Roland de Wolfe finished fourth and fifth respectively. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot – who has had a poor history in the Party Poker Premier League – finished in last and was the only Heat 2 player not to score any points.

Here are the standings for Heat 1 after the first day:

JC Tran – 10 Points
Peter Eastgate – 6 Points
Annette Obrestad – 4 Points
Andy Black – 3 Points
Roland de Wolfe – 2 Points
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot – 0 Points

Many people who watched the second heat of Party Poker Premier League III were hoping to see a heads-up match between Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan since the two have had some heated battles.But Hellmuth ended up taking fourth place and only the top two advanced to the heads-up portion; this turned out to be Tony G and Dwan. Tony G was able to win a huge hand after going all-in with J-10 offsuit and he ran away with the match after that.

Vicky Coren took third place in Heat 2 and Hellmuth finished fourth as mentioned before. Party Poker Premier League I champion Juha Helppi got off to a rough start after finishing in fifth, but he did do better than Nenad Medic who finished in last and earned no points.

Here are the standings for Heat 2 after the first day

Tony G – 10 Points
Tom “Durrrr” Dwan – 6 Points
Vicky Coren – 4 Points
Phil Hellmuth – 3 Points
Juha Helppi – 2 Points
Nenad Medic – 0 Points

The Party Poker Premier League III action picks up again today with each player trying to increase their point total. There are 5 more preliminary rounds left and the top 4 players at the end of preliminaries will move onto the finals.

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