The second of the Main Events' four starting flights - Day 1b - of the 2019 WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney Main Event is done and dusted, with Australia's Marc Seymour bagging up a sizable 502,000 to conclude play with the chip lead.
A total of 208 players anted up the $2,200 entry and fought it out at the felt over fourteen 45-minute levels, with 37 of them finding a bag at the end of the day.
There were plenty of notables in the running, but it was Seymour who topped them all, snatching the chip lead from tablemate Evaldas Stanevicius on the last level of the day in a pot worth 272,000 after out-flopping the latters' ace-king with queen-ten by hitting trips, rivering a full house and getting paid.
Stanevicius dominated a great deal of the action on the live-streamed feature table but dropped down the counts to bag up 122,500 in total.
Several players made a spirited attempt at snatching the lead during the last two levels played, with China's Xun Sun ending play as Seymour's next closest rival, bagging up a total of 408,500 in chips. Australia's Jules Wilson rounded out the top three after bagging up 360,500.
The rest of the field are all sitting on stacks of below 300k or less, with other notables successful in their quest to make Day 2 including the UK's Daniel Hope (261,500), Billy 'the croc' Argyros (220,000), Hamish Crawshaw (182,500), Peter Robertson (169,000), Geoff Mooney (127,500), Connie Graham (94,000), Martin Ward (87,500), Brad Kain (75,000), and Robert Damelian (71,500).
Over 80% of the field was not as fortunate, with notables to bow out before the close of play including $5k Challenge champion Shivan Abdine and runner up Adrian Attenborough, World Series bracelet holder James Obst, Daniel Laidlaw, Luke Edwards, George Mitri and Jonathan Karamalikis, the latter of whom came agonisingly close to finding a bag but falling during the last level played.
There is now a two-day break, with the PokerNews live coverage focusing on the two-day $1,650 Pot Limit Omaha, which kicks off on Monday, December 2 at 2:15pm local time (GMT+10).
The final two starting flights, Day 1C and 1D, play out on Thursday, December 4, at 12:30 p.m. and Friday, December 5, at 12:30 p.m. respectively.
All Day 1 survivors will unite for the first time on Saturday, December 7, for Day 2 where they will play down into the money and beyond.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as we continue with updates for the remaining days.