It's only the fifth level of play here and already the prize pool is up to $180,000, with seven levels still left tonight and one more level of late registration tomorrow.
The Summer Championships here at the Poker Palace kicked off back on February 16th with its first Main Event satellite. The past Monday, the final week of this three-week series was dubbed Headline Week, as the eye-catching events are all being held in the first week of March.
PokerNews will be on the floor covering two events start-to-finish (A$2,500 High Roller & Main Event) and deliver an overview of the A$5,000 Super High Roller. Check out the full schedule for the Headline Week below.
| Date | Time | Event | Est. Prize Pool | Buy-in | Starting Stack | Level Duration | Late Reg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon., March 1 | 7 p.m. | Teams Event | - | $500 | 20,000 | 20/30 mins | Level 6 |
| Tue., March 2 | 7 p.m. | High Roller Satellite | $10,000 | $250 | 30,000 | 25 mins | Level 6 |
| Wed., March 3 | 4 p.m. | High Roller Day 1 | $150,000 | $2,500 | 100,000 | 40 mins | Level 13 |
| Thu., March 4 | 4 p.m. | High Roller Day 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| - | 5 p.m. | Main Event Day 1A | $250,000 | $1,150 | 50,000 | 45 mins | Level 13 |
| Fri., March 5 | 5 p.m. | Main Event Day 1B | $250,000 | $1,150 | 50,000 | 45 mins | Level 13 |
| - | 7 p.m. | Super High Roller Satellite | $10,000 | $550 | 30,000 | 30 mins | Level 6 |
| Sat., March 6 | 12 p.m. | Main Event Day 1C | $250,000 | $1,150 | 50,000 | 45 mins | Level 13 |
| - | 6 p.m. | Main Event Day 1D (Turbo) | $250,000 | $1,150 | 50,000 | 25 mins | Level 13 |
| Sun., March 7 | 12 p.m. | Main Event Day 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| - | 6 p.m. | Bounty | - | $550 (250+250) | 50,000 | 25 mins | Level 6 |
| Mon., March 8 | 2 p.m. | Super High Roller | $150,000 | $5,000 | 100,000 | 40 mins | Level 6 |
| - | 5 p.m. | Main Event Final Table | - | - | - | - | - |
Level: 5
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 800
Originally from England but an Aussie for a while now, Rehman Kassam is among the 71 first players that have entered the A$2,500 High Roller. A regular here in Club Marconi, Kassam has made deep runs during the WSOP International Circuit, the Aussie Millions and the WPT all here down under in the past few years.
With a little over half a million lifetime, the PokerBROS ambassador, who are sponsoring the Summer Championships, is looking to add more to that in this two-day high roller event.
Apart from Kassam, another notable popped up in Craig Blight. Blight holds over $800K in lifetime Hendon Mob winnings and cashed the WSOP Main Event in both 2018 and 2019, among plenty of other accolades.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
100,000 | |
|
100,000 |
Level: 4
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 600
Two big names in the field today are Morten Mortensen and Michael O'Grady. Especially in a time where intercontinental travel is more or less off-limits, spotting Danish star Mortensen in the field might be a bit of a surprise. Rocking over $1.7M in lifetime winnings on The Hendon Mob, Mortensen has been in Australia for a while now and cashed the Marconi Cup here back in December.
Sydney's very own Michael O'Grady boasts a similar resumé of that of Mortensen, having cashed for nearly $1.1M in his career. Last year at the 2020 Aussie Millions, O'Grady won the A$1,050 Accumulator for a massive payday of A$188,860.
We'll be keeping an eye out for the pair as the day progresses here at The Poker Palace.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
100,000 | |
|
100,000 |
With 71 players reached already, players are now on a 30 minute dinner break
Level: 3
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 400
A massive betting war started off as an under-the-gun raise by Jacob Fulop to 1,000 and ended with Charles Chiha going all-in for close to a starting stack of 100,000.
Chiha had 4-bet a previous raise of 3,600 to 17,000, and Fulop then 5-bet to 40,000, Chiha then moved all-in with 
and was quickly called by Fulop with 
.
The flop came 
with a 
on the turn giving Chiha some hope with a gutshot, but the river was the 
giving no help for Chiha and he was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
195,000 | 95,000 |
|
|
Busted |
PokerNews has activated the MyStack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.
