2019 The Star Sydney Champs

The first day of the $5k Challenge at the 2019 The Star Sydney Champs came to an end after 15 levels of 45 minutes each. In total, 129 entries rocked up the entry fee to create a prize pool of A$612,750. Fifteen of those players made the money and fourteen of them made it through to Saturday's Day 2. Claiming the Day 1 chip lead was Charlie Hawes with 429,000 in chips.

Hawes is a bit of a regular at The Star Sydney during local tournament series as he has reached two final tables before. He finished second in the 6-Max event in 2017 and in third place during the 2018 Main Event for A$141,935. Trailing Hawes is Ehsan Amiri, who is also no stranger to the final table stages in Sydney with five previous appearances on the final stages. Closing out the podium is Sandy Sinclair with 337,000 in chips, trailing Amiri by only 1,000. The min-cash of A$10,343 will be Sinclair’s biggest live cash every but he’s in a great position to make even more money.

Vincent Huang and Jason Gray will be looking to claim their spot on the final table and make it to the end to take the win back home with them. But players like Ashish Gupta, Andrian Chin, Majid Saab, and Vesko Zmukic have all bagged an above-average stack and will be trying their best to prevent that from happening.

The fourteen remaining players will return to the felt at 2:15 p.m. local time on Saturday. Play will commence with Level 16 which features a small blind of 5,000, big blind of 10,000, and a big blind ante of 10,000. A live stream will be provided by Run It Up on their Twitch channel with commentary provided by Jamie Kerstetter and Ashley Sleeth with a security delay as the hole cards will be shown.

The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action from the first shuffle up and deal until the final pot has been pushed to the champion. So make sure to follow it all, right here, as usual, to see who will take lay claim to the first-place prize of A$171,572.

Dejan Boskovic Sr raised to 25,000 from the button and Andrian Chin shoved in the small blind for 106,000 in total. Majid Saab folded his big blind and Boskovic called.

Andrian Chin:
Dejan Boskovic Sr:

The board ran out for Chin to hold and double up again.

Charlie Hawes took a pot off Jason Gray when three-betting and then it was Mladen Vukovic that stole Gray's big blind and big blind ante soon after.

Vukovic jammed once more for 143,000 total and added another 20,000 to his chips just when the final three hands of the night were announced.

Andrian Chin shoved from the hijack for 55,000 and was called by Vincent Huang in the big blind.

Andrian Chin:
Vincent Huang:

The board ran out for Chin to flop the nut flush immediately to secure his double-up.

Dejan Boskovic Sr raised to 27,000 from the cutoff and Majid Saab shoved from the small blind for 110,000 in total. Sandy Sinclair folded his big blind and Boskovic Sr called.

Majid Saab:
Dejan Boskovic Sr:

The board ran out for Saab to hold with the pocket pair of queens for the higher two pair to double up.

Vincent Huang shoved from the hijack for 132,000 and was called by Dejan Boskovic Sr on the button while the blinds folded.

Vincent Huang:
Dejan Boskovic Sr:

The board ran out for Huang to hit top pair on the flop to double up.

Ehsan Amiri raised to 17,000 and called the shove of Nauvneel Kashyap in the big blind for 95,000 in total.

Nauvneel Kashyap:
Ehsan Amiri:

The flop changed nothing yet, but the turn improved Amiri to a pair of aces. A blank followed on the river and Kashyap was eliminated in 15th place for A$10,343.

Majid Saab shoved for 38,000 from mid-position and was called by Vesko Zmukic and Dejan Boskovic in the blinds.

They both checked through the whole board for Saab to triple up as he held for two pair with the ace-kicker. Zmukic had and Boskovic held .