Main Event
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2019 The Star Sydney Champs
Main Event
Day: 1a
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A very successful 2019 The Star Sydney Champs will culminate in the flagship event of the festival as the 3-day Main Event kicks off with Day 1a as of 12.30 p.m. local time at The Star Sydney near Darling Harbour.
The tournament comes with a price tag of A$3,000 and features a guaranteed prize pool of A$1,500,000. Many regulars of the venue secured their seats at a bargain in the live satellites of the last few days.
Not only because of the six-figure Royal Flush cash game jackpot, but the poker room has also been buzzing in each tournament with very impressive field sizes throughout the festival so far. On top of that, the Main Event super satellite 40 seats guaranteed final week countdown had been exhausted half-way through the six qualifiers already.
Defending champion of the event is Nebojsa Blanusa from Adelaide, who emerged on top of a field of 522 entries to claim the top prize of A$314,265. Other notables to reach the final table were Charlie Hawes, Suzy Khoueis, Martin Ward and Michel Bouskila, while Ashish Gupta, Shivan Abdine and Honglin Jiang were eliminated on the final two tables.
The tournament features a starting stack of 30,000 and levels of 60 minutes throughout, and players can register for each of the two starting days until the start of level five at approximately 4.50 p.m. local time. Should they bust on Day 1a, they can re-enter on Day 1b to give it another try at running up a stack.
Day 1 Level Structure
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 | 100 | 200 | 0 |
| 2 | 60 | 150 | 300 | 0 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 3 | 60 | 150 | 300 | 25 |
| 4 | 60 | 200 | 400 | 50 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 5 | 60 | 300 | 600 | 50 |
| 6 | 60 | 400 | 800 | 100 |
| Break | 30 | |||
| 7 | 60 | 500 | 1,000 | 100 |
| 8 | 60 | 600 | 1,200 | 200 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 9 | 60 | 800 | 1,600 | 200 |
| 10 | 60 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 300 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 11 | 60 | 1,200 | 2,400 | 400 |
The tournament is scheduled to play down to a winner on Day 3 on Monday, August 5th, 2019, as of 12.30 p.m. local time and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action. There will also be a live stream with hole cards displayed on a dynamic delay for each of the tournament days on the Run It Up Twitch channel as well.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
The dealers have instructed to load up their shoes and shuffle up and deal.
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
Right off the bat, the screens show a total of 230 entries for Day 1a and the poker room at The Star Sydney has the familiar sound of chips being riffled and shuffled in all corners. Below is a first batch of notables with plenty more to follow in the hours to come.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
||
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000 | |
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
The following players are the first ones who have been drawn onto the feature table although not everyone has taken their seats yet but their stacks are in play:
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
Picking up three-way action on the 
turn, the big blind checked to Travis O'Grady who bet 2,500 into a pot of around 4,500. Kanaan Yakhanna folded in the cutoff and the big blind came to the same conclusion.
The table also features John Thomson and Michael Egan, who was part of a three-way deal in the A$20,000 High Roller yesterday evening.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
33,000 | |
|
|
28,500 |
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
PokerNews has activated the My Stack 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.
Level 1
: 100/200, 0 ante
The first alternates have been called up as the field continues to grow with 27 tables in play.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000 | |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
