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The Crown Melbourne poker room was busy all day long, as the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship continued with plenty of action and several notable names taking their seats. The second flight of the $2,500 Victorian Champs Main Event drew 126 entries, bringing the overall total to 217 through the first two days of the tournament.
Big hands and familiar faces were the theme of the second day, and the prize pool now sits at A$477,400 with two more flights still to come and late registration open into Day 2.
Only the top 49 survived to earn a place on Day 2, joining the 32 players who found a bag in the opening flight. As the night wrapped up, a new overall leader was revealed with Wadih Barbara collecting 414,500 chips to take over the top spot.
Barbara is the only player so far to collect 100 big blinds for the second day, bagging up a big lead over Jyrki Hilakari (310,500) in second and Brett MacDonald (292,000) in third spot.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wadih Barbara | Australia | 414,500 | 104 |
| 2 | Jyrki Hilakari | Australia | 310,500 | 78 |
| 3 | Brett MacDonald | Australia | 292,000 | 73 |
| 4 | Joshua Abady | United States | 282,000 | 71 |
| 5 | Haibo Chu | Australia | 264,000 | 66 |
| 6 | Higor Seibel | Brazil | 245,000 | 61 |
| 7 | Siyu Du | Australia | 240,000 | 60 |
| 8 | Nik Maljkovic | Australia | 235,500 | 59 |
| 9 | Huy Lam | Australia | 235,000 | 59 |
| 10 | Thomas Pearce | Australia | 234,000 | 59 |
The storyline early on Day 1b was massive coolers, and nobody had a tougher time than Troy Bell. Over the course of two levels, Bell saw his pocket kings run into aces twice to lose both bullets on the day.
Bell first tangled with Jay Chan, as the two players revealed their pocket pairs sitting next to each other for most of the early levels. Both players flopped a set, and Chan's aces left Bell short before losing the last of his chips during the next orbit
After purchasing a fresh staring stack and joining a new table, Bell shoved pocket kings again only to run into aces for a second time. That ended Bell's day early, and he was recounting his bad beats in a Main Event satellite a few hours later.
Among the notable names to join the field was Mel Judah, who suffered the same fate as Bell one level later. The poker veteran also ran kings into aces, and was unable to pull out the miracle to find himself on the rail.
Another familiar face hopped in later in the day, as Randy Lew bubbled Event #14: $500 VPC Hyper before building up a stack in the Main Event. Lew finished with 168,500, collecting almost three starting stacks in his limited time at the table.
One of the bigger hands of the day came shortly before the last break, where Reza Vakili (152,500) came from behind to secure a double knockout. Vakili's stack took a bit of a dip from there, but he earned another elimination on the final hand of the night.
Two more flights remain, with the next chance to join the action getting underway on Friday, October 23 at 12:10 p.m. local time. Players will once again take their seats with 60,000 chips, looking to survive 12 levels of action to earn a spot in Day 2.
The tournament features one reentry per flight, and the clocks will be set to 40-minute levels with blinds of 100/200 and a 200 big blind ante when play gets underway.
Players will see 15-minute breaks after every two hours of action, with everyone earning a bag returning to battle towards the money bubble on Sunday, October 25.
Remaining Schedule
| Date | Day | Time |
|---|---|---|
| October 23 | 1c | 12:10 p.m. |
| October 24 | 1d | 12:10 p.m. |
| October 25 | 2 | 12:30 p.m. |
| October 26 | 3 | 12:30 p.m. |
| October 27 | 4 | 12:30 p.m. |
Two more flights remain, and the prize pool will continue to grow as the $2,500 Victorian Champs Main Event continues. Stay tuned to PokerNews for full coverage, bringing you inside the ropes through the conclusion of the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship.
