Day 1A of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at The Star in Sydney gets underway today at 12:30pm with six days of poker to look forward to as the Sydney series reaches It's marquee event.
Some of the players who have already had a successful week during the start of the series and will be looking to add another circuit ring to the collection include; Opening Event champion Jun Wang, Ladies event champion Victoria Boast, Turbo champion Jarryd Godena, Masters champion Michel Bouskila, and last nights $5K Challenge champion Matt Wakeman.
This time last year it was Australia’s Michael Kanaan (pictured) who beat fellow countryman Michael Fraser heads-up to take home a whopping $394,837 after conquering a big field of 1,067 to be crowned champion.
The main event is a $2,200 entry with a guaranteed prize pool of $2,100,000. Being a repechage event, players are allowed to re-enter each day as they attempt to move through to Day 2. Each starting flight will have each player start with a stack of 30,000 and play 14 levels of 45 minutes with breaks scheduled after each three levels.
Day 1B will continue on Saturday. Day’s 1C and 1D will follow-up next Thursday and Friday, December 13 and 14, before Day 2 on Saturday and Day 3 on Sunday switch to hour-long levels and play down to a winner and a new champion.
Follow all the action over the upcoming days right here as the PokerNews live reporting team keep you up to date with all the action from the Main Event.
From the hijack, Stevan Chew opened with a raise to 600. The player to his left called and action folded to Michael O'Grady in the big blind. He made it 2,100. Chew then four-bet, making it 5,100. The other player in the hand folded but O'Grady called.
The flop was and O'Grady checked. Chew put out a small bet of 1,000 and O'Grady called.
The turn was the and O'Grady checked. Chew then put out 20,000 which was enough to put O'Grady all in. O'Grady quickly called for 8,025 and the cards were tabled.
Stevan Chew:
Michael O'Grady:
The river was the and that would seal the double up for O'Grady.
"I thought you had kings," O'Grady said after the hand as a frustrated looking Chew sent over the chips.
Several members of the floor staff were gathered around Michael O'Grady and Najeem Ajez's table with an over 200,000 chip pot in the middle of the table and were discussing a ruling.
According to one of the staff members, O'Grady had moved all in on a flop of after a bet and a raise from Ajez. Ajez was in the tank and at one point said to O'Grady, "I'll show you one if you show me one." O'Grady agreed and Ajez showed the . O'Grady showed his , assuming that Ajez's hand was dead.
Immediately after this, Ajez said, "I call." And as his hand was not dead yet, it didn't hit the muck, his action stood. Ajez turned up his other card, the revealing a flopped straight with . O'Grady was still live with outs to a flush or a straight holding so the floor instructed the rest of the hand to be dealt out.
The turn was the which was safe for Ajez, but the river was the . With that, O'Grady was awarded the pot, making a flush. Ajez was eliminated from the tournament with a shorter stack. After the hand, players at the table continued to discuss the ruling and whether or not Ajez was attempting an angle against O'Grady.
In the end, O'Grady ended up with a massive stack of nearly 250,000 while Ajez hit the rail.
Day 1A of The Star Sydney World Series of Poker Circuit $2,200 Main Event brought out 170 entries but by the end of the day only 31 players had survived the first 14 levels of play. Plenty of notables make it out to play but at the end of the night, Michael Confos was the most notable as he bagged the current chip lead heading into Day 2 with 366,000. Confos won a huge pot against Stan L. towards the end of the night when he rivered a flush to crack aces.
Not all were as lucky as Confos though. Among those who played on Day 1A but didn't survive were the likes of Gautam Dhingra, Stevan Chew, Sam Khoueis, Gary Benson, Billy Argyros, Andrew Hinrichsen, Hari Varma, Jason Gray, and The Star Sydney $5,000 Challenge winner Matt Wakeman. Wakeman floated with an above average stack several times throughout the day, but in the end he wasn't able to stay afloat and hit the rail just before the end of the night.
But it was still an exciting day for some, one being Mladen Vukovic. Fresh off a deep run in the $5,000 Challenge here at the Star Sydney, Vukovic was able to build up a massive stack in the middle of Day 1A. For hours, Vukovic couldn't seem to lose a pot. He knocked out several players including Michael Seymour. In the hand, Vukovic won a race with ace-queen against Seymour's fours and that would push him over the 300,000 chips mark. Vukovic finished the day with 298,000 chips which was good enough for the fifth biggest stack so far.
Michael O'Grady also had eventful day. O'Grady started off the day active, playing a multitude of pots against his stacked table. At one point he doubled through Stevan Chew after turning two pair against Chew's top pair. But the talk of the day happened in a massive pot between O'Grady and Najeem Ajez.
According to one of the staff members, O'Grady had moved all in on a flop of after a bet and a raise from Ajez. Ajez was in the tank and at one point said to O'Grady, "I'll show you one if you show me one." O'Grady agreed and Ajez showed the . O'Grady showed his , assuming that Ajez's hand was dead.
Immediately after this, Ajez said, "I call." And as his hand was not dead yet, it didn't hit the muck, his action stood. Ajez turned up his other card, the revealing a flopped straight with . O'Grady was still live with outs to a flush or a straight holding so the floor instructed the rest of the hand to be dealt out.
The turn was the which was safe for Ajez, but the river was the . With that, O'Grady was awarded the pot, making a flush. Ajez was eliminated from the tournament with a shorter stack. After the hand, players at the table continued to discuss the ruling and whether or not Ajez was attempting an angle against O'Grady.
In the end, O'Grady ended up with a massive stack of nearly 250,000 while Ajez hit the rail. O'Grady wouldn't make it through the day though and lost most of his chips after having a rough few levels to end the night.
Some notable survivors from Day 1A include Jonathan Karamalikis (144,000), Brendon Rubie (106,000), Rahul Rastogi (225,000), Jordan Westmoreland (281,500), Julius Colman (193,500), Luke Martinelli (334,000), Jarred Graham (90,500), and Ricky Kroesen as well who finished the night with 339,500 chips, which was good enough for second place in the flight.
Action continues on Saturday, December 8th at 12:30 p.m. with a brand new flight of players on Flight 1B, the second of four flights. Players who survived this flight will combine with the other survivors on Saturday, December 15th where they will play down into the money and beyond. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as we will continue with updates for the remaining days.