AU$500 Opening Event Day 1a | 2018 WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney

11-28-2018 02:32 UTC+10

Michael Hala Bags the Monster Lead at the End of Day 1a

Mateusz_Pater

Level 12 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

WSOP Sydney has begun; 56 players remain after Day 1a

Day 1a of the $500 Opening Event at The Star in Sydney has come to an end. Michael Hala bagged the chip lead as the only player above 300,000. Actually, he was the only player above 200,000 with his nearest rival a staggering 155,000 chips behind. Hala went unnoticed for most of the day, however, a dealer filled the media team in saying that in the stretch of an hour that he was dealing to him he saw at least half a dozen eliminations.

There was a total of 296 entries to take to the felt today, in what was an action-packed day inside the Poker Room. After a long 12 levels of play, only 56 players survived to advance to Day 2 on Saturday. Haoran Zhang (124,200) had a stack hovering around 200,000 towards the end of the day, however he was involved in a big hand against Trevor Saunders (138,000) that saw his pocket tens out-flopped by Saunders’ jack-nine for top two pair.

The top five stacks trailing Hala include Jonathon Maurer (186,900), Laurence Hall (171,900), Russell Thio (163,900) Jie Wu (155,600) and Jun Wang (141,400).

There were many notables fortunate to find a bag at the end of the day, including Kan Liu (137,000) Malcolm Tayner (111,100) Jesse Mason (92,100) Ken Demlakian (67,300), Eric Assadourian (45,000) and Sam Khoueis (22,200).

A few of those that were eliminated throughout the course of the day were Paul Murray, Daniel Laidlaw, Antonis Kambouroglou, Michael O’Grady and Paul Tartak.

A full list of those moving on to Day 2, which will be played on Saturday, December 1, will be posted when it becomes available. The action will resume on Wednesday at 6:15pm with Day 1b of the WSOP Circuit Opening Event in Sydney.

11-27-2018 17:35 UTC+10

Mason Looks the Goods

Mateusz_Pater

Level 1 : 50/100, 0 ante

Jesse Mason just caught the attention of the media team with his large chip stack as well as his choice of attire.

Mason is sporting a floral dress after losing a bet with a friend. In the recent fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, both friends chose a fighter to win, with the loser having to put on a dress for this event.

On a flop of Mason bet and was called by his opponent in middle position. The turn came the and Mason bet 2,000 which was matched. The completed the board and Mason tossed out a large enough bet to see his opponent muck his hand instantly.

Mason sits behind a stack of 37,000 after already taking out a player earlier in the level.

Player	Chips	Progress
Jesse Mason	37,000	37,000

11-27-2018 16:13 UTC+10

Welcome to Day 1a of the 2018 WSOP Circuit Sydney Opening Event

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The Star plays host to the WSOP International Circuit

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit is back for a third consecutive year here at the Star in Sydney, Australia. After two years of great success it has ultimately claimed the title of the world’s largest WSOP international circuit event.

Day 1a of the WSOP Circuit Opening Event gets started today at 6:15pm with six action-packed days of poker to look forward to as the Sydney festival gets underway.

The opening event is the first of 15 events over the next three weeks that will generate a series guarantee of 4.5 million in prize money as well as awarding a WSOP gold circuit ring to each of the eventual champions.

Today’s event has a $500 buy-in with a guaranteed prize pool of $600,000. Players are permitted single re-entry each starting day with a starting stack of 15,000 with 12 levels of 40 minutes scheduled for the day.

The following three days will host the remaining starting days before players return for Day 2 on Saturday before playing down to a winner on Sunday.

Follow all the action over the next six days right here as the PokerNews live reporting team keep you up to date with all the action from the Opening Event.