Day 1 of the $1,150 Monster Stack Concludes With Nick Varnavelius as One of the Chip Leaders
It was a full house for the $1,150 Monster Stack here at the WSOPC The Star Sydney as the event brought out 469 runners. The event was so popular in fact that over 100 players had to be placed as alternates before they could enter the tournament. In the end, everyone got a seat but not everyone survived the day. Of the 469 runners, 155 will return for Day 2.
Leading the way after the first day of play is Nick Varnavelius. Varnavelius is the former Australasian Sales Manager for Bluff Magazine. These days he's in a different line of work and hasn't played serious tournament poker in what he says must be at least five years. In the end he bagged a stack of 370,500 which was enough to just inch out a pack of players who were nipping at his heels.
Among other notables to make it through the day were the likes of Errolyn Strang (94,000), Daniel Laidlaw (215,000), Sam Khoueis (156,000), John Conomos (206,000), John Lombardo (214,000), Brendon Rubie (250,000), Jarryd Godena (153,000) and Blake Lockwood (300,000) Hannah Lee also had a good day and at one point was the clear chip leader in the room, but by the end of the day she had slipped down to 206,000. She'll return tomorrow to try once again to spin it up.
There were plenty of notables who didn't make it through the day though. Among them were Matt Wakeman, Billy Argyros, Robert Sutherland, Jonathan Karamalikis, Warwick Mirzikinian, Sam Higgs, Chad Awerbuch, Danny Park, Suzy Khoueis, and Sean Dunwoodie just to name a few. The biggest notable to not make it through the day though, was Tim Mitchell, the defending champion of this event.
Mitchell had an exciting day, nearly tripling up to the largest stack in the room very quickly. In the hand, a player moved all in under the gun for 27,000. Mitchell then moved all in over the top on the button. Ken Demlakian was in the big blind and he called it off, creating a three-way monster pot. Demlakian had jacks while the under the gun player was holding six-seven offsuit. Mitchell held ace-eight off suite and would spike an ace to get to nearly 150,000 very early in the day.
But Mitchell would fall before the end of the night. In another monster hand he played, he got most of his chips in with overs and a flush draw against Daniel Laidlaw's pocket nines. Mitchell whiffed both the turn and river and he would be put on a short stack and eliminated not long after. Mitchell's elimination guarantees a new champion for this year and only time will tell who that's going to be.
Players will return at 12:30 p.m. local time on Monday, December 17th and the plan is to play right down to a winner. Action will kick back off in level 17 with blinds of 2,500/5,000 with an ante of 500. Of the 155 remaining, only 54 will cash with a mincash being worth $1,846. The eventual winner of the event will take down $103,359 and a World Series of Poker Circuit ring as well.
PokerNews will be back right at the start of the day with coverage as the next WSOPC ring winner is crowned. So make sure to check back in so you don't miss a thing.
and the player paired his ace to take a big dent out of Karamalikis' stack, putting him on about 20,000 chips.
and action checked to Mitchell who put out a bet of 7,200. Laidlaw then check-raised, making it 18,000 from the big blind. The original raiser and middle position player both folded and it was back on Mitchell who immediately put forward a stack of chips, raising to 122,200. It was enough to put Laidlaw all in and he dropped into the tank. After about 2 minutes, Laidlaw called, putting himself at risk for 96,700 total. 
and the river was the 
, meaning that he would not catch up. Mitchell sent over most of his chips to Laidlaw who doubled to over 200,000 chips.
and Mitchell made a pair of aces to take down the massive pot and eliminate Demlakian in the process. A furious Demlakian stormed off after the hand, commenting on Mitchell's call. But Mitchell sat with a smile as he collected the monster pot.
