George Mitri Leads the $5K Challenge into Day 2
After fifteen 45-minute levels were played out in the first day of the $5,000 Challenge Event, George Mitri will return as the Day 2 chip leader after he bagged an impressive 709,000.
A field of 203 players came together, and 15 of them will return on Friday, November 29, at 2:15 p.m. local time. The field narrowly missed the needed 211 to pass the $1,000,000 guarantee resulting in a slight overlay.
Trailing Mitri are James Obst (534,000) and Honglin Jiang (455,000) who round out the top three. Shivan Abdine (435,000), Adrian Attenborough (333,000), Marc Camphausen (326,000) and Sosia Jiang (138,000) all progressed through.
Big names to depart throughout the day and miss out on the top 21 and a payday included; defending champion of this event Matthew Wakeman, 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Andrew Hinrichsen, last year’s WSOP Circuit Main Event Sydney champion Alex Lynskey, 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Shurane Vijayaram, 2019 WPT Gold Coast Main Event champion Hari Varma, and WSOP bracelet winner Jarred Graham.
Gary Benson and Emmanuel Seal would both be eliminated at the same time on separate tables and ultimately bubble the money. Both would be holding ace-king and find themselves unable to improve against their opponents pocket pairs. Their eliminations would guarantee the remaining 21 players an $11,080 return.
Those to make the money but miss Day 2 include Dean Blatt, Jonathan Karamalikis, David Hanlon, Josh Mitchell and Robert Spano.
When play resumes the blinds will begin at 5,000/10,000/10,000 big blind ante. PokerNews will be back with all the $5K Challenge Day 2 action as the remaining 15 players battle for a place at the final table before playing down to an eventual champion.
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 1 | Ryan Bownds | Australia | 284000 | 28 |
| 32 | 2 | Empty | - | - | - |
| 32 | 3 | Ehsan Amiri | Australia | 327000 | 33 |
| 32 | 4 | Chao Duan | China | 294000 | 29 |
| 32 | 5 | George Mitri | Australia | 709000 | 71 |
| 32 | 6 | Charlie Hawe | Australia | 447000 | 45 |
| 32 | 7 | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | 333000 | 33 |
| 32 | 8 | Michael Doumani | Australia | 165000 | 17 |
| 31 | 1 | Empty | - | - | - |
| 31 | 2 | Vincent Huang | Australia | 339000 | 34 |
| 31 | 3 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | 455000 | 46 |
| 31 | 4 | James Obst | Australia | 534000 | 53 |
| 31 | 5 | Tam Truong | Australia | 285000 | 29 |
| 31 | 6 | Sosia Jiang | New Zealand | 138000 | 14 |
| 31 | 7 | Marc Camphausen | Germany | 326000 | 33 |
| 31 | 8 | Shivan Abdine | Australia | 435000 | 44 |
| 31 | 9 | Partick Laoyont | Australia | 10000 | 1 |
and Laoyont checked. Obst bet out 40,000. Laoyont then moved all-in for 206,000. Obst deliberated for over a minute before making the call with 196,000 behind. 
sending Obst to the lead with a flush. 
on the river changed nothing and Obst secured the double up to rocket into the second-largest stack.
flop was where the fireworks went off, with Marinic moving all-in for 122,000 in total, giving Hawe a tough decision and he asked Abdine how much more he had behind (450k) before hitting the think tank for a few seconds. Hawe eventually chose to move all-in to isolate for ~330,000 and Abdine immediately folded.
river, giving Hawe the flush and sending Marinic out in 16th for AU$13,060.
so it was off to the races once more.
runout again favoured the pocket pair and Abdine stacked up to 470,000 while Benson departed emptyhanded to guarantee the remaining 21 players an AU$11,080 payday.
runout saw Hawe pair his ace and climb to 153,000 after the hand, while Psarras dropped down to 112,000.
