AU$2,200 Main Event Day 1a | 2019 WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney

11-30-2019 23:42 UTC+10

Day 1A of the Star Sydney WSOP Circuit $2,200 Main Event Ends With Diarmuid O’Kane Crushing the Field

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Level 14 : 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante

Diarmuid O’Kane has almost three times more than his nearest rival

Day 1A of The Star Sydney World Series of Poker Circuit $2,200 Main Event brought out 232 entries but by the end of the day only 34 players had survived the first 14 levels of play. Plenty of notables made it out to play but at the end of the night, Diarmuid O’Kane was the most notable as he bagged the monstrous chip lead heading into Day 2 with 968,500. O’Kane won a massive pot in one of the last hands of the night when he doubled through then chip leader - Matt Pongrass - when his pocket aces trumped Pongrass’ pocket kings.

Not all were as lucky as O’Kane though. Among those who played on Day 1A but didn't survive were the likes of Jonathan Karamalikis, 6-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro, last night’s $5K Challenge winner Shivan Abdine, Jarred Graham, James Obst, Ehsan Amiri and Graeme Putt. Amiri and Putt would get crippled in only the second hand of the day, when they ran separate flush draws into Gaojie Xu’s already made straight, and never improved. They would both fall in the following hands.

Some notable survivors from Day 1A include Jethro Horowitz (379,000) Michael Dao (360,500), David Tang (339,000), and Sam Mrad (321,000) who most likely round out the top five. Ryan Bownds (288,000), Andrew White (231,000), Dean Blatt (182,000), Hari Varma (178,500), Sosia Jiang (164,000) and Tim English (61,000) also progressed.

The action continues on Sunday, December 1st 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, December 7th, 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.

11-30-2019 23:13 UTC+10

Scratch That - O'Kane Captures the Chip Lead

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Level 14 : 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante

Diarmuid O'Kane raised from the cutoff and was called by Matt Pongrass on the button.

The flop came and O'Kane continued with a bet. Pongrass called.

The turn brought the and O'Kane checked. Pongrass bet. O'Kane min-raised back. Pongrass called.

The completed the board and O'Kane immediately moved all in for 370,500 sending Pongrass into the tank.

"This is a fun one," announced Pongrass.

"Do you want me to call?" he added. O'Kane sat motionless and just smiled back.

"You went all in so quickly," continued Pongrass. "I just don't know my friend," finished Pongrass.

An additional minute passed before Pongrass made the call.

O'Kane confidently tabled , and took down the pot, after Pongrass mucked his hand.

"I had kings," confirmed Pongrass after the hand.

Player	Chips	Progress
Diarmuid O'Kane	968,000 938,000	938,000

Matt Pongrass	183,500 -491,500	-491,500

Tags: Matt Pongrass Diarmuid O'Kane

11-30-2019 22:50 UTC+10

Pongrass Eliminates One Late to Confirm Chip Lead

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Level 14 : 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante

The player in the cutoff raised to 10,000 before Matt Pongrass re-raised to 32,000 from the button. The action folded back to the original raiser who three-bet to 120,000. Pongrass four-bet shoved for approximately 400,000. His opponent snap-called with around 250,000 behind.

Pongrass revealed pocket aces and had his opponent's pocket jacks covered.

The board bricked out and Pongrass raked in a pot worth over 500,000.

Player	Chips	Progress
Matt Pongrass	675,000 275,000	275,000

Tags: Matt Pongrass

11-30-2019 18:08 UTC+10

Mehta Triples Up; Takes Out Graham

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Level 9 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Pratik Mehta, Jarred Graham and a third player all committed their chips in holding pocket pairs.

Mehta had , Graham and the third player had .

The flop fell sending Graham to the lead with a set.

The turn brought the which gave the advantage to the third player in the hand.

But it would be the on the river that would improve Mehta to a straight resulting in Graham hitting the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
Pratik Mehta	54,000 24,000	24,000
Jarred Graham	Busted

Tags: Jarred Graham Pratik Mehta

11-30-2019 17:44 UTC+10

Bownds Eliminates Obst

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Level 8 : 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

James Obst had just three-bet to 11,600 when he was faced with a four-bet jam from Ryan Bownds. The total was around 70,000 which had Obst covered.

Obst went into the tank for over a minute before finally making the call with 49,000 behind.

Bownds:
Obst:

The board ran out , improving Bownds to two pair, which was enough to take down the pot and eliminate Obst from the tournament.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ryan Bownds	130,000 35,000	35,000
James Obst	Busted

11-30-2019 11:56 UTC+10

Amiri Triples; Putt Eliminated

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Level 1 : 100/200, 0 ante

Graeme Putt moved all in for his remaining 1,300 from under the gun before Andrew White raised to 2,600 from under the gun plus one. Ehsan Amiri moved all-in for his last 1,000 from the hijack.

Amiri:
White:
Putt:

The board ran out awarding Amiri with the main pot after rivering a straight.

White would turn an ace to best Putt's small pocket pair sending him to the rail early in the day's proceedings.

Player	Chips	Progress
Andrew White	23,100 -2,300	-2,300
Ehsan Amiri	3,300 2,300	2,300
Graeme Putt	Busted

Tags: Andrew White Ehsan Amiri Graeme Putt

11-30-2019 11:51 UTC+10

Xu Triples Up in the Second Hand of the Day

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Level 1 : 100/200, 0 ante

The action started with Graeme Putt raising to 400 from under the gun plus one. Andrew White then re-raised to 1,400 from the next seat over. Gaojie Xu called from middle position as did Ehsan Amiri from the cutoff. Putt called.

The flop came and Putt and White checked. Xu fired out 3,100. Amiri quickly called. Putt and White followed shortly after.

The turn brought the and once again Putt and White checked. Xu slid out 14,000.

"Might be a quick one," announced Amiri, after moving all in for 25,600.

Putt then made the call with 26,900 behind. White got out of the way. Xu snap-called.

Xu:
Amiri:
Putt:

Xu had flopped a straight and led against Amiri and Putt who both had big pieces of the board.

The on the river would change nothing resulting in Xu tripling up in only the third hand of the day.

Player	Chips	Progress
Gaojie Xu	93,900 63,900	63,900
Andrew White	25,400 -4,600	-4,600
Graeme Putt	1,300 -28,700	-28,700
Ehsan Amiri	1,000 -29,000	-29,000

Tags: Andrew White Ehsan Amiri Gaojie Xu Graeme Putt

11-30-2019 08:40 UTC+10

Welcome to Day 1A of the 2019 WSOP Circuit Sydney Main Event

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Last Year's Main Event Champion Alex Lynskey.

Day 1A of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at The Star in Sydney gets underway today at 12:30pm with seven 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; Monster Stack champion Pravishil Singh, Turbo champion Hunter Song, NLH 6 Max champion Nathan Susnig, and last nights $5K Challenge champion Shivan Abdine.

This time last year it was Australia’s Alex Lynskey (pictured) who beat fellow countryman Matt Pongrass heads-up to take home a whopping $422,796 after conquering a record field of 1,191 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.

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.