Just 4,000 chips separate Harry Basle (529,000) and Marcel Zapantzis (525,000) following a massive Day 1B of the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast main event at The Star Gold Coast.
The duo were the only players to top the half-million mark on Friday, joining Thursday’s chip leader Hussein Hassan (533,000) as the men to catch on Day 2.
But the big news was the 330 players who took to the felt for the event’s second flight, joining the 340 from Day 1A for a combined total of 670 entries so far.
With one more flight remaining, it seems almost certain that we’ll crack the magic 1,000 mark – a tremendous result for the WPT and testimony to the enormous desire of the Australian poker community to see poker back where it belongs following the trials and tribulations of the past 12 months.
There were plenty of familiar faces hitting the felt Friday, among them Robert Campbell, Jason Gray, Tyron Krost, Vincent Wan, Hari Varma, Warwick Mirzikinian, Ken Demlakian, David Sebesfi, Chad Awerbuch, Dennis Huntly, Robert Spano, Peco Stojanovski and Mike Maddocks.
Of those, Krost, Huntly, Stojanovski and Maddocks survived the day’s play, as did Michel Bouskila, Martin Ward, Jimmy Ghobrial and Emmanuel Seal. In total, 46 have progressed through to Day 2, joining the 52 from Thursday’s opening flight.
The top 5 chip counts from Day 1B are:
Harry Basle – 529,000
Marcel Zapantzis – 525,000
Brooke Colless – 405,000
Jack Drake – 405,000
Russell Fogarty – 405,000
The PMA team will back again tomorrow for Day1C of the main event so be sure to join us at pokermedia.com.au from 11.30am as we bring you all the action from The Star Gold Coast.
Article Credit to Poker Media Australia – https://www.pokermedia.com.au/2021/05/27/hussein-hassan-leads-the-way-after-day-1a-of-wptdeepstacks-gold-coast/
Photo credit to Poker Media Australia & The Star Gold Coast