Almost 12 hours after play got underway, the opening flight of this year’s Stacked Poker Championship has been run and done with 20 of the 68 players who entered bagging a stack ahead of Day 2.
Leading the way is Kit Manuel with 219,500, who soared to the top of the pops late in the evening after a huge clash with Tony Xu. The chips went in on the turn with Xu holding A♥10♥ and Manuel A♠Q♠ on a A♦10♠5♥6♠ board. The 4♠ landed on the river to send the pot Manuel’s way.
He holds a narrow lead over Dion Mavrangelos and 2020 Stacked Poker Championship winner Michael Haddad, while plenty of big names are still in the running – Jonathan Karamalikis and Billy Argyros among them. Steve “The Big Show” Topakas also progressed after flying in from Melbourne Friday morning.
Saturday will see two flights running back-to-back with the second being a Turbo flight for those who bust out of the other two. Each flight allows for players to re-enter up to three times while a “Best Stack Forward” system allows those carrying a short stack to try and better it before Day 2 on Sunday.
As always, PokerMedia Australia will be on the floor from 12pm Saturday until finish to bring you all the live action.
Flight 1A final chip counts:
| Player | Chips |
| Kit Manuel | 219,500 |
| Dion Mavrangelos | 190,000 |
| Michael Haddad | 186,500 |
| Jamie Brown | 181,000 |
| Christopher Colaneri | 109,500 |
| Billy Argyros | 109,500 |
| Jin Li | 102,500 |
| Max Chea | 97,000 |
| Obie Blanusa | 95,500 |
| Samuel K | 94,500 |
| Adam Lutley | 90,500 |
| Michael Mariakis | 83,000 |
| Joe Sanjaev | 65,500 |
| Elliot Esca | 64,500 |
| Adam Cusenza | 62,000 |
| Zhiifan Ye Mata | 60,500 |
| Daniel S | 57,000 |
| Stephen Topakas | 55,500 |
| Jonathan Karamilikis | 53,500 |
| Gavin Best | 53,000 |
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