After another star-studded field took to the felt for Day 1B of the WPT Prime Gold Coast Mystery Bounty, Steven Hoek has emerged as the tournament’s overall chip leader.
The 27-year-old builder from Townsville bagged 600,000 neat, with Simon Thwaites (535,000), Jamie Brown (517,000), Charles Tsai (399,000) and Noman Mirza (392,000) rounding out the flight’s top five.
Hoek, who broke through for his first major mid-tier title earlier this year after winning the APLPT Queensland Deep Freeze, was thrilled to learn through PokerMedia Australia that he now holds pole position and plans to play through the rest of the week.
“Yeah, I’m pretty stoked, eh?” Hoek said during his post-match debrief. “This was the first time I’ve had a chance to play since April, as I’ve been home with my little one … now that I reckon I’ve done well in this, I’ll stay on to play the Main Event too!”
Other feature players to have survived included Wayde Rickhuss, Josh Yeomans, Izuchukwu ‘Bobby’ Oparaocha, Rehman Kassam, Neb Blanusa, Jason Anand, Brett Marshall and Scotty Reid.
In all, 34 players have advanced to Day 2, joining the other 25 Day 1A contenders as they battle it out for the first-ever Tier One Mystery Bounty title on Australian soil.
WPT PRIME GOLD COAST MYSTERY BOUNTY – DAY 1B CHIP COUNTS
| Name | Chips |
| Steven Hoek | 600,000 |
| Simon Thwaites | 530,500 |
| Jamie Brown | 517,000 |
| Charles Tsai | 399,000 |
| Noman Mirza | 392,000 |
| Wayde Rickhuss | 326,000 |
| Lewis Murray | 305,000 |
| Jason Anand | 275,000 |
| Robert Damelian | 247,000 |
| Ricardo Di Bella | 244,000 |
| Matthew Tyrrell | 219,500 |
| Shane Foglietta | 215,500 |
| Izuchukwu ‘Bobby’ Oparaocha | 205,000 |
| Rehman Kassam | 160,500 |
| Nebojsa Blanusa | 157,000 |
| Carlos Youssef | 155,000 |
| Jonathan Portelli | 152,000 |
| Mario Doria | 143,500 |
| Giuseppe Gumina | 136,000 |
| Mark Lasarow | 135,500 |
| John Sormi | 131,500 |
| Earlson Ecobiza | 126,500 |
| Qi Xu | 122,500 |
| Benjamin Keith | 112,000 |
| Jonathan Pye | 110,000 |
| John Parker | 109,500 |
| Joshua Yeomans | 93,000 |
| Linda Currie | 90,000 |
| Marcelo Bocero | 81,000 |
| Carmen Ling | 71,000 |
| Scott Reid | 70,000 |
| Brett Marshall | 64,000 |
| Timothy Morck | 52,500 |
| Kento Ito | 49,500 |
PokerMedia Australia will return tomorrow from 11:30am AEST to bring you all the action until the final river falls (and the last coin is drawn) before moving to our special feature article and social media coverage of the $1,500 WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event.
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