Jayden Zalac bags WPT League Championship Day 1C Chip lead; that’s a wrap!
Sydneysider Jayden Zalac has topped the counts on the biggest flight so far in this Main Event. 201 total entries took the live prize pool to well beyond the $250,000 guarantee with Saturday’s flight poised to break records.
In his chat to PokerMedia Australia, Zalac was energetic following the eight hours of play.
“Yeah, feeling thrilled,” he began, “I had a good run.”
“Right near the end we squeezed Jacks and got four-bet jammed for sixty bigs, snapped it off. Faced sixes… held. Big double-up.”
Sealing his bag with 580,000 within, Zalac’s aggressive style of play means he won’t play any differently on Day 2, even if he were a short stack.
“Anything changes, I don’t get attached to a big chip lead. In the past, I’ve had shallow stacks and spun it up.”
We’ll be keeping an eye on Zalac, as he’ll be sure to provide plenty of action as qualifiers from this massive field return for Day 2 on Sunday.
Full Day 1C chip counts:
| Name | Chips |
| Jayden Zalac | 580,000 |
| Kris Lee | 568,000 |
| Adnan Al-Maliki | 484,000 |
| Tim De Pater | 454,000 |
| Benjamin Jee | 417,000 |
| Andres Vasquez | 351,000 |
| Prithvi Nejjur | 348,000 |
| Frank Gorial | 336,000 |
| Madi Kishore | 328,000 |
| Ammar Louis | 320,000 |
| Dean Boskovic | 319,000 |
| Mark James Green | 315,000 |
| Khal Fayad | 296,000 |
| Jarod Cunningham | 285,000 |
| Steven Huynh | 285,000 |
| Mark Green SJB | 272,000 |
| Robert Jemison Budd | 269,000 |
| Jerry Buraga | 262,000 |
| Rebal Bou Fakhreddine | 247,000 |
| Visal Kim | 240,000 |
| Watson Poulivaati | 221,000 |
| Kresimir Kardum | 212,000 |
| Andrew Lynch | 211,000 |
| Andriy Chernysh | 203,000 |
| Xin Qi | 189,000 |
| Declan Russell | 181,000 |
| Zoran Tosic | 180,000 |
| Hai Vu | 159,000 |
| Dominic Tso | 141,000 |
| Mai Nguyen | 137,000 |
| Robert Liu | 128,000 |
| Phuc Hoang | 127,000 |
| Aleix Castro | 123,000 |
| Jamal Ishac | 113,000 |
| John Caridad | 112,000 |
| Hung Pham | 107,000 |
| Yu Han | 98,000 |
| Manoj Kapoor | 95,000 |
| Paul Sammour | 86,000 |
| Eric Fajardo | 78,000 |
| Tofick Galiell | 78,000 |
| Adam Khalidi | 68,000 |
| Alan Wilson | 58,000 |
Liu hangs in
Robert Liu faced the prospect of a second consecutive Level 12 elimination when he was all-in and at risk against Andres Vasquez.
Liu: 3♠3♦
Vasquez: A♠Q♥
Board: 7♦K♣5♣J♣2♠
Liu once again prevailed in the battle between the two, doubling up to secure a Day 2 seat.
| Robert Liu | 128,000 |
| Andres Vasquez | 351,000 |
Level 12: 2,000/4,000 (4,000)
De Pater speculator
Tim De Pater has eliminated a player in a huge cooler.
De Pater: K♠K♣
Opponent: A♥A♦
All the chips got in the middle pre, and De Pater spiked the turn to chip-up well on the 8♠3♦2♠K♥8♥ spread.
| Tim De Pater | 454,000 |
Chebib crushed
It was a delightful window card on the flop for Steve Chebib, but it ended there as the rest of the board spread to send him home.
All the chips were in the middle pre flop when Chebib turned over 4♠4♥, seeing he was well behind Watson Poulivaati’s A♠A♣.
Board: A♥3♣4♦9♥J♦
| Watson Poulivaati | 183,000 |
| Steve Chebib | BUSTED! |
Level 11: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Ming bet
Robert “Ming” Liu has made a lucky escape in a hand against Andres Vasquez.
Vasquez limped the button, and Declan Russell made the decision to limp also, executing a completion from the small blind. Liu awoke to 7♠6♠ and chose to slow play, employing a check.
Flop: 6♦8♠A♠
Action checked to Vasquez, who bet 3,000. Russell contemplated briefly before releasing his cards into the muck with a helicopter fold. Liu fired a check-raise, totalling 9,000.
Vasquez called to see a turn, the A♥, to which Liu moved all-in for his remaining 26,500.
Vasquez quickly called and turned over [invalid notations].
The river 10♠ was good enough to keep Liu in the game.
| Robert Liu | 79,500 |
| Andres Vasquez | 192,000 |
Level 10: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
Count it out
Let’s get an update on how some of the top stacks are sitting. Khal Fayad leads the way, sitting just shy of 300,000.
| Player | Chips |
| Khal Fayad | 296,500 |
| Madi Kishore | 219,000 |
| Rob Spano | 187,500 |
| Emmanuel Derecho | 176,000 |
| Jayden Zalac | 162,000 |
| Mark James Green | 152,100 |
| Ashor Schlemon | 146,000 |
| Frank Gorial | 145,000 |
Big moves
As our reporter brushed past Table 3, Tim Caruana called out to him to stay near the table.
“Is this live reporting?” He began.
“Stick around, I’m gonna make a big move this hand,” were his precise words as the dealer delivered him his hole cards.
UTG open-jammed for 10,100 and both the cutoff and Caruana from the small blind made the call.
Board: 3♠6♠A♣3♣3♥
Action checked all the way through to the river and showdown revealed K♦10♥ for one player, Q♦J♠ for another, and Caruana showed 8♥8♦ for the winner.
| Tim Caruana | 88,000 |
Level 6: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Doing it Em-manuel-ly
A flop of A♥7♣4♣ saw three players move all-in. One had flopped a set with 4♥4♦, whilst Michelle Psarras had an open-ended straight draw with 6♠5♣, and Emmanuel Derecho held the lead with A♣K♣.
The 9♣ on the turn handed Derecho the nut flush, needing to avoid the board pairing in order to triple-up.
The river brought a fourth club in the form of the 2♣, handing Psarras the winner in the side pot against her opponent’s set of fours.
| Emmanuel Derecho | 144,000 |
| Michelle Psarras | 43,000 |
Level 5: 400/800 (800)
More photos!
Our photographer is doing the rounds, trying to capture as many faces in action as possible.
Terrible for Ivan
Ivan Alloshe fell victim to a flip in a hand against Sleiman Ghani.
A series of raising and re-raising lead to all the chips getting in the middle pre-flop as the players went to showdown.
Alloshe: J♦J♣
Ghani: A♦K♣
Board: 7♠4♠2♦K♥5♥
Alloshe was sent to the rail whilst Ghani enjoyed a helpful chip-up.
Level 4: 300/600 (600)
Around the grounds
Plenty more faces are jumping into the action, let’s have a peek at the photo gallery so far!
Triple-barrel
The current leader of the Player of the Series standings, Tim De Pater has taken a hefty pot in his direction to sit comfortably in the early stages of play.
De Pater opened to 1,000 from UTG+1 and was met with a flurry of callers. The player in the big blind raised to 4,500, but it wasn’t enough to scare off any players as the table went 5 ways to a flop.
On 6♠6♣4♠, the big blind player continued with a bet of 5,200. De Pater made the call and all others folded.
Turn: 10♦
A second barrel was fired from the player in the big blind, and De Pater called again.
The river brought the A♦ to the board and the big blind moved all-in. De Pater snap called to see his A♠J♠ was the winner against A♥9♣, resulting in an elimination.
| Tim De Pater | 135,000 |
Level 3: 200/400 (400)
Rebal with a cause
Rebal Bou Fakhreddine has found a triple-up, effecting two eliminations in a huge cooler on Table 2.
Fakhreddine’s 8♣8♦ found itself up against 7♥4♥ and A♠A♣ as all the chips got in on a flop of 8♠7♣4♦.
The runout came K♦,4♠ to hand Fakhreddine the better full house to grant him an early tournament chip lead.
| Rebal Bou Fakhreddine | 156,000 |
Chip-ups to catch up
Let’s have a look at yesterday’s qualifiers to make it through to Day 2 after bagging in Day 1B.
Marco Perri leads the way, followed closely by Daniel Awad. Today’s players will have plenty of chips in play to work with, as the expected turnout is due to be the largest of the series so far for a flight.
| Name | Chips |
| Marco Perri | 688,000 |
| Daniel Awad | 609,000 |
| Domenic Galati | 483,000 |
| Ivan Z | 413,000 |
| Simote Fish Poulivaati | 339,000 |
| Rabie El Hage | 335,000 |
| George Paravinja | 318,000 |
| Cameron Chen | 289,000 |
| Michael Diab | 288,000 |
| David Hirst | 270,000 |
| Daniel Veljkovic | 244,000 |
| Frank Maltese | 231,000 |
| David Nguyen SJP | 221,000 |
| Sailendra Sha | 218,000 |
| Michal Jalc | 212,000 |
| Rob The Notorious Ovseev | 212,000 |
| Sarie Habbi | 204,000 |
| Wesley Guo | 196,000 |
| Xuzhou Wu | 181,000 |
| Shengning Yang | 177,000 |
| Laurence Hall | 172,000 |
| Sam Capra | 170,000 |
| Nenad Vujancevic | 164,000 |
| Duane Takiari | 155,000 |
| Cezary Klimczak | 154,000 |
| Sal Ali | 141,000 |
| John Greenbay Nguyen | 137,000 |
| Alex E | 126,000 |
| Collin Tran | 123,000 |
| Neng Zhao | 122,000 |
| Nick Roth | 120,000 |
| Rellim Clark | 120,000 |
| Brock Munro | 110,000 |
| Ming Zhu | 102,000 |
| Wanyang Liu | 95,000 |
| Pooria Asaadi | 56,000 |
Level 2: 200/300
Mai chips now
Mai Nguyen has gotten the perfect start to her Main Event. Merely minutes into Day 1C, a huge hand took place against an unnamed opponent.
A limp from UTG was met with a raise from Nguyen to 1,100 from the hijack. The player on the button called and UTG called also.
The flop came K♠4♠K♣ and UTG checked to Nguyen who followed up with a bet to 2,200. The button made the call and UTG then check-raised to 5,600, getting Nguyen as the only caller to see a turn.
The 5♥ turn card saw UTG bet 11,000 and Nguyen called once more and requested of the dealer a “red card please!” Later claiming she put UTG on a flush draw.
The river came the 7♥, completing both the board and Nguyen’s request. UTG bet 15,000 and Nguyen snap-slammed all of her chips into the middle, sending the UTG player into the blender.
“Are there rebuys?” He enquired of the dealer.
The following 30 seconds became a Q&A on the Main Event terms and conditions. UTG continued to query the dealer.
“If I rebuy today, can I still play tomorrow?”
Once made aware of his rights, he made the call and was excitedly shown 7♠7♣, rendering useless UTG’s flopped trips with K♦2♦.
| Mai Nguyen | 101,800 |
| UTG | BUSTED! |
Cards in the air
Play has begun with 53 entrants already seated, and a steady queue flowing through the registration desk will add many more. 95 entrants is the magic number needed to surpass the guaranteed prize pool amount, let’s see how early we get there!
Level 1: 100/200
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Our coverage of the Stacked Adelaide Poker Festival Main Event final will commence at 3pm ACST. While you wait, relive the highlights from Day 1A and the Day 1B & Day 1C double-header, check out our latest news articles and other Live Reporting blogs, and give us a like and follow across all our socials to get access to our bonus content.
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