Flying high: Michael Falcon bags massive chip lead in Day 1A of WPT Prime Gold Coast Opening Event

Michael Falcon is off to a flying start in the WPT Prime Gold Coast 2023 series, after bagging the chip lead in Day 1A of the $1,000 buy-in Opening Event.

Falcon amassed a massive lead with 857,000 in chips, dominating the 29 players advancing through to Day 2 from the 191 total entries taken in. George Archer (550,000), Jason Anand (501,000), Shane Thompson (485,000) and Adrian Pacheco (474,000) completed the top five.

Speaking with PokerMedia Australia at the end of the night, Falcon said that he is mostly a tournament player who doesn’t normally play top tier events, but usually comes out “five times a year” for the mid-tier tournament series.

Falcon described his day at the tables as “rocky” having lost with pocket Aces three times, but he managed his stack with patience and waited for the right spots to eventually run it up.

With his focus now on getting through Day 2, Falcon said: “My main strategy is to read [other] players. I’m not a show-off kind of player.”

WPT PRIME GOLD COAST OPENING EVENT – DAY 1A CHIP COUNTS

Michael Falcon	851,000
George Archer	550,000
Jason Anand	501,000
Shane Thompson	485,000
Adrian Pacheco	474,000
Win Meng Tan	466,000
Mark Ericksen	393,000
Kiyo Puyat	385,000
Andrew Batey	301,000
Brandon Bailey	282,000
Jarrod Thatcher	248,000
Mishel Anunu	240,000
Gary Lin	233,000
Stephen Boyd	205,000
Attila Bognar	198,000
Charlie Hawes	185,000
Duncan McKinnon	174,000
George Iordanou	168,000
Patrick Barba	166,000
Carlos Youssef	154,000
Mitchell Frost	149,000
John Hutchins	146,000
Mark Lawton	135,000
Dylan Foster	133,000
Lawrence Stephenson	126,000
Jeremy Winlaw	96,000
Lucas Tae	82,000
Mason Trevanion	80,000
Anthony Maglicic	50,000

PMA‘s Live Reporting coverage continues from 2:30pm AEST tomorrow (Friday) with Day 1B of the WPT Prime Gold Coast Opening Event; for more information, including the full schedule of events, visit starpoker.com.au or worldpokertour.com.