Joe Sandaev stands tall after Day 1 of Stacked Adelaide Poker Festival $4K Challenge

Joe Sandaev has finished on the pops after the first day of play in the 2023 Stacked Adelaide Poker Festival $4K Challenge.

The South Australian wunderkind – who has fast become one of the hottest players on the Aussie circuit after his success at last year’s WPT Australia festival and back-to-back Main Event victories at Stacked Social – bagged 536,000 in chips, followed closely by Australian Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson, who ended the session with 513,000.

Named in honour of another living legend of the game in Billy ‘The Croc‘ Argyros, many of the nation’s finest took to the felt at the boutique poker room in Adelaide’s north yesterday evening, including Kenny Wang, Adrian Pacheco, Adam Cusenza, Gary Lin, Marco Perri, Jerry Zhang and reigning GPI Australian Player of the Year, Yita Choong.

Day 2 of The Croc’s $4K Challenge will commence at 2pm ACST, with late registration and re-entries still available through the first two levels of play and closing at approximately 3:20pm.

STACKED ADELAIDE POKER FESTIVAL – THE CROC’S $4K CHALLENGE DAY 2 SEAT DRAW

Table 1

Seat	Name	Chips
1	Gary Benson	513,000
2
3	Pierce Hynes	149,000
4	Jerry Zhang	147,000
5	Yita Choong	283,000
6
7	Neb Blanusa	257,000
8
9	Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros	211,000

Table 2

Seat	Name	Chips
1	Adam Cusenza	201,000
2
3	Marco Perri	297,000
4	Adrian Pacheco	349,000
5	Chris Edgar	234,000
6
7	Higor Sebel	480,000
8
9	Weng Wong	111,000

Table 3

Seat	Name	Chips
1	David Ewing	90,000
2	Wilson Luong	135,000
3
4	Gary Lin	421,000
5
6
7	Joe Sandaev	536,000
8
9	Fotis Fotakis	200,000

Although he returns today as the short stack in The Croc’s $4K Challenge, David Ewing – who finished runner-up in the Stacked Poker Championship Main Event back in February – is already in the winner’s circle after taking out the $450 Monster Stack after defeating American ex-pat Mike Gainer heads-up for $9,000 in prize money.

That was before Nik Karandrikas became the first player to win a Progressive KO tournament at Stacked Social, good for a $6K payday, while Tin Win once again lived up to his name last Sunday night after shipping the Opening Mini Main Event for a top prize worth $13,000.

PokerMedia Australia‘s coverage will continue today with Day 2 of the $4K Challenge, before leading into Day 1A of the $2,000 buy-in Main Event at 6pm local time. For more information, images and results from the Stacked Adelaide Poker Festival, visit stackedsocial.com.au or follow Stacked Poker on Facebook.