Evan Tsirgiotis and Jerry Zhang bag chip leads for Stacked DeepStacks Main Event Days 1B and 1C respectively; that’s a wrap!
Evan Tsirgiotis emerged best in terms of counts from the 58 entries in Flight 1B of the Main Event, and Jerry Zhang the same for 1C from a field of 21.
Tsirgiotis flew under the radar for the majority of the day, and when speaking with PokerMedia Australia following the end of play, it’s not difficult to see why.
“Patient, I’ve been patient, playing with patient.” He explained.
In a similar theme to second chip leader from Day 1A, Thomas Hubber, the word ‘patience’ was a driving theme behind Tsirgiotis’ success.
The Adelaide poker veteran believes he’s playing with more maturity, though concedes he was surprised to have bagged a total of 234,500.
“I was scrambling for the first seven levels!”
New to the Stacked Poker scene, the lung specialist has enjoyed the tournament so far and plans to continue to grind away.
Evan Tsirgiotis
With 321,000 to his name. Jerry Zhang top scored for flight 1C, and it was always going to be a question of “who can catch him?” after he effected the triple-knockout at the start of play.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he began to say in conversation with PokerMedia Australia.
Winning that hand definitely helped a lot, it allowed me to keep putting pressure on other players.
The Adelaide based swimming coach was drowning in chips for the majority of the levels, springing up and down in counts but always above the 200,000 mark.
Jerry Zhang
We’ll be back with all the live coverage of Day 2 of the Stacked DeepStacks Main Event from 2:00pm ACDT. Stay tuned, and good luck to all players who will be battling it out!
Full counts are below for those who bagged from Days 1B and 1C.
PlayerChipsEvan Tsirgiotis234,500.Chris Edgar221,000.Jacyn Che210,000.Adam Cusenza196,000.Lionel Seah187,500.Neb Blanusa184,500.Gary Lin162,500.Chris Parker159,000.Huey Lam147,500.Armon van Wijk128,000.Joe Sandaev118,000.James Ong116,000.Jonathan Bennet109,000.Oliver Daly106,500.Damiano Aloi105,500.Andy Ngo100,500.Pierce Hynes100,500.David Sun95,000.Tyendel West87,000.Francesco Sergi74,000.Hayden Russell58,000.FLIGHT 1C:FLIGHT 1C:Jerry Zhang321,000.Blake Duessen261,500.Mike Gainer211,500.Bunteon Bok181,500.Jamie Pham74,500.
Mehta-verse
It was Milan Mehta versus two opponents in back-to-back hands that epitomised the rollercoaster ride that poker can be.
Jubilation broke out when Mehta’s 10♥10♦ held against Mike Gainer’s 7♦7♣ on Q♠3♦5♥A♥2♥.
The next hand saw Blake Deussen limp from the button for 2,000, before Mehta bumped the total price to 7,500. The player in the big blind defended, and Deussen again flatted the bet presented to him.
The flop of J♦5♦3♦ was almost perfect for Mehta, who held J♥J♣ and lead for 8,000. The big blind folded, and Deussen called.
Deussen jammed on the turn 4♣, after Mehta lead for 20,000. Mehta took his time and pondered, as a call would put his tournament life at risk.
“I’ve got a set of jacks,” said Mehta, with a sense of dread, almost expecting to be beaten as he made the call.
Deussen turned over his Q♦4♦, and with Mehta begging for the board to pair, Deussen held as the river fell the 7♣.
Blake Deussen177,000Milan MehtaBUSTED!
Milan Mehta
Your loss, my Gain-er
There’s been aggressive action a-plenty, with the turbo structure allowing the all-in triangle to do its best impression of a pinball as it repeatedly bounces from one end of the table to the other.
Mike Gainer found a double through Jin Li, with pre-flop action seeing Li re-raise to 40,000 after an initial raise of 4,000 from Gainer and another opponent’s call. Gainer short called for his remaining 39,200 and the other player cleared the way.
Li: A♣J♣
Gainer: Q♠10♣
Board: Q♦2♣7♠J♠2♥
Mike Gainer
Pham Li pot
Jin Li has found himself amongst plenty of action throughout the course of the flight, and this time sees himself providing another opponent with a much needed double-up. Jamie Pham moved all-in for a total of 29,200 and found Li as his only caller.
Pham: K♦K♣
Li: A♠K♠
Board: 5♥9♦3♠6♥8♦
Jamie Pham63,400Jin Li136,000
Jamie Pham
Flight 1C Level 10: 1,000/2,000 (2,000) > Level 12: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
The max for Mini, the min for Amin
Amin Chehade’s ploy to slow-play his K♦J♣ backfired heavily when Blake Deussen was allowed to see a river card that would give him a straight, relegating Chehade’s top two-pair to second best.
Deussen: A♠Q♣
Board: K♠4♦5♥J♥10♥
Meanwhile, Mini Chea benefited from waking up with Q♦Q♣ at the right time, moving all-in and finding a call from Jin Li’s K♦Q♥.
A clean runout of 3♠7♥2♣5♥7♠ allowed Chea to double-up.
Blake Deussen113,200Mini Chea58,900Jin Li68,000Amin ChehadeBUSTED!
Blake Deussen
Check again
Three streets of post-flop checking took place on Table 2, though that didn’t prevent it from being an entertaining hand.
With a 15,000 pot generated pre-flop, the board resulted in a 6♣5♠J♦3♣4♥ display.
“King-Queen good?” Asked Sammy Adibi as he turned over K♠Q♣.
Bok laughed as he turned over A♦4♣ and remarked, “How do you think King-Queen could be good there?!”
Bok
Jerry can
Jin Li has set off to sort out a third entry into flight 1C. After Jerry Zhang’s triple-knockout saw Li as one of the victims, Li’s second bullet came to an end shortly after.
Zhifan Ye’s J♠J♣ was too strong for Li’s K♥J♥ as the two got it in the middle pre-flop and the board spread 7♥4♣2♠9♣9♠.
This left Li with merely 6,900. That amount made its way to the middle the following hand, and was met with a call from Jerry Zhang, looking to knock out Li for the second time within a half an hour period.
Zhang: A♠A♣
Li: Q♠J♦
Board: 2♠3♦2♠K♠8♣
Jerry Zhang215,000Jin LiBUSTED!
Jerry Zhang
Playing catch-up
With the delayed start to Flight 1B, as well as the addition of an unscheduled dinner break, overlapping of flights sees us jumping into 1C’s coverage from the halfway mark.
Not to worry! A couple of biggest hands from the early stages were captured to add context to current play!
Arguably the hand of the tournament took place in flight 1C, Level 1. With the blinds still at 100/200.
Four players were all in pre-flop and the chance to potentially quadruple up presented itself to one of them.
Jerry Zhang: K♥K♣
Jin Li: Q♠Q♥
Sandy Sinclair: A♣Q♣
Frank P: A♦J♠
Board: 8♣J♣6♠3♦5♦
Jerry Zhang200,000Jin LiBUSTED!Sandy SinclairBUSTED!Frank PBUSTED!
Jerry Zhang
Jin Li
Flight 1C Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000) > Level 9: 800/1,600 (1,600)
Bitter end for Souren
“All-in, call!”
Our reporter rushed over to see an unusual battle of hands between Pierce Hynes and Souren Tayyebi, with the latter at risk.
Tayyebi: 7♠7♦
Hynes: J♣2♦
Board: K♦A♥J♥6♥6♦
Pierce Hynes109,500Souren TayyebiBUSTED!
Pierce Hynes
Level 12: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Seah later
Jerry Zhang has hit the rail after running his Q♥Q♣ into Lionel Seah pre-flop.
Seah’s A♠Q♠ spiked top pair on 6♥A♦4♣9♣9♥, with Zhang unable to recover by hitting a one-outer.
Lionel Seah162,000Jerry Zhang57,500
Pham-ily friendly
Jamie Pham’s ploy to limp from under-the-gun proved fruitful when Adam Cusenza over-limped from the cutoff, the small blind completed and the big blind checked their option.
On a flop of 2♥2♠7♠, Pham lead the flop for 5,000 and found Cusenza as his only caller.
The K♦ turn saw Pham check to Cusenza who bet 7,500. Pham check-raised all-in and Cusenza called.
Pham: 6♦2♠
Cusenza: K♠Q♠
River: J♦
Jamie Pham133,000Adam Cusenza55,000
Jamie Pham
Level 11: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
The Daly nail
Oliver Daly nailed a correct call when faced with having to risk his entire stack.
We caught action from the turn where Irene Bennett bet 11,500 on a board displaying J♦A♣J♥Q♠. Daly called, and the UTG player cleared the road for the river to fall the 4♣.
Bennett moved all-in for her remaining 40,000, which covered Daly.
Daly pondered for over two minutes before calling and the two went to showdown.
Daly: A♥10♥
Bennett: Q♣10♣
Oliver Daly115,000Irene Bennett6,500
Oliver Daly
Level 10: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Air Jordan
Jordan K was eliminated in a pot involving interesting pre-flop action.
A UTG raise to 2,700 was met with Jordan firing the remainder of his 15,500 into the middle. Spiro Tzerefos four-bet re-jammed over the top for 39,700 which lead the original raiser to reluctantly fold.
Tzerefos: 6♥6♣
Jordan: J♣10♦
Jordan could hit only air as the board followed: 2♦5♠8♠K♦9♥
Spiro Tzerefos61,000Jordan KBUSTED!
Spiro Tzerefos
Joe, Joe, Joe, your boat!
Accepting defeat at the hands of Zhifan Ye’s 9♥6♦ when Ye turned the straight, it was easy to miss that the rivered three-of-a-kind on the board saved Joe Sandaev’s tournament life.
Sandaev: Q♥Q♦
Board: 8♠8♥10♣7♦8♣
Standing up and ready to walk away, Sandaev chuckled as he reclaimed his seat.
Level 9: 800/1,600 (1,600)
Set to go
Two players have felt the pain of running into sets, one of which saw the elimination of Irene Bennett. Jamie Pham called Bennett’s turn shove and showed her the bad news.
Pham: 6♠6♥
Bennett: A♥8♥
Board: 6♦8♦3♠5♠K♦
Shortly after, Adam Cusenza handed Spiro Tzerefos a double-up.
Tzerefos: 5♠5♦
Curenza: 10♦9♥
Board: 5♣10♠7♦2♣2♦
Jamie Pham145,000Spiro Tzeferos51,000Adam Curenza108,000Irene BennettBUSTED!
Ngo-ing, Ngo-ing, Ngo-ne
After the decimation at the hands of Damiano Aloi, Gary Lin clawed back from 1,100 to 15,100.
However, when Lin’s A♦J♠ was called by A♥Q♦, he was in trouble.
The flop came K♠K♥K♦ providing slim hope of a chop, but that hope was dashed as the remaining runout followed with 8♦,6♣ to send Lin out of his seat.
Andy Ngo46,100Gary LinBUSTED!
Andy Ngo
Level 8: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Oliver twisting the screws
Oliver Daly has effected an elimination in the form of Adam Cusenza. The all-in and call occurred pre-flop and the two flipped over their hands.
Daly: A♣J♣
Cusenza: Q♥J♥
Board: 8♥9♣4♥2♣9♦
Despite the nervy-flop, Daly held firm to build his stack further into the day.
Oliver Daly61,200Adam CusenzaBUSTED!
Oliver Daly
DamiAAno
Gary Lin copped a nightmare situation when he saw his K♠K♥ was facing up against the A♦A♣ of Damiano Aloi.
With a flop of 6♠7♠5♠, a feeling of dread came upon Aloi who began to beg for a friendly runout:
“Red! Red!”
Any non spade would see Aloi double, and with the following 7♥,J♥, he did.
The stacks were almost identical in size and Lin was left with mere crumbs following the cooler.
Damiano Aloi132,500Gary Lin1,100
Damiano Aloi
How are the numbers stacking up?
It’s a case of it being Pierce Hynes, and everybody else so far on Day 1B. The counts say it all, as we look at the top five at the halfway point of the flight.
PlayerChipsPierce Hynes275,900Huey Lam151,400Chris Edgar135,000James Ong123,000Chris Parker107,000
Pierce Hynes
Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Sun burnt
With minutes until the second break, Tin Win picked up the scalp of David Sun.
With the chips all-in pre, the short stacked Sun needed to hit in order to catch up.
Win: A♥6♠
Sun: Q♠10♦
Board: 8♦6♣2♠4♥5♦
Tin Win46,500David SunBUSTED!
Joe Lin-it holdem
Joe Sandaev and Gary Lin played out a hand on Table 4. Damiano Aloi was the one who opened the action, making a bet of 1,700. Sandaev three-bet to 5,500 and Lin four-bet from the small blind to 12,500.
Aloi folded from UTG+1 and Sandaev called in position from the lojack.
Flop: 4♠2♣4♥
Lin lead the flop for 7,000, Sandaev contemplated briefly before making the call.
The turn brought the K♥ and Lin bet the remainder of his stack, for a total of 27,000. Sandaev again took his time to deliberate before sliding his cards to the muck.
Gary Lin71,100Joe Sandaev55,000
Gary Lin
Level 6: 400/800 (800)
Edgar right cards, right time
Chris Edgar has picked up aces in the perfect spot, faced against two all-in and at-risk players, he held strong to cause the departure of Harry Sanderson and David Cochrane.
Edgar: A♠A♦
Cochrane: 8♦8♣
Sanderson: A♥K♥
Board: 3♥3♠6♦J♣J♠
Chris Edgar120,500David CochraneBUSTED!Harry SandersonBUSTED!
Chris Edgar
“That’s what I was afraid of!”
Those were the words of Irene Bennett upon seeing Leeroy Turnbull’s cards when he called her all-in bet on the turn.
Flop action on Table 5 saw James Ong fire a continuation after opening pre-flop and getting calls from both Bennett and Turnbull in the small and big blind respectively.
On the 10♦6♠3♠ flop, Irene raised Ong’s 1,600 up to 3,600. Turbull paid to see a turn and Ong folded.
With the Q♠, Bennett opened-jammed for 36,200 and was snap-called by Turnbull.
Turnbull: K♦10♣
Bennett: 9♠7♠
The irrelevant Q♣ on the river confirmed Bennett’s elimination.
Leeroy Turnbull88,000Irene BennettBUSTED!
Leeroy Turnbull
Level 5: 300/600 (600)
Joe-vial entrance
Making a late appearance to get started on Day 1B, Joe Sandaev is off to a solid start, almost doubling his starting stack.
Sandaev opened from UTG and was called by Andy Ngo from UTG+1 and Neb Blanusa in the cutoff.
On A♥3♣Q♦, Sandaev continued for 1,110 and found a call from Ngo. Blanusa raised to 6,500 and was called by both opponents.
The turn brought the 3♦ to the table, and Blanusa bet 11,000 when checked to. Sandaev was the only caller to the J♠ to which both players checked.
Sandaev showed A♠K♦ to claim the pot.
Joe Sandaev97,000Neb Blanusa72,000Andy Ngo33,000
Joe Sandaev
Win loss
With 5,000 in the pot leading up to the turn card in a hand on Table 2, the board showed K♠5♣2♠A♦. Jonathan Bennett checked from the big blind, and Tin Win bet 2,800.
Bennett then check-raised to 8,000 and was called by Win. Bennett continued his aggression on the river and lead for 10,000 when the final card dropped as the 10♥.
Win paid him off and mucked when Bennett showed 4♦3♦ for the wheel.
Jonathan Bennett98,800Tin Win55,000
Jonathan Bennett
State of stack
After eliminating Armon Van Wijk moments before the break, it’s Huey Lam with the chip advantage after two hours of play. The majority of the field are hovering around the start stack amount, with only few players carrying large stacks.
PlayerChipsHuey Lam161,000James Ong137,800Neb Blanusa104,000Souren Tayyebi71,100David Sun66,600Damiano Aloi59,600
Huey Lam
Level 4: 300/500 (500)
Costs an Armon a leg
A re-entry sees Armon Van Wijk go in for the second leg of his Day 1B after a monster pot against Heuy Lam on the brink of the break.
All the chips got in pre-flop when both players turned over their hands.
Lam: A♥A♣
Van Wijk: A♠5♠
As the flop spread K♥8♠3♥, Van Wijk had hope in the form of multiple backdoor draws.
“Four of spades?” He requested.
Turn: 4♣
“Duece?”
River: 6♠
Moments after Van Wijk was re-seated in the same spot, our players were sent on a 10-minute break. Counts incoming!
Armon Van Wijk
Wr-Ong time for a flush
Our reporter got called over to Table 2 as a huge pot developed between Jerry Zhang and James Ong.
With the board showing 6♦8♠4♦J♠10♦, Zhang bet 15,000 and Ong raised to 45,000, leaving himself only 4,000 behind. Zhang made the call to see Ong’s Q♦7♦.
Zhang dwelled for a moment, but did let Ong know the Queen-high flush was good. Zhang was about to muck when a tablemate said, “What did you have, for the media guy.”
Zhang tabled his J♦9♦, for the slightly worse flush.
James Ong137,800Jerry Zhang8,000
Jerry Zhang
Souren Soarin’
Two hands in quick succession have seen Souren Tayyebi emerge as one of the top stacks as we approach the first break of the day.
In one hand, over 14,000 sat in the pot going into the river, as the board completed 4♣9♦5♠A♦K♦.
Evan Tsirgiotis checked to Tayyebi, who over-bet for a total of 17,500. Tsirgiotis agonised before making the decision to fold.
Shortly after, Neb Blanusa raised from the lojack to 900, Tayyebi elected to flat from the cutoff and both blinds defended.
Board: 5♠3♣Q♠A♠J♣
Both the flop and turn saw bets from Blanusa called by Tayyebi. On the river, Blanusa slowed down and checked, but still called Tayyebi’s bet of 10,000.
Blanusa was shown 4♠2♣ before chuckling as he flashed his own A♥A♦, as the pot went in the direction of Tayyebi.
Souren Tayyebi93,100Neb Blanusa87,000Evan Tsirgiotis51,000
Souren Tayyebi
Level 3: 200/400
Ngo-ing at it
Andy Ngo’s raise to 1,100 from UTG did nothing to scare off Neb Blanusa, Irene Bennett and Souren Tayyebi, who all called from the hijack, cutoff and button respectively.
Flop: 5♣J♠Q♣
Ngo continued for 1,700 and found Blanusa as his only caller. Both players checked the turn, before Ngo also checked the river.
On a runout that came Q♦,K♦, Blanusa had a stab with a bet of 5,000. Ngo reluctantly called and sigh-mucked his hand when Blanusa turned over K♣9♦ for the win.
Neb Blanusa100,700Andy Ngo53,500
Neb Blanusa
Andy Ngo
Picture picks
Plenty of faces fill the room, some with smiles, others look serious. All are looking to make it to Day 2.
Adam and at ’em
Adam Cusenza hasn’t been afraid to get some of his chips into the middle early on Day 1B, getting mixed results.
In one hand, James Ong had lead the river for 3,500 into a pot of over 11,000. With a board laid out 9♦K♦7♣J♠K♠, Cusenza check-called before mucking when Ong turned over his A♥K♥. This sent Cusenza’s stack down to 41,700.
A few hands later, Cusenza was involved in another hand, this time against the newly re-entered Pierce Hynes. We caught the action from the flop with 10♥10♣8♠ in the middle. Hynes lead for 1,100 and Cusenza made the call to see the K♥ on the turn.
Hynes continued from UTG+1 for 3,700. Cusenza fired a raise from the hijack to 12,500. Hynes thought briefly before mucking his holding.
James Ong64,000Adam Cusenza48,500Pierce Hynes47,000
James Ong
Adam Cusenza
Level 2: 200/300
Pierce-d off
After building his stack throughout the majority of Day 1A to sit around the 300k mark, Pierce Hynes left it until late to dwindle down before being eliminated. Today, he has lost his stack much sooner.
After double-barrelling into Tin Win with 6♠3♠ on a board of J♣10♦7♠Q♠, Hynes over-bet jammed the river 5♦. Win called with top two pair to leave Hynes with only 16,600.
Shortly after, Hynes opened to 700 from under-the-gun, Win three-bet to 1,700 before Van Wijk four-bet to 4,200. Hyne’s moved all-in for the aforementioned 16,600 to push Win out of the way before Van Wijk asked for a count and called.
Van Wijk’s 9♠9♥ had Hynes’ 9♦8♥ crushed preflop. The turn card brought Hynes a double-gutshot draw but ultimately missed to eliminate him in the first level of play.
Board: 2♥5♥J♠7♠K♦
Armon Van Wijk67,600Tin Win69,500Pierce HynesBUSTED!
Tin Win
Pierce Hynes
Short delay, but underway
In similar fashion to yesterday’s Day 1A, a slow turnout has seen the start of play pushed back to enable the tables to begin with a larger number of players. Now 14 players have graced the felt, seven-handed play has commenced on Tables 2 and 3.
Some notables that have joined so far include Amin Chehade, Tin Win and Neb Blanusa.
Pierce Hynes and Armon Van Wijk are two players that have returned after being eliminated on Day 1A, both looking to bag for Day 2 on second attempt.
Level 1: 100/200
Round Two… and Three
Good afternoon and welcome to PokerMedia Australia’s coverage of the second and third flights of the Stacked Social DeepStacks Main Event.
Today will see two flights, one with 40-minute blinds, and a turbo flight with 20-minute levels.
With Benji Fono setting the benchmark with 346,000 in chips bagged for Day 2 tomorrow, today’s players will be hoping to better that amount for themselves.
Keep refreshing this page to stay posted on all that goes on today, in the race for the most coveted trophy of the series!
