George Mitri Leads the $5K Challenge into Day 2

After fifteen 45-minute levels were played out in the first day of the $5,000 Challenge Event, George Mitri will return as the Day 2 chip leader after he bagged an impressive 709,000.

 A field of 203 players came together, and 15 of them will return on Friday, November 29, at 2:15 p.m. local time. The field narrowly missed the needed 211 to pass the $1,000,000 guarantee resulting in a slight overlay.

Trailing Mitri are James Obst (534,000) and Honglin Jiang (455,000) who round out the top three. Shivan Abdine (435,000), Adrian Attenborough (333,000), Marc Camphausen (326,000) and Sosia Jiang (138,000) all progressed through.

Big names to depart throughout the day and miss out on the top 21 and a payday included; defending champion of this event Matthew Wakeman, 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Andrew Hinrichsen, last year’s WSOP Circuit Main Event Sydney champion Alex Lynskey, 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Shurane Vijayaram, 2019 WPT Gold Coast Main Event champion Hari Varma, and WSOP bracelet winner Jarred Graham.

Gary Benson and Emmanuel Seal would both be eliminated at the same time on separate tables and ultimately bubble the money. Both would be holding ace-king and find themselves unable to improve against their opponents pocket pairs. Their eliminations would guarantee the remaining 21 players an $11,080 return.

Those to make the money but miss Day 2 include Dean Blatt, Jonathan Karamalikis, David Hanlon, Josh Mitchell and Robert Spano.

When play resumes the blinds will begin at 5,000/10,000/10,000 big blind ante. PokerNews will be back with all the $5K Challenge Day 2 action as the remaining 15 players battle for a place at the final table before playing down to an eventual champion.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
32	1	Ryan Bownds	Australia	284000	28
32	2	Empty	-	-	-
32	3	Ehsan Amiri	Australia	327000	33
32	4	Chao Duan	China	294000	29
32	5	George Mitri	Australia	709000	71
32	6	Charlie Hawe	Australia	447000	45
32	7	Adrian Attenborough	Australia	333000	33
32	8	Michael Doumani	Australia	165000	17

31	1	Empty	-	-	-
31	2	Vincent Huang	Australia	339000	34
31	3	Honglin Jiang	New Zealand	455000	46
31	4	James Obst	Australia	534000	53
31	5	Tam Truong	Australia	285000	29
31	6	Sosia Jiang	New Zealand	138000	14
31	7	Marc Camphausen	Germany	326000	33
31	8	Shivan Abdine	Australia	435000	44
31	9	Partick Laoyont	Australia	10000	1