The Star Sydney Championships 2017 is among the summer poker festivals currently under way and expectations for quality poker action and tons of entertainment have already been met and even exceeded.
The Monster Stack event was one of the new additions to this year’s schedule of the popular Australian poker series and according to organizers, it proved to be utterly successful. Melbourne-based player Ash Gupta topped the event’s field several hours ago to scoop a A$77,093 and the tournament trophy.
The Monster Stack enjoyed huge turnout and many believe it was its unique structure that attracted such a great attention. There were 328 entries to have joined the tournament’s field by the time registration closed.
The event was played over two days, with its structure combining deep stack action with large antes. That meant that players had to constantly re-adjust their play as action unfolded and developed.
Day 2 of the Monster Stack started with 108 players, who resumed competition for one of the 33 paid places and all eyeing the first-place payout and the trophy.
It can be said that Gupta maintained top form throughout the day. And although the player indeed performed exceptionally to eventually capture the title, he was modest to partly attribute his victory to the fact that cards went his way at the right time.
During three-handed play, Gupta found himself locked in an all-in confrontation with Haoran Zhang, which eventually rocketed the former well ahead of his two remaining opponents and left the latter with only a handful of chips.
Gupta and Zhang went all-in pre-flop, Gupta holding [7s][5s]
against his opponent’s [Ah][6s]. The board ran out [3s][2d][9c][4c][6d], handing the 9-million pot to Gupta. Zhang was eliminated in 3rd place shortly after.
Two-handed play kicked off with Gupta facing Daniel Neilson. At the time, the eventual winner held two times more chips than his opponent. And it took Gupta a single hand to finish off Neilson and win the inaugural Monster Stack at The Star Sydney Casino.
Gupta challenged his opponent by shoving. Neilson made the call immediately after he looked at his hole cards and saw a reassuring [Ac]. Gupta turned over [9s][2s] against his opponent’s [Ac][4s]. A [Js][9d][3s][10c][2d] sealed the deal for Gupta. Neilson locked A$47,658 for his runner-up finish.
Commenting on his performance throughout the day, Gupta told Star Poker interviewers that things could have been much more different for him, if he had not won the massive pot against Zhang. The winner praised the tournament’s structure, saying that it felt to him as if he had played two different tournaments in one.
Gupta has been playing live poker for some time now and has accumulated more than $500,000 in those. His best tournament accomplishment remains his first-place finish in the APPT Season 10 Melbourne A$2,300 Main Event, when he bested a field of 523 entries for his highest live cash of A$235,875.
