Quan Zhou Leads Day 1A of Event #5: �1,100 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold'em
The opening flight of Event #5: �1,100 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold'em has drawn to a close with just 30 players making it through to Day 2. Quan Zhou bagged the largest stack with 519,500 chips, more than 12 times the starting stack.
After hiding under a blanket for the better part of the day, Zhou finally heated up in the last couple hands of the night. The Chinese poker pro collided with Eemil Tuominen in what would be a pot of around 500,000 chips and Zhou had the best of it. The board read 
and all of the chips went in the middle on the river. Zhou flipped over 
for a straight flush which eliminated Tuominen and gave Zhou the chip lead.
Zhou has racked up the majority of his career tournament cashes in Macau but has recently been making some stops in Europe. His largest cash to date came in 2017 for $469,009 in Macau with his total career earnings currently sitting at nearly $1.9 million.
Jaroslav Peter and Michal Mrakes will also be happy with their performance today after bagging 397,000 and 389,000 respectively. Pete Chen finished the day with 244,500 after nearly eliminating Ting Ho on the last hand of the night. Ho flopped top pair in a three-bet pot but Chen hit a set of threes. Chen doubled up, leaving Ho with just 5,500 chips and she chose to surrender her stack and play again tomorrow.
The last entry of the day was Chris Ferguson who strolled in during level 12. Ferguson quickly put his chips to work and managed to run up his stack to 168,000. Ferguson, who already has six bracelets to his name, was the only former WSOP bracelet winner to move on to Day 2.
The day began with less than 50 players taking their seats but that number quickly escalated as the levels progressed. With late registration open until the end of the 12th level, a total of 148 players made their way to the tables for Day 1A. Some of the notables that will be forced to enter again after failing to find a bag include Allen Kessler, Martin Kabrhel, Shaun Deeb, Jeff Madsen, Cord Garcia, Dutch Boyd, Manig Loeser, Jan Mach, and Asi Moshe.
These players and more will have another shot at moving on to Day 2 when Day 1B fires up tomorrow at 3:00 PM local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will once again be on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates from start to finish.
2018 WSOPE Monster Stack Schedule
| Day | Date | Starting Time | Late Reg | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Thursday, October 18th | 15:00 | ~00:25 | 148 | 30 | Play 14 levels of 40 minutes |
| 1B | Friday, October 19th | 15:00 | ~00:25 | TBA | TBA | Play 14 levels of 40 minutes |
| 1C | Saturday, October 20th | 15:00 | ~00:25 | TBA | TBA | Play 14 levels of 40 minutes |
| 2 | Sunday, October 21st | 14:00 | - | TBA | TBA | Level duration increases to 60 minutes |
| 3 | Monday, October 22nd | TBD | - | TBA | TBA | Play down to a champion |