Main Event Day 1A Update: Stephen Courtney is the early leader

African Ace Poker Desk · 2026-11-02

The Main Event: Day 1A

Stephen Courtney holds the chip lead as Level 6 continues on Day 1A of the SA Poker Open Main Event.

After 98 total entries, there are 76 players remaining in Level 6 of Day 1A, the field is navigating blinds of 400-800-800 with an average stack sitting at 64.4K.

Stephen Courtney commands the room at the top of the leaderboard, stacking up 217,000 chips to clear 271 big blinds.

Frank Chilchik trails in second with 184,000, AK holds third position on 153,000, while Brian Kolobe and Nikola Tesla round out the top five with 131,100 and 128,000 chips respectively.

Chip Counts

| # | Player | Chips | Big Blinds | | ---: | :--- | ---: | ---: | | 1 | Stephen Courtney | 217,000 | 271 | | 2 | Frank Chilchik | 184,000 | 230 | | 3 | A.K | 153,000 | 191 | | 4 | Brian Kolobe | 131,100 | 164 | | 5 | Nikola Tesla | 128,000 | 160 |