2019 The Star Sydney Champs

Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info

2019 The Star Sydney Champs

Final Results
Winner
Hamish Crawshaw
Winning Hand
kj
Prize
352,800 AUD
Event Info
Buy-in
3,000 AUD
Prize Pool
1,680,000 AUD
Entries
600
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
30,000

Klimczak Tops Day 1b; 2019 The Star Sydney Champs Sets New Main Event Record

Level 11 : 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Cezary Klimczak
Cezary Klimczak

The second and final starting day of the 2019 The Star Sydney Champs A$3,000 Main Event had already reached the guaranteed prize pool of A$1,500,000 before the cards got in the air at 12.30 p.m. local time at The Star Sydney and a new attendance record was set in stone.

Once the late registration closed at the start of level five, the screens showed 320 entries for Day 1b and that boosted the overall field size to 600 entries, which created a prize pool of A$1,680,000.

It was a tight race for the Day 1b chip lead and Cezary Klimczak topped the leaderboard with a stack of 414,500. He is closely followed by Michael Tran (381,000), Trevor Godfrey (375,000), Nickolas Oiberman (338,500) and Brian O'Farrell (336,500). The top finishers of Day 1b all surpassed Day 1a leader Jo Snell.

Further big stacks and notables that advanced from the second flight were Navid King (274,000), Luke Edwards (263,000), Mazyar Misaghian (247,000), Murray Chick (203,000), Dylan Kehoe (173,000), Connie Graham (125,000), David Hirst (115,000), Craig Blight (96,000), Graeme Putt (77,000), Matthew Wakeman (67,000), and Chad Awerbuch (64,000).

The remaining players will return to their seats in the poker room of The Star Sydney on Sunday, August 4th, 2019, at 12.30 p.m. local time when another 11 levels of one hour each are scheduled on the penultimate tournament day. The returning blinds will be 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante.

Joining the 57 survivors from Day 1a will be 66 hopefuls that made the cut after 11 levels of one hour each and the 123 remaining contenders will aim to follow in the footsteps of Nebojsa Blanusa, who took home the trophy and biggest Main Event prize in history so far.

A new chapter of poker in Sydney will be written in the two days to come, as Blanusa was among the many casualties of a fast-moving tournament day. Since the buy-in was increased to A$3,000 back in 2013, the attendance of the Main Event has grown every year and a new highest top prize will be awarded to the eventual champion.

The Sydney Champs Main Event Since 2013

YearEntriesPrize PoolWinnerTop Prize (in AUD)
2019600A$1,680,000tbaA$352,800
2018522A$1,461,000Nebojsa BlanusaA$314,265
2017496A$1,388,800Henry TranA$300,000
2016428A$1,198,400Kahle BurnsA$297,203
2015281A$786,800Ben JeeA$200,634
2014235A$658,000Martin KozlovA$171,080
2013227A$635,461Daniel LaidlawA$165,000

The poker room was buzzing with all but ten cash game tables reserved for the Main Event and more than 250 players were in their seats in the first level of play. Many notables that failed to run up a stack in their first attempt took another shot at glory.

For such big names as Jason Gray, Ebon Bokody, Sean Ragozzini, David Wang, Tyron Krost, Tino Lechich, Ashish Gupta, Sarah Bilney, Jarred Graham, Vincent Huang, Didier Guerin, Dale Marsland, and last year's third-place finisher Charlie Hawes, Day 1b was not crowned with success.

Defending champion Nebojsa Blanusa saw his title defense come to an end on the feature table. Short in chips, Blanusa was all in preflop with ace-queen suited and Adam Kharman looked him up with ace-king. Both flopped a pair and Kharman's pair of kings remained best to send Blanusa to the rail.

By then, Andrew White was already on the rail. In just the second level of the day, White ran into a set of aces and chucked his cards into the muck before heading out of the tournament area. John Thomson was also already gone, the last player to depart from Day 1a was the first casualty of the second flight.

Suzy Khoueis, well-known in Sydney and the player with the second-most recorded cashes at The Star, was one of several players that were coolered by a case one-outer. In Khoueis' case, most of her chips vanished when three players hit a flush and the ace-high hearts of Khoueis were cracked by a straight flush on the river. Soon after, it was all over when her tens could not get there against pocket aces.

The players also came and left the feature table at a rapid pace and among the many to run out of chips during the Run It Up live stream were Sam Capra, Gautam Dhingra, Akshay Kapoor, Vesko Zmukic, and Laurence Hall. The bid of Michael Tran to take the honors of Day 1b chip leader culminated in a late double knockout when his ace-king suited remained ahead of Rehman Kassam with king-queen and the jack-ten suited of Patrick Laoyont.

Michael Tran
Michael Tran

Once the final three hands of the night were wrapped up, around one fifth of the field bagged up chips and they will be back in action after a good night's sleep. Around half of the remaining field will leave empty-handed on Day 2, as just the top 63 spots take home a portion of the seven-figure prize pool.

Make sure to tune back in then, as the PokerNews live reporting team will provide all the action from start-to-finish as a neww champion will be crowned here in Sydney.

Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw

TableSeatPlayerCountryCountBig Blinds
11Nickolas OibermanAustralia338,500113
12Phillip SiddellAustralia251,00084
13Nicholas WoodhamsAustralia121,00040
14Wenjian QiuNew Zealand102,50034
15Jacob HorowitzAustralia79,50027
16Blake LockwoodAustralia92,00031
17Chris MoussaAustralia49,00016
18Errolyn StrangAustralia125,00042
19Martin WardNew Zealand116,00039
      
21Michael LarcherAustralia51,50017
22Bassam HabibAustralia128,50043
23Mark LassauAustralia189,00063
24Monil GohilAustralia30,50010
25Shaun ZammitAustralia39,50013
26Reza VakiliAustralia156,00052
27Martin RoweAustralia70,50024
28Mark BettsAustralia47,60016
29Michael KanaanAustralia264,00088
      
31Shivan AbdineAustralia247,00082
32Dylan KehoeIreland173,00058
33Carlos YoussefAustralia235,50079
34David LeeAustralia30,50010
35Milan GurungAustralia74,50025
36Gary BensonAustralia38,00013
37Trevor GodfreyAustralia375,000125
38Salvatore FazzinoAustralia190,50064
39Billy ArgyrosAustralia132,00044
      
41Michael TranAustralia381,100127
42Robert SpanoAustralia188,50063
43Wei DaiAustralia39,50013
44Ramin Mansour-SeperghanAustralia98,50033
45Luke EdwardsAustralia263,00088
46Peter DykesAustralia216,00072
47Vanig KalpakianAustralia68,50023
48Matthew McguiganAustralia36,00012
49Graeme PuttNew Zealand77,00026
      
51Phat NguyenAustralia94,50032
52Justin LaydenAustralia40,50014
53Yesha PunjabiAustralia76,00025
54Tu LeAustralia279,50093
55Sid GunasekaranAustralia177,00059
56Michael EganAustralia179,50060
57Hamish CrawshawNew Zealand150,00050
58Cezary KlimczakAustralia414,500138
59John ZwaineAustralia53,00018
      
61Samuel Dessaix-PorterAustralia217,00072
62Tien PhanAustralia150,00050
63Navid KingAustralia274,00091
64Joe AntarAustralia143,00048
65Charbel BoustaniAustralia74,50025
66David HanlonAustralia33,00011
67Carlos GonzalezAustralia319,000106
68Collin TranAustralia43,00014
69Barry ForresterAustralia101,50034
      
71Lawrence D'lapico-BienAustralia130,50044
72Peter BrasileAustralia43,50015
73Anastasia TyulyakovaAustralia147,50049
74Corey KempsonAustralia223,00074
75Sam VakiliAustralia56,50019
76Jason PritchardAustralia313,000104
77Dejan BoskovicAustralia67,00022
78Andrej SenicAustralia187,00062
79Huang HuangAustralia169,50057
      
81Murray ChickAustralia203,00068
82Adam KharmanAustralia79,70027
83John RosarioAustralia278,50093
84Zesong WuAustralia115,00038
85Gang ZhuAustralia70,00023
86Ardi JayaAustralia295,00098
87Hauman DarbaniAustralia143,00048
88Stefan UrosevicAustralia219,50073
89Harlie JenszAustralia239,00080
      
91Kun DadulAustralia37,00012
92Kahlia MoussaAustralia136,00045
93Marc SeymourAustralia296,50099
94Steve ChuAustralia63,50021
95Lachlan DykesAustralia120,00040
96Richard DavisAustralia261,50087
97Kris ScullyAustralia106,00035
98John YacoubAustralia66,50022
99Paul ElliotAustralia51,00017
      
101Yisi ZhangAustralia246,00082
102Sam KhoueisAustralia113,00038
103Mazyar MisaghianAustralia247,00082
104Haoran ZhangAustralia89,50030
105Tri NguyenAustralia113,50038
106David HirstAustralia115,00038
107Robert LeeAustralia108,50036
108Patrick YazbeckAustralia122,00041
109Christopher ColaneriAustralia273,00091
      
111Win TanAustralia195,20065
112Hussein ChamasAustralia225,00075
113Chris KittosAustralia155,00052
114Daniel CohenAustralia32,50011
115Kumar K.AAustralia285,50095
116Connie GrahamAustralia125,00042
117John MoffittAustralia118,00039
118Jo SnellAustralia335,000112
119Sebastian TrischGermany99,60033
      
121Ljudevit MarinicAustralia168,20056
123Dejan Boskovic SrAustralia183,00061
124Con AngelakisAustralia252,00084
125Matthew WakemanAustralia67,00022
126Chad AwerbuchAustralia64,00021
127Peter RobertsonAustralia135,00045
128Will DaviesUnited Kingdom125,00042
129Joseph HayekAustralia133,50045
      
131Guangyu WangAustralia154,70052
132Steve PappasAustralia141,00047
133Hedley FungAustralia50,50017
134Duy NguyenAustralia103,00034
135Bernie StangAustralia160,50054
137Marco PerriAustralia40,50014
138Mladen VukovicAustralia76,50026
139Craig BlightAustralia96,00032
      
141Tony NardiAustralia109,50037
142Hunter SongAustralia104,50035
143Travis EndersbyAustralia139,50047
144Darren LukasAustralia55,00018
145Zachary TayAustralia121,00040
146Mladen IvinAustralia169,00056
147Brian O'FarrellAustralia336,500112
148John CaridadSpain84,00028

Tags: Adam KharmanAkshay KapoorAndrew WhiteAshish GuptaBrian O'FarrellCezary KlimczakChad AwerbuchCharlie HawesConnie GrahamDavid WangEbon BokodyGautam DhingraGraeme PuttJarred GrahamJohn ThomsonLuke EdwardsMatthew WakemanMichael TranNebojsa BlanusaPatrick LaoyontRehman KassamSuzy KhoueisTyron KrostVincent Huang