Kharlin Sued Plays Big Stack to Perfection in WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Victory
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It's a big weekend for the World Poker Tour (WPT) in Las Vegas, and it began Friday with one major event playing down to a final table and another crowning a champion.
Six players in Northern California waited nearly two months to play the $5,300 buy-in WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship to a winner. But the players headed south to Las Vegas — more specifically, the Wynn — to compete at the final table during the WPT World Championship festival, and it was Kharlin Sued who got the job done in dominant fashion, with minimal competition, to win $480,700.
Chance Kornuth, the only WPT Champions Club member entering the final table, had 71 big blinds when play began, but it was only good for fourth out of six players. He was the first elimination of the session, and the eventual champion was glad to see the four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner go.
"I was really liking my chances (after Kornuth busted)," Sued told PokerNews. "I still had a big chip lead and I just didn't feel like the other opponents were going to be as aggressive as Chance, so I didn't feel I was going to get pushed back on as much as maybe I should have, I don't know."
A True Shooting Star
Sued held a massive chip lead when play resumed at Wynn Las Vegas. Only Alfie Poetra had even half his stack. But the eventual winner who would go on to cruise to victory admitted he didn't spend much time prepping for Friday's battle.
"Not really," Sued said when asked if he studied up his opponents. "I had a couple of friends tell me that I was being a little irresponsible in that aspect. They're probably right, but at the same time, I've just been feeling really good about my game and I didn't want to take in new knowledge and try to apply things and just second-guess myself."
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kharlin Sued | $480,700 |
| 2 | Danny Wong | $315,000 |
| 3 | Alfie Poetra | $235,000 |
| 4 | Matthew Widdoes | $175,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Maor | $132,000 |
| 6 | Chance Kornuth | $101,000 |
Sued would hold his chip lead throughout the final table, but he did face some aggression from Danny Wong, who finished runner-up. Wong, despite being chip disadvantaged, showed no fear at the final table, firing out some aggressive bluffs against the chip leader, in some cases while out of position. Some of those bluffs got through, others didn't. But the aggression allowed the California poker pro with over $6 million in The Hendon Mob cashes to build his stack.
Daniel Maor, after Kornuth busted, went out in fifth place for $132,000. It would take over an hour before another player busted, and that was Matthew Widdoes, the fourth-place finisher for $175,000.
Sued still held a huge lead when three-handed play began. But Wong nearly tied up the score after busting Poetra in third place ($235,000) when ace-king held up against ace-queen.
Heads-up play then began between the two most aggressive players at the table, and it wasn't a quick affair, but it was mostly one-sided. Sued, who now has over $2.7 million in live tournament cashes, won pot after pot, and it didn't take him long before he built a 2:1 chip advantage. Things would get even worse for Wong, as he fell even further behind before getting it all in with queen-jack against ace-king, and was out in second place for $315,000 when the worst hand didn't suck out.
Sued, who said he has mutual friends with his heads-up opponent, was a bit surprised with Wong's aggressive play, which he praised.
"I didn't know what to expect of his game, but I definitely think he put up the biggest fight and he deserved to go from sixth to second," Sued said of Wong's play.
Sued had himself quite a week in Las Vegas. He nearly ended up playing final tables in consecutive days, but ended up taking 41st out of 9,876 entrants in the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship, which is set to play down to a winner on Saturday.
The World Poker Tour will close out its annual December poker festival on Sunday with the final table of the $10,400 buy-in WPT World Championship where Soheb Porbandarwala holds a massive chip lead.
*Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
