Rafferty Takes the Chip Lead in The Star Sydney Champs A$20,000 High Roller with Nine Left
With six minutes left in Level 12, nine players bagged up their chips for the final day of the A$20,000 High Roller at The Star Sydney Champs. In total, 37 entries were collected throughout the first nine levels of the day to break another record in the 2019 edition of the series and create an A$703,000 prize pool. The winner will walk away with A$316,350 and accompanying trophy.
Heading to bed with the chip lead is Tom Rafferty with 469,500 in chips, which is worth 117 big blinds. If Rafferty wins when they return, it would be his biggest live cash ever in a tournament to take his career earnings up to almost $800,000. Rafferty added to his stack when he eliminated Andrej Senic with pocket kings and held against pocket sevens.
Rafferty is trailed by Ebon Bokody with a difference of ten big blinds. Bokody finished in second place last year in the same casino during the WSOP International Circuit High Roller and will be looking to better that result. Bokody had the chip lead at one point when he eliminated David Wang, who qualified through one of the in-house satellites.
Closing out the podium is Vincent Huang, who is no stranger to the feature table as he finished in second place only a few days ago, just ahead of Bokody in the $5k Challenge. Huang went on a bit of a run when he first eliminated Travis Endersby and then took out Nauvneel Kashyap to finish in third place in the chip counts.
Even though nine players will return, they’re not in the money yet as only four players will be cashing for at least A$70,300. Gautam Dhingra, Sean Ragozinni, and Michael Egan all bagged below-average stacks but with more than 40 big blinds, they still have more than enough room to play with. It’s a bit of a different story for Mladen Vukovic, Hun Wei “Andy” Lee, and Matthew Wakeman as they bagged fewer than 20 big blinds, so they will be looking to double up from the start of the final day to be in with a shot for that first-place prize.
When the players return at 2:15 p.m. local time, they will finish the last six minutes of Level 12 which features a small blind of 2,000, big blind of 4,000, and a big blind ante of 4,000. Play will continue until a champion is crowned and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on the floor to bring you all the action.
The stream will be available again via the Run It Up Twitch channel with commentary by Ricky Guan and Jimmy Cappucci with the hole cards on a security delay but the updates here will be live from the start.
Final Table Seat Assignments
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ebon Bokody | Australia | 429,000 | 107 |
| 2 | Tom Rafferty | Australia | 469,500 | 117 |
| 3 | Gautam Dhingra | Australia | 182,000 | 46 |
| 4 | Vincent Huang | Australia | 240,000 | 60 |
| 5 | Mladen Vukovic | Australia | 72,000 | 18 |
| 6 | Michael Egan | Australia | 158,500 | 40 |
| 7 | Hun Wei Lee | Australia | 67,000 | 17 |
| 8 | Sean Ragozzini | Australia | 175,000 | 44 |
| 9 | Matthew Wakeman | Australia | 60,000 | 15 |
board and Senic was sent to the rail, which reduced the field to the final 10 hopefuls. After the next elimination, the remaining nine players will bag and tag for tonight.
and Wang check-raised from 7,000 to 20,000 with 81,000 behind. Bokody glanced at his opponent and moved all in, which Wang called after 10 seconds.
river run out. Bokody claimed another big pot and cemented his lead with 11 players remaining.
flop for the last 29,500. Michael Egan had bet 5,500 and made the call after brief consideration.
turn changed nothing, the 
on the river improved Egan to the superior two pair and Young was sent to the rail.
for an open-ender and gutshot, while Egan revealed 
river provided any help for Hassan and he was sent to the rail.
turn gave Boskovic Sr a flush draw. A blank 
for Endersby to hit the nut flush immediately. 
which now also gave Kashyap two pair but still keep Young ahead.
for Kashyap to improve to a full house to send Young back to the cashier to reenter.
flop, Andrej Senic in the hijack bet 4,500 and was called by Michael Egan in the cutoff, Robert Spano on the button and Dejan Boskovic Sr in the big blind.
