Luke Edwards raised to 2,600 from the early position and Travis Endersby shoved from the hijack. Action folded to Sean Ragozzini in the small blind who asked for a count. The dealer confirmed Endersby had 21,800 behind and Ragozzini decided to also shove. Edwards looked at his cards once more and called for 39,400.
Travis Endersby:
Luke Edwards:
Sean Ragozzini:
"Luckbox!" Mladen Vukovic said to Ragozzini when he came over to the feature table to see what was happening. "I hope you lose!" he added and everyone laughed.
The flop came for Endersby to hit the nut flush immediately.
The rest of the board was completed with the on the turn and the on the river to seal the deal as Endersby tripled up. The remaining 17,600 of Edwards stack was awarded to Ragozzini as Edwards was sent to the rail.
Patrick Laoyont was moved to the feature table to balance it out just after the hand was played.
In a battle cutoff versus button, the stack of Dejan Boskovic Sr went in preflop and Hussein Hassan snap-called for a very specific reason.
Dejan Boskovic Sr:
Hussein Hassan:
The flop didn't provide any additional sweat yet, but the turn gave Boskovic Sr a flush draw. A blank followed on the river and that sent Boskovic Sr to the rail. He may still re-enter until the start of level 10.
Having defended out of the blinds, Hussein Hassan check-shove the flop and Michael Egan quickly called.
Hassan turned over for an open-ender and gutshot, while Egan revealed for bottom set. Neither the turn nor the river provided any help for Hassan and he was sent to the rail.
Rory Young defended out of the blinds and check-jammed the flop for the last 29,500. Michael Egan had bet 5,500 and made the call after brief consideration.
Rory Young:
Michael Egan:
Egan had one overcard and a gutshot straight draw to deal the final blow. While the turn changed nothing, the on the river improved Egan to the superior two pair and Young was sent to the rail.
Ebon Bokody raised the button over on the outer table and David Wang came along out of the big blind. The flop brought 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.
David Wang:
Ebon Bokody:
Wang's pair, gutshot and flush draw was well alive, but he couldn't get there on the turn and river run out. Bokody claimed another big pot and cemented his lead with 11 players remaining.
Ebon Bokody raised to 9,000 on the button and Tom Rafferty called out of the small blind. Andrej Senic jammed the big blind for around 125,000 and Bokody folded, while Rafferty called instantly.
Andrej Senic:
Tom Rafferty:
The superior pocket pair held up on a 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.
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.