$20,000 High Roller
Day 1 Started
2019 The Star Sydney Champs
$20,000 High Roller
Day: 1
Welcome to the 2019 The Star Sydney Champs $20,000 High Roller
The most expensive tournament of the 2019 The Star Sydney Championship awaits with the A$20,000 High Roller and the most well-known regulars of The Star Sydney are expected to join the action to determine the best among their peers.
Some of them have already secured their seat at a bargain through the A$1,100 Live Satellites such as David Wang, Michael O'Grady, Corey Kempson and 2018 A$5k Challenge winner John Thomson.
Defending champion of the event is New Zealand's Sosia Jiang, who emerged on top of a 28-entry strong field after defeating Matthew Wakeman in heads-up for a payday of A$266,000. Michel Bouskila ended up in third and also had a deep run during the 2019 series already when he finished 16th out of 356 entries in the 6-Max Event.
Jiang won't be attempting to defend her title this year, however, as she headed off to London for the Triton Poker festival to compete in the biggest buy-in of live poker history thus far.
All participants will receive 50,000 in chips and the late registration and re-entry period will be open for the first nine 45-minute levels and the following 30-minute break. The tournament features the popular big blind ante and Day 1 is scheduled to play a total of 15 levels of 45 minutes each, as of Day 2 the level duration then increases to 60 minutes.
Day 1 Level Structure
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 2 | 45 | 200 | 300 | 300 |
| 3 | 45 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 4 | 45 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 5 | 45 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 6 | 45 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 7 | 45 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 8 | 45 | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 9 | 45 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Break | 30 | |||
| 10 | 45 | 1,200 | 2,400 | 2,400 |
| 11 | 45 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 12 | 45 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Break | 10 | |||
| 13 | 45 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| 14 | 45 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 15 | 45 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
The PokerNews team will be on the floor to cover all the action from start-to-finish, stay tuned to find out who will be crowned the High Roller Champion in Sydney!
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 200
Load Up Your Shoe!
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
The players have been welcomed to the tables and the dealers have been instructed to loads up their shoes and shuffle up and deal.
Table 30 at a Glance
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
Table 30 has kicked off seven-handed with Nauvneel Kashyap, Amir Abbas, Tom Rafferty, Mladen Vukovic, Dale Marsland, Zuxian Zhao and Vincent Huang in action. Kashyap has cashed the A$5k Challenge and the 6-Max Event, Vukovic and Marsland cashed in the 6-Max and Huang finished runner-up to Jason Gray in the A$5k Challenge.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
First Players at the Feature Table
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
These are the first players seated at the feature table which should be streamed in the Run It Up Twitch channel with a security delay as the hole cards will be shown. The exact time of the start of the stream has not been confirmed yet.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
Boskovic Sr Thriving Early
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
The first big pot of the way was awarded to Dejan Boskovic Sr who took on David Wang. On a 
flop, Boskovic Sr made it 3,500 to go and Wang called to see the 
turn, which both checked. On the 
river, Boskovic Sr fired a bet of 12,000 and Wang folded.
Travis Endersby raised the next button to 600 and Boskovic Sr called in the small blind. On the 
flop, a bet of 1,200 by Boskovic Sr. won the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
60,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
49,000 | |
|
40,000 |
Dhingra Joins the Fun
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
Gautam Dhingra has joined the feature table and has taken his seat in Seat 3 between John Thomson on his right and Luke Edwards on his left.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 |
Bokody Joins the Field
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
Ebon Bokody has joined the action and faced a raise to 500 by Amir Abbas in the small blind. Bokody in the big blind three-bet to 2,000 and won the pot.
One hand later, Nauvneel Kashyap opened to 500 in the cutoff and Tom Rafferty called in the big blind. The flop brought 
and Rafferty check-called a bet of 1,000. Neither player invested any further chips on the 
turn and 
river and Kashyap revealed 
, which Rafferty had beat with the 
for queens and tens.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
51,500 | 1,500 |
|
50,500 | |
|
|
49,000 | -1,000 |
|
|
48,000 | -2,000 |
Wang Wins Some Back
Level 1
: 100/200, 200 ante
David Wang raised to 500 from under the gun and was called by Travis Endersby in mid-position, Hussein Hassan in the hijack, and Michael Egan in the big blind.
They all checked through the 
flop to the on the turn. Egan check-called the 700 bet of Wang while the rest folded.
The river completed the board with the 
, Egan led out for 1,600 for Wang to raise to 6,400 and Egan to snap-fold.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
52,000 | 2,000 |
|
|
41,000 | 1,000 |