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
| Year | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Top Prize (in AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 600 | A$1,680,000 | tba | A$352,800 |
| 2018 | 522 | A$1,461,000 | Nebojsa Blanusa | A$314,265 |
| 2017 | 496 | A$1,388,800 | Henry Tran | A$300,000 |
| 2016 | 428 | A$1,198,400 | Kahle Burns | A$297,203 |
| 2015 | 281 | A$786,800 | Ben Jee | A$200,634 |
| 2014 | 235 | A$658,000 | Martin Kozlov | A$171,080 |
| 2013 | 227 | A$635,461 | Daniel Laidlaw | A$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.
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
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Nickolas Oiberman | Australia | 338,500 | 113 |
| 1 | 2 | Phillip Siddell | Australia | 251,000 | 84 |
| 1 | 3 | Nicholas Woodhams | Australia | 121,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 4 | Wenjian Qiu | New Zealand | 102,500 | 34 |
| 1 | 5 | Jacob Horowitz | Australia | 79,500 | 27 |
| 1 | 6 | Blake Lockwood | Australia | 92,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 7 | Chris Moussa | Australia | 49,000 | 16 |
| 1 | 8 | Errolyn Strang | Australia | 125,000 | 42 |
| 1 | 9 | Martin Ward | New Zealand | 116,000 | 39 |
| 2 | 1 | Michael Larcher | Australia | 51,500 | 17 |
| 2 | 2 | Bassam Habib | Australia | 128,500 | 43 |
| 2 | 3 | Mark Lassau | Australia | 189,000 | 63 |
| 2 | 4 | Monil Gohil | Australia | 30,500 | 10 |
| 2 | 5 | Shaun Zammit | Australia | 39,500 | 13 |
| 2 | 6 | Reza Vakili | Australia | 156,000 | 52 |
| 2 | 7 | Martin Rowe | Australia | 70,500 | 24 |
| 2 | 8 | Mark Betts | Australia | 47,600 | 16 |
| 2 | 9 | Michael Kanaan | Australia | 264,000 | 88 |
| 3 | 1 | Shivan Abdine | Australia | 247,000 | 82 |
| 3 | 2 | Dylan Kehoe | Ireland | 173,000 | 58 |
| 3 | 3 | Carlos Youssef | Australia | 235,500 | 79 |
| 3 | 4 | David Lee | Australia | 30,500 | 10 |
| 3 | 5 | Milan Gurung | Australia | 74,500 | 25 |
| 3 | 6 | Gary Benson | Australia | 38,000 | 13 |
| 3 | 7 | Trevor Godfrey | Australia | 375,000 | 125 |
| 3 | 8 | Salvatore Fazzino | Australia | 190,500 | 64 |
| 3 | 9 | Billy Argyros | Australia | 132,000 | 44 |
| 4 | 1 | Michael Tran | Australia | 381,100 | 127 |
| 4 | 2 | Robert Spano | Australia | 188,500 | 63 |
| 4 | 3 | Wei Dai | Australia | 39,500 | 13 |
| 4 | 4 | Ramin Mansour-Seperghan | Australia | 98,500 | 33 |
| 4 | 5 | Luke Edwards | Australia | 263,000 | 88 |
| 4 | 6 | Peter Dykes | Australia | 216,000 | 72 |
| 4 | 7 | Vanig Kalpakian | Australia | 68,500 | 23 |
| 4 | 8 | Matthew Mcguigan | Australia | 36,000 | 12 |
| 4 | 9 | Graeme Putt | New Zealand | 77,000 | 26 |
| 5 | 1 | Phat Nguyen | Australia | 94,500 | 32 |
| 5 | 2 | Justin Layden | Australia | 40,500 | 14 |
| 5 | 3 | Yesha Punjabi | Australia | 76,000 | 25 |
| 5 | 4 | Tu Le | Australia | 279,500 | 93 |
| 5 | 5 | Sid Gunasekaran | Australia | 177,000 | 59 |
| 5 | 6 | Michael Egan | Australia | 179,500 | 60 |
| 5 | 7 | Hamish Crawshaw | New Zealand | 150,000 | 50 |
| 5 | 8 | Cezary Klimczak | Australia | 414,500 | 138 |
| 5 | 9 | John Zwaine | Australia | 53,000 | 18 |
| 6 | 1 | Samuel Dessaix-Porter | Australia | 217,000 | 72 |
| 6 | 2 | Tien Phan | Australia | 150,000 | 50 |
| 6 | 3 | Navid King | Australia | 274,000 | 91 |
| 6 | 4 | Joe Antar | Australia | 143,000 | 48 |
| 6 | 5 | Charbel Boustani | Australia | 74,500 | 25 |
| 6 | 6 | David Hanlon | Australia | 33,000 | 11 |
| 6 | 7 | Carlos Gonzalez | Australia | 319,000 | 106 |
| 6 | 8 | Collin Tran | Australia | 43,000 | 14 |
| 6 | 9 | Barry Forrester | Australia | 101,500 | 34 |
| 7 | 1 | Lawrence D'lapico-Bien | Australia | 130,500 | 44 |
| 7 | 2 | Peter Brasile | Australia | 43,500 | 15 |
| 7 | 3 | Anastasia Tyulyakova | Australia | 147,500 | 49 |
| 7 | 4 | Corey Kempson | Australia | 223,000 | 74 |
| 7 | 5 | Sam Vakili | Australia | 56,500 | 19 |
| 7 | 6 | Jason Pritchard | Australia | 313,000 | 104 |
| 7 | 7 | Dejan Boskovic | Australia | 67,000 | 22 |
| 7 | 8 | Andrej Senic | Australia | 187,000 | 62 |
| 7 | 9 | Huang Huang | Australia | 169,500 | 57 |
| 8 | 1 | Murray Chick | Australia | 203,000 | 68 |
| 8 | 2 | Adam Kharman | Australia | 79,700 | 27 |
| 8 | 3 | John Rosario | Australia | 278,500 | 93 |
| 8 | 4 | Zesong Wu | Australia | 115,000 | 38 |
| 8 | 5 | Gang Zhu | Australia | 70,000 | 23 |
| 8 | 6 | Ardi Jaya | Australia | 295,000 | 98 |
| 8 | 7 | Hauman Darbani | Australia | 143,000 | 48 |
| 8 | 8 | Stefan Urosevic | Australia | 219,500 | 73 |
| 8 | 9 | Harlie Jensz | Australia | 239,000 | 80 |
| 9 | 1 | Kun Dadul | Australia | 37,000 | 12 |
| 9 | 2 | Kahlia Moussa | Australia | 136,000 | 45 |
| 9 | 3 | Marc Seymour | Australia | 296,500 | 99 |
| 9 | 4 | Steve Chu | Australia | 63,500 | 21 |
| 9 | 5 | Lachlan Dykes | Australia | 120,000 | 40 |
| 9 | 6 | Richard Davis | Australia | 261,500 | 87 |
| 9 | 7 | Kris Scully | Australia | 106,000 | 35 |
| 9 | 8 | John Yacoub | Australia | 66,500 | 22 |
| 9 | 9 | Paul Elliot | Australia | 51,000 | 17 |
| 10 | 1 | Yisi Zhang | Australia | 246,000 | 82 |
| 10 | 2 | Sam Khoueis | Australia | 113,000 | 38 |
| 10 | 3 | Mazyar Misaghian | Australia | 247,000 | 82 |
| 10 | 4 | Haoran Zhang | Australia | 89,500 | 30 |
| 10 | 5 | Tri Nguyen | Australia | 113,500 | 38 |
| 10 | 6 | David Hirst | Australia | 115,000 | 38 |
| 10 | 7 | Robert Lee | Australia | 108,500 | 36 |
| 10 | 8 | Patrick Yazbeck | Australia | 122,000 | 41 |
| 10 | 9 | Christopher Colaneri | Australia | 273,000 | 91 |
| 11 | 1 | Win Tan | Australia | 195,200 | 65 |
| 11 | 2 | Hussein Chamas | Australia | 225,000 | 75 |
| 11 | 3 | Chris Kittos | Australia | 155,000 | 52 |
| 11 | 4 | Daniel Cohen | Australia | 32,500 | 11 |
| 11 | 5 | Kumar K.A | Australia | 285,500 | 95 |
| 11 | 6 | Connie Graham | Australia | 125,000 | 42 |
| 11 | 7 | John Moffitt | Australia | 118,000 | 39 |
| 11 | 8 | Jo Snell | Australia | 335,000 | 112 |
| 11 | 9 | Sebastian Trisch | Germany | 99,600 | 33 |
| 12 | 1 | Ljudevit Marinic | Australia | 168,200 | 56 |
| 12 | 3 | Dejan Boskovic Sr | Australia | 183,000 | 61 |
| 12 | 4 | Con Angelakis | Australia | 252,000 | 84 |
| 12 | 5 | Matthew Wakeman | Australia | 67,000 | 22 |
| 12 | 6 | Chad Awerbuch | Australia | 64,000 | 21 |
| 12 | 7 | Peter Robertson | Australia | 135,000 | 45 |
| 12 | 8 | Will Davies | United Kingdom | 125,000 | 42 |
| 12 | 9 | Joseph Hayek | Australia | 133,500 | 45 |
| 13 | 1 | Guangyu Wang | Australia | 154,700 | 52 |
| 13 | 2 | Steve Pappas | Australia | 141,000 | 47 |
| 13 | 3 | Hedley Fung | Australia | 50,500 | 17 |
| 13 | 4 | Duy Nguyen | Australia | 103,000 | 34 |
| 13 | 5 | Bernie Stang | Australia | 160,500 | 54 |
| 13 | 7 | Marco Perri | Australia | 40,500 | 14 |
| 13 | 8 | Mladen Vukovic | Australia | 76,500 | 26 |
| 13 | 9 | Craig Blight | Australia | 96,000 | 32 |
| 14 | 1 | Tony Nardi | Australia | 109,500 | 37 |
| 14 | 2 | Hunter Song | Australia | 104,500 | 35 |
| 14 | 3 | Travis Endersby | Australia | 139,500 | 47 |
| 14 | 4 | Darren Lukas | Australia | 55,000 | 18 |
| 14 | 5 | Zachary Tay | Australia | 121,000 | 40 |
| 14 | 6 | Mladen Ivin | Australia | 169,000 | 56 |
| 14 | 7 | Brian O'Farrell | Australia | 336,500 | 112 |
| 14 | 8 | John Caridad | Spain | 84,000 | 28 |
for Tran to hold with the higher cards and even hit an ace on the river to eliminate both Laoyont and Kassam.
for Kharman to flop top pair and improve to two pair on the turn but the river gave Betts the higher two pair to double up.
to now also give Au the nut-flush draw to leave one out left for Laoyont to not double Au up.
for Laoyont to hit the one card he could use to eliminate Au while the whole table and the rail looked on stunned at how the runout went.
turn, Ryan Bownds check-shoved his remaining stack of 53,600 when facing a bet worth 9,000 by Yisi Zhang and the latter reluctantly called.
and that improved Zhang to the nut flush, sending Bownds to the rail.
to not change things and neither did the 
on the river as the defending champion was eliminated on his second bullet in the Main Event.
that made him the straight flush.
and Daniel Awad had the dominating 
river bricked off.
flop and the 
