Kempson Leads Final 13 Players in The Star Sydney Champs Main Event
Day 2 of The Star Sydney Champs Main Event has come to an end after a tumultuous eleven levels of play. At the start of the day, 123 players out of 600 entries returned to the felt to battle it out to claim their share of the A$1,680,000 prize pool as only 63 players would be cashing. At the end of the day, only 13 players survived the battlefield. Leading the field into the final day is Corey Kempson with 3,115,000.
Kempson is no stranger to going deep in tournaments but has actually never won the final all-in to claim the title in any of them. With 12 final table appearances, his best ever live cash is worth $182,835 when he came 2nd in Melbourne once. Right now, he has guaranteed a cash of at least A$21,470 but will have his sights set on the first-place prize of A$352,800.
Final Day Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | 2 | Joe Antar | Australia | 960,000 | 24 |
| 31 | 3 | Wenjian Qiu | New Zealand | 2,330,000 | 58 |
| 31 | 4 | Collin Tran | Australia | 360,000 | 9 |
| 31 | 5 | Peter Dykes | Australia | 320,000 | 8 |
| 31 | 6 | Hamish Crawshaw | New Zealand | 1,405,000 | 35 |
| 31 | 7 | Joseph Hayek | Australia | 510,000 | 13 |
| 31 | 8 | Peter Robertson | Australia | 1,595,000 | 40 |
| 32 | 3 | Tu Le | Australia | 1,275,000 | 32 |
| 32 | 4 | Kumar K.A | Australia | 1,375,000 | 34 |
| 32 | 5 | Nickolas Oiberman | Australia | 1,740,000 | 44 |
| 32 | 6 | Bernie Stang | Australia | 1,755,000 | 44 |
| 32 | 7 | Corey Kempson | Australia | 3,115,000 | 78 |
| 32 | 8 | Mark Lassau | Australia | 1,340,000 | 34 |
The start of the day
When the players returned to The Star Poker room, Chris Moussa was the first of many players to leave the feature table stage. The 2011 Sydney Champs Main Event champion, Errolyn Strang lost most of her chips when she had Nicholas Woodhams covered when all the chips went in on the six-eight-seven flop with two clubs. Woodhams had a flush draw against Strang’s aces and got there on the turn. In the end, she lost all her chips against Wenjian Giu when she flopped an open-ended straight draw but against Qiu’s top pair. She turned a pair but bricked the river to try and become a double winner.
The bubble
Joe Antar eliminated Navid King and Carlos Gonzalez in the same hand with 66 players showing on the clock. Initially, the tournament staff announced that everyone was in the money but when play had resumed, the floors discovered there was a discrepancy and there were still 64 players left. This caused some commotion as hand-for-hand play was still needed as the bubble had not burst.
In the end, it would still be Antar who would really burst the bubble as he eliminated Salvatore Fazzino. Antar raised and Fazzino defended his big blind to see the jack-five-five flop come. Fazzino then check-called another bet of Antar to do the same again on the trey on the turn. The river was the third five for Fazzino to check-call Antar’s shove with the bigger stack. Antar held nine-five for quad fives while Fazzino had pocket jacks for the flopped full house.
The money stages
Once the bubble had burst, the “all-in and calls” could be heard from all corners of the poker room. Micheal Egan ran his ace-jack into the queens of Mark Lassau. Egan managed to turn an ace but the queen on the river meant Egan wouldn’t be getting to another final table after finishing in third place in the High Roller. Day 1b chip leader Cezary Klimczak fell to Lassau too when he held jack-ten and was up against the ace-queen of Lassau.
Travis Endersby won the Turbo earlier this week but won’t be adding another trophy to his collection as he shoved his last ten big blinds in with ace-nine and was called by Harlie Jensz who held kings. Kempson started his climb to the top of the counts when he first doubled through Nickolas Oiberman with pocket tens, he then eliminated Tony Nardi, Brian O’Farrell, and Con Angelakis before the final three tables were reached.
Shivan Abdine finished in 22nd place when his tens couldn’t win against the ace-jack of Tu Le. The biggest pot of the day goes to Bernie Stang who bagged 1,755,000 in the end. Luke Edwards had shoved for 150,000 and was called by both Stang and Sam Vakili. On the trey-seven-ten flop, Vakili check-tank-called the 889,000 shove of Stang with ace-jack as he had flopped the flush draw. Stang held pocket eights and those held throughout the runout of the rest of the board.
Vakili managed to double up once after that one but ended up finishing in 18th place when he called for his tournament life when Kempson had rivered a flush. Connie Graham’s stack was shrinking with every hand and in the end, she got her last few big blinds in and got no help for her ten-eight hand against Richard Davis.
Sixteen players went into the final break of the day and Davis couldn’t survive the last level. He shoved with ace-six and was called by Wenjian "William" Qiu who held pocket jacks. Qiu ended up bagging the second-biggest stack of the night with 2,330,000 in chips. A few minutes later, John Rosario fell to Kumar K.A with pocket treys. And then it was time for Chris Kittos to go home before finding a bag as he ran his ace-ten into the kings of Kempson.
Three hands later it was time for all players to tag their bags and go to bed to battle it out on Monday at 12:30 p.m. local time until there is one player left. When they return, play will resume with Level 23 which features a small blind of 20,000, big blind of 40,000, and an ante of 5,000. Level duration will still be 60 minutes with a 10-minute break after every two levels.
The Run It Up Twitch channel will be live streaming the feature table again with a dynamic delay from 2:25 p.m. local time but the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action live until a champion has been crowned so make sure to keep following it all right here.