Javad Etaat raised to 45,000 from under the gun before Victor Teng raised to 125,000 from the hijack. Shivan Abdine called from the button. Etaat made the call as well.
The flop came and Etaat checked. Teng continued with another bet. Abdine then moved all in for 999,000 in chips. Etaat called with 608,000 behind. Teng mucked and said he had pocket aces.
Javad Etaat:
Shivan Abdine:
Etaat had flopped a set of fives and led Abdine's pocket queens. The on the turn improved Etaat to a full house. No help came for Abdine after the dropped on the river completing the board.
In the space of two hands just before the break Mladen Vukovic was eliminated from the tournament.
In the first hand Vukovic raised from under the gun and was called by Matt Pongrass in the big blind.
The flop came and Pongrass checked. Vukovic bet 40,000. Pongrass called.
The turn brought the and Pongrass check-called another bet totalling 225,000.
The completed the board and Pongrass made it three checks in a row. Vukovic shoved for just under a million having Pongrass covered. He snap-called.
Vukovic tabled for two pair but had been rivered by Pongrass who made a better two pair holding .
The next hand Ricky Kroesen raised to 50,000 from middle position. Pongrass called from the small blind. Vukovic then shoved for his last 500,000 from the big blind. Kroesen came over the top for 1,400,000. Pongrass opted to release his .
Kroesen:
Vukovic:
No help would come for Vukovic as he was sent to the rail. Kroesen moved to over two million in chips after the hand.
Haoran Zhang raised to 60,000 from the cutoff and was called by Rahul Rastogi in the big blind.
The flop came and Rastogi checked. Zhang continued for 40,000. Rastogi called.
The turn dropped the and Rastogi checked again. Zhang then moved all in for 346,000. Rastogi asked for a count then called a minute later.
Rahul Rastogi:
Haoran Zhang:
Rastogi had turned the best hand making a pair. Zhang was now drawing to a jack to make a straight but the on the river wouldn't see that happen and Zhang was sent to the rail.
Travis Endersby raised to 85,000 from under the gun plus one and was called by Luke Martinelli in the hijack.
The flop came and Endersby bet 135,000. Martinelli called.
The dropped on the turn and Endersby moved all in 475,000 and was snap-called by Martinelli who had him covered.
"You got a flush?" asked Endersby before Martinelli turned over his for the nut flush. "The flush," stated Endersby after realising, before flipping over his which was drawing dead.
The meaningless completed the board and Martinelli was awarded the pot.
Day 2 of the WSOP International Circuit Sydney Main Event has come to an end and there are just 27 players remaining. Leading the way is Australia's Alex Lynskey, who is in the hunt for his first WSOP circuit ring, which would fit quite nicely to a resume that some poker players could only dream of, including a 7th place finish at this year's WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas for $1,500,000.
Lynskey bagged up 3,055,000, edging out John Sormi (2,735,000) and Irishman Ray Bryant (2,355,000) for top honours. Lynskey’s most memorable hand came when he clashed with England’s Brandon Sheils. Lynskey moved all in on the river with the board showing and was holding . Sheils tank-called with and was knocked out. That moved Lynskey to 1.2 million and he used that momentum to build his large stack. Other big stacks that will be moving on to Day 3 include Rahul Rastogi (2,320,000) and Justin Layden (2,035,000) who round out the top five with stacks above two million.
There are plenty of big names still in the hunt including recent WSOPC High Roller winner Luke Martinelli (1,710,000), Ricky Kroesen (1,780,000), Joel Dodds (1,690,000), Stevan Chew (1,185,000), Peco Stajonovski (1,030,000), Sam Capra (1,555,000) and Michael Fraser (1,325,000).
At one stage earlier in the day, with blinds at 6,000/12,000, Capra sat with just 11,000 in chips. He was able to spin that up to finish just outside the top ten stacks when play ended. Fraser is making back-to-back deep runs in the WSOPC Sydney Main Event after last year finishing runner-up to Michael Kanaan. He’ll be hoping to go one better in two days time.
230 players returned today with 135 making the money. Chris Wookey would ultimately become the bubble boy after his aces were cracked by Mark Yazbeck’s pocket nines after a nine spiked on the flop. From there not all of the fan favorites were fortunate enough to survive to the day's end but still profited with a cash. Among the fallen were Jeff Lisandro (131st), Michel Bouskila (124th), Jarred Graham (122nd), Heidi May (119th), Sean Dunwmoodie (102nd), Corey Kempson (94,000), Daniel Laidlaw (71st), James Broom (53rd), Mladen Vukovic (38th), Suzy Khoueis (30th) and Shivan Abdine (29th).
The final 27 players will return to the poker room at The Star on Sunday, 16 December at 12.30pm local time to resume Day 3 and play down to the final table. Blinds will be continuing on Level 23 at 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante. The plan is to play down to the final table, however long that takes, with 10-min breaks every two 60-minute levels and a 30-min dinner break after Level nine.
WSOPC Sydney Final 27 Seat Draw
Seat
Table 29
Table 30
Table 32
1
John Sormi
Dion Mavrangelos
Michael Fraser
2
Henry Tran
Dominick French
Joel Dodds
3
Luke Martinelli
Lio Segre
Richard Davis
4
Javad Etaat
Victor Teng
Sam Capra
5
Alexis Tremblay
Joel Cohen
Michael Seymour
6
Rob Damelian
Matt Pongrass
Michael Nenes
7
Alex Lynskey
Stevan Chew
Ray Byrant
8
Peco Stojanovski
Rahul Rastogi
Justin Layden
9
Cameron Chen
Barry Forrester
Ricky Kroesen
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor to bring you all the highlights of the action so join us then as we see who has what it takes to walk the road to the final table.