Edwin Chiu Leads Final 24 Players in WSOPC The Star Sydney Main Event
Day 2 of the World Series of Poker International Circuit The Star Sydney Main Event has concluded with the 1,124-strong Main Event whittled down to the final 24 players, who are competing for a top prize of AU$410,264 (~$280,610), in addition to the coveted WSOP Circuit Ring.
The man leading the charge is Australia's Edwin Chiu, who put on a dominant display of power poker to top the counts over the nine 60-minute levels played.
Chiu returned as one of the top 20 stacks with over 320k but climbed into pole position midway through the day after clashing in a huge hand with Sydney cash grinder Jo Snell in a three-bet pot.
Snell made an ill-timed three street bluff with ace-high and Chiu called him down with a flopped set of fives which was good for a pot of over 3-million chips. While Snell still had a playable 500k stack after the hand, he was unable to recover and departed in 61st place, taking home AU$6,137 for his deep run.
Despite doubling up Billy 'the croc' Argyros during one of the last levels played, Chiu only briefly relinquished the chip lead to Hamish Crawshaw, reseizing it as play began to wind down to bag up an impressive 4,505,000 in chips.
The next closest rival for the top spot is Huss Hassan, who also enjoyed a great day at the tables, railing three separate players in two consecutive hands to bag the second largest stack and will return for the penultimate day with 2,875,000 in chips.
Australia's Adrian Attenborough rounded out the top three after being involved in the vast majority of the live-streamed feature table action to conclude play with a stack of 2,400,000, finishing ahead of Crawshaw, who was the only other player to bag up a stack of over 2-million and will be returning for Day 3 with a stack of 2,030,000.
Other notables still in contention with decent-sized stacks include Duy Doc Vu (1,895,000), Akshay Kapoor (1,400,000), Dean Blatt (1,290,000), Billy 'the croc' Argyros (1,250,000), $5k Challenge finalist Marc Camphausen (1,125,000), China's Chao Duan (1,090,000), and Day 1a frontrunner Diarmuid O'Kane (600,000), though the latter is one of the shorter stacks.
Day 2 Action
A total of 182 players returned for Day 2, all looking to win a slice of the AU$2,248,000 (~$1,537,570) prize pool, and with only the top 117 places paying out, 65 of them would be departing empty-handed.
Notables to come up short of the cash spots included High Roller champion Jonathan Karamalikis, Daniel Laidlaw, Corey Kempson, and Marc Seymour.
The money bubble came and went in rapid fashion, with Jun Zheng the man to depart in the most unenviable position, committing his last two big blinds with ten-nine of spades and losing out to the seven-four of clubs of Michael Hahn, who ran out a straight to guarantee the 117 remaining players a payday of at least AU$3,687 (~$2,520).
Hahn would later depart in 64th place for an AU$5,598 payday. Other notables to make the money but not the last three eight-handed tables included Day 1d frontrunner Andrew Zheng (45th for AU$7,598), Tony Kambouroglou (49th for AU$6,789), Martin Ward (62nd for AU$6,137), Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson (67th for 5,598), 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event champion Stewart Scott (79th for AU$5,148), High Roller finalist Julien Sitbon (97th for AU$4,361) and Australia's Geoff Mooney (114th for AU$3,687) to name but a few.
The 24 remaining survivors will return for the penultimate Day 3, which will kick-off at 12:30 p.m. local time and will play down to the official nine-handed final table, however long this may take. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you the highlights of all the action, and you can watch all the action via the official live stream so join us then as we walk the road to the final table.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Name | Table/Seat | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| John Duggan | '30/1 | 825,000 |
| Trevor Saunders | '30/2 | 655,000 |
| Huss Hassan | '30/3 | 2,875,000 |
| Adrian Salter | '30/4 | 615,000 |
| Akshay Kapoor | '30/5 | 1,400,000 |
| Rehman Kassam | '30/6 | 585,000 |
| Hamish Crawshaw | '30/7 | 2,030,000 |
| Mostafa Haidar | '30/8 | 650,000 |
| Edwin Chiu | '31/1 | 4,505,000 |
| Chao Duan | '31/2 | 1,090,000 |
| Diarmuid O'Kane | '31/3 | 600,000 |
| John Zwaine | '31/4 | 1,225,000 |
| Jules Wilson | '31/5 | 1,425,000 |
| Jensen Chow | '31/6 | 895,000 |
| Dean Blatt | '31/7 | 1,290,000 |
| Adrian Attenborough | '31/8 | 2,400,000 |
| Steven Zhou | '32/1 | 875,000 |
| Lior Segre | '32/2 | 1,160,000 |
| Duy Doc Vu | '32/3 | 1,895,000 |
| Tom Rafferty | '32/4 | 1,240,000 |
| Marc Camphausen | '32/5 | 1,125,000 |
| Anish Kumar | '32/6 | 1,400,000 |
| Billy Vasilios | '32/7 | 1,250,000 |
| Shane De Clifford | '32/8 | 1,860,000 |
, to see Hassan scoop both the main and side pot, sending Gloess to the rail.
, but would not improve against Hassan 
and Tchong revealed 
. The ace-high held for Hassan sending him up the leader board
and Crawshaw fired out 225,000. Chiu took his time before matching the bet. 
and Crawshaw reached for his chips and slid out 450,000. Chiu then moved all in for around 2,400,000 which had Crawshaw well covered. Crawshaw mucked almost instantly.
turn and 
river, both were safe cards for Argyros and he climbed to 1,090,000 and Chiu was forced to cut a rampart from his chip castle and ship it over to drop to 3,300,000.
, improving Rafferty's hand to two pair, resulting in King being eliminated.
.
flop. Unfortunately for him, a king appeared as well, sending Duan and Lei to the lead. 
then 
, resulting in Duan and Lei chopping the main pot, and Lei scooping the side pot between him and Snell. 
on a 
board. 
and over 135,000 already in the pot, big blind Billy 'the croc' Argyros had checked the action over to Anish Kumar (cutoff) who had fired out a sizable 104,000 bet and the croc was deep in thought.