2019 WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney
Moustafa Haidar Eliminated in 10th Place (AU$32,798/~$22,435)
The final table bubble burst in dramatic fashion, with Moustafa Haidar the man to come up just short of a seat at the nine-handed official final with Edwin Chiu the man to bring Haidar's Main Event run to an end.
It was Adrian Attenborough who instigated the countdown to Haidar's exit with a raise to 160,000 from the cutoff, with Chiu three-betting to 450,000 from the button. Haidar peeked down at his cards in the small blind and moved all-in for 1.35-million in total.
Attenborough quickly folded and Chiu thought it over for close to 30-seconds before choosing to make the call and it was off to the races.
Moustafa Haidar:
Edwin Chui:
It was Chiu with the ace-queen for a change and Haidar held the fish hooks with the sweatiest of sweaty flops coming down to give Haidar top set and Chiu the nut flush draw to appreciative 'ooohhs!' and 'aaahhs!' from the rest if the table.
Sensing the excitement, the watching rail crowded around and Haidar was on his feet calling for a brick. The dealer flipped over the turn to ratchet the tension up to almost unbearable levels and paused over the last card...
"Hold!" shouted Haidar, but with a snapping sound like the crack of a whip the dealer slapped down the river and Haidar's tournament was done. Haidar headed off to collect the AU$32,798 on offer for 10th place, while Chiu edged back into the chip lead, stacking up to 6,335,000 after the hand, with play concluding immediately afterwards.
Final Table Chip Counts
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Edwin Chiu |
6,335,000
1,285,000
|
1,285,000 |
Steven Zhou |
6,205,000
1,105,000
|
1,105,000 |
Huss Hassan |
4,500,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Adrian Attenborough |
4,150,000
350,000
|
350,000 |
Chao Duan |
3,465,000
265,000
|
265,000 |
John Zwaine |
3,065,000
365,000
|
365,000 |
Duy Vu |
2,775,000
-735,000
|
-735,000 |
Lior Segre |
2,585,000
1,395,000
|
1,395,000 |
Trevor Saunders |
940,000
-260,000
|
-260,000 |
Final Table Set in WSOPC The Star Sydney Main Event; Edwin Chiu Leads
Just nine players remain out of the 1,124-strong AU$2,200 World Series of Poker International Circuit The Star Sydney Main Event after what proved to be the quickest day of poker played in the Series so far.
Only 24 players returned for the penultimate day, all guaranteed a payday of at least AU$15,444 (~$10,565), though all had their eye firmly focused on the AU$410,264 (~$280,610) top prize.
The man in the best of positions to take that is the same man who topped the Day 2 counts, with Australia's Edwin Chiu bursting the final table bubble in dramatic fashion to send Moustafa Haidar to the rail and retake the chip lead, all in one fell swoop.
Haidar got his last 1.35-million in chips in with a four-bet from the small blind after an Adrian Attenborough cutoff open and a Chiu button three-bet and found his pocket jacks racing against the latter's ace-queen of hearts.
Despite hitting top set on the jack-high double heart flop, Haidar was unable to fade the hearts, with Chiu making the nut flush on the river to set up the official nine-handed final table.
Steven Zhou will be returning as the second largest stack, breathing down Chiu's neck with a total of 6,205,000 in chips, with these two the only players to return with stacks of 6-million.
Other notables still in with a shout include Huss Hassan (4,500,000) and Adrian Attenborough (4,150,000), with the latter making his second final table in the space of a week, having finished runner-up to Shivan Abdine in the$5k Challenge for an AU$160,610 payday.
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Trevor Saunders | Australia | 940,000 | 12 |
2 | Steven Zhou | Australia | 6,205,000 | 78 |
3 | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | 4,150,000 | 52 |
4 | John Zwaine | Australia | 3,065,000 | 38 |
5 | Duy Vu | Australia | 2,775,000 | 35 |
6 | Lior Segre | Australia | 2,585,000 | 32 |
7 | Chao Duan | China | 3,465,000 | 43 |
8 | Edwin Chiu | Australia | 6,335,000 | 79 |
9 | Huss Hassan | Australia | 4,500,000 | 56 |
Day 3 Action
A total of 117 players will cash for a share of the AU$2,248,000 (~$1,537,570) prize pool, with the 24 returning Day 3 players already having locked up AU$15,444 (~$10,565).
It was Huss Hassan who got the ball rolling with the early elimination of Adrian Slater after calling the latter's all-in small blind three-bet and while Hassan's speculative eight-six offsuit was trailing Salter's suited ace-ten, Hassan flopped the open-ended straight draw, which came in on the turn to leave Salter drawing dead.
Two other players departed in the first level played, with the UK's John Duggan falling at the hands of a rampant Hassan who woke up with pocket nines after Duggan moved all-in pre-flop with pocket eights.
Day 1a frontrunner Diarmuid O'Kane returned as one of the shorter stacks and could not improve, three-betting all-in with ace-eight offsuit from the small blind only to run into the pocket queens of Chiu.
The next level saw the pace of bust-outs increase with five players falling in the space of just one hour with Rehman Kassam (21st for AU$18,344), Germany's Marc Camphausen (20th for AU$18,344), Jules Wilson (19th for AU$18,344), Jensen Chow (18th for AU$22,030) and Shane De Clifford (17th for AU$22,030) all hitting the rail, with the latter two enjoying a ladder up in the process.
The speedy pace of bust-outs continued after the first 10-minute break with Duc Vu cracking Dean Blatt's pocket aces with the mighty six-four of hearts in a five-bet pot that saw Vu spike his flush on the turn, with Blatt departing in 16th place for an AU$22,030 payday.
Akshay Kapoor followed Blatt to the rail shortly afterwards, falling at the hands of Hassan who earned his third scalp of the day when Kapoor committed the last of his chips with a suited king-queen and ran into Hassan's ace-queen.
The fourth level played saw the field thinned down to the final nine with Tom Rafferty (14th for AU$26,729), Anish Kumar (13th for AU$26,729), Hamish Crawshaw (12th for AU$32,798) and Billy 'the croc' Argyros (11th for AU$32,798) all falling in quick succession.
The fourth and final day will play out at 12:30 p.m. local time on Monday, December 9 with the PokerNews live reporting team on hand to bring you all the tournament thrills and spills as we see who has what it takes to become the 2019 WSOPC The Star Sydney Main Event champion, so join us then.
AU$2,200 Main Event
Day 3 Completed