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.