Steven Zhou Wins the 2019 WSOPC The Star Sydney Main Event for AU$260,904/$178,305
After four gruelling days of poker, the 2019 World Series of Poker International Circuit The Star Sydney Main Event has a champion, with Australia's Steven Zhou triumphing over a 1,124-strong field to take the title, the World Series Circuit Ring and AU$260,904 (~$178,305) in cash, with a total of 117 players cashing for a share of the AU$2,248,000 (~$1,537,570) prize pool.
Zhou came into the heads-up confrontation against opponent Lior Segre with a commanding 3-to-1 chip lead and the match was over in a single hand, with Segre committing the last of his chips pre-flop with eight-three offsuit and Zhou making the call with jack-nine offsuit. Both players missed the board by miles, meaning Zhou's jack-high was good.
Lior took home $224,114 for his runner-up finish, improving on his 11th place result in the previous year's Main Event, while Zhou took down his first major title and career-best tournament score.
"I wasn't going to play this tournament, I was just waiting for a cash game, but ended up getting sucked in and playing in the Main Event for four days," joked Zhou immediately after his victory.
While the top prize was initially AU$410,264 (~$280,650), Edwin Chiu, Zhou, John Zwaine and Lior Segre reached an accord when play became four-handed, deciding on an ICM chop to flatten out the top four payouts, with the final table paying out as follows:
WSOPC The Star Sydney Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (AU$) | Prize (~US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Steven Zhou | Australia | $260,904 | $178,305 |
| 2nd | Lior Segre | Australia | $224,114 | $153,170 |
| 3rd | Edwin Chiu | Australia | $269,550 | $184,215 |
| 4th | John Zwaine | Australia | $239,007 | $163,340 |
| 5th | Chao Duan | China | $107,837 | $73,768 |
| 6th | Duy Vu | Australia | $83,086 | $56,837 |
| 7th | Huss Hassan | Australia | $64,765 | $44,304 |
| 8th | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | $51,052 | $34,923 |
| 9th | Trevor Saunders | Australia | $40,689 | $27,834 |
Final Table Action
It was Edwin Chiu the man returning with the chip lead after topping both the Day 2 and Day 3 counts, but it was Duy Vu the man to take first blood, sending short-stack Trevor Saunders to the rail just 15-minutes into the Final Table action.
Saunders went out swinging, three-betting all-in with ace-jack suited over the top of a Vu open with the latter making the call with pocket eights and winning the race to send Saunders to the rail in ninth for an AU$40,689 payday.
Adrian Attenborough, who was playing his second final table in the space of a week after finishing runner-up to Shivan Abdine in the $5k Challenge for AU$160,610, was left short after a car crash of a hand then played out against John Zwaine; Attenborough turning the nut flush on a paired board. Unfortunately for Attenborough the card that brought in his flush also give Zwaine, holding pocket sevens, a full house.
Zwaine climbed into the top three while Attenborough was left with a paltry seven big blinds to drop to the bottom of the counts, departing shortly afterwards at the hands of Chiu after the latter ran out a backdoor heart flush with seven-six suited to best Attenborough's ace-six suited. Attenborough collected $51,052 for his eighth-place finish.
Huss Hassan dropped down the counts over the next 60-minute level played after a brassy bluff backfired against Zhou, with the latter finishing the job shortly after the first break after Hassan committed the last of his chips under-the-gun with king-jack and Zhou woke up with pocket aces. Hassan took home AU$64,765 for his seventh-place finish.
The next level saw the next elimination with Vu also running into a hail of bullets, three-betting pre-flop over the top of a Chiu cutoff open and moving all-in on an eight-high single heart rainbow flop with queen-ten of hearts. Chiu called immediately with aces, which held to send Vu to the rail in sixth for $83,086 and saw Chiu take close to 50% of the total chips in play.
There was a lull in the action before the dinner break with the final table's only international player, China's Chao Duan, get short and then bust at the hand of an increasingly active Zhou. Duan moved all-in for his last 12 big blinds with ace-four and Zhou woke up with pocket jacks in the small blind. Duan collected $107,837 for his fifth-place finish.
Chiu still held the lead at this point, but Zhou was not far behind in the counts, with Zwaine and Segre sitting third and fourth respectively in the pecking order and the remaining four players then decided on the ICM deal.
Following this, the action increased dramatically and the next level saw the tournament wrap up. Segre hit a straight flush in a hand against Zhou to overtake Zwaine in the counts.
Zwaine then committed his last 10 big blinds from under-the-gun with pocket nines, with Zhou looking him up from the big blind with queen-jack offsuit and winning the race to take play three-handed.
This put Zhou in the box seat, giving him the chip lead for the first time in the tournament and not long after he clashed in a big pot with Chiu with the latter moving all-in from the button with king-queen offsuit and Zhou making the call from the blinds with ace-three offsuit, which held up when both players missed the board to take play heads-up.
That concludes the PokerNews live coverage from the World Series of Poker International Circuit at The Star Sydney, and we hope you enjoyed all the scintillating poker action as much as we did. Until the next time.