Shivan Abdine Wins WSOP Circuit The Star Sydney $5k Challenge (~$175,980)

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Shivan Abdine

The two-day WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney $5k Challenge is in the books with Australia's Shivan Abdine the man to see off challenges from the 203-strong field take the title, the coveted WSOP Circuit Ring and a top prize of AU$260,000 (~$175,980) after defeating heads-up opponent Adrian Attenborough, who made AU$160,610 for his runner-up finish.

This result marks a career-high for Abdine, beating his prior largest cash of $90,842 which came back in 2016 in a Las Vegas-based tournament by some margin. In addition to winning his first WSOP Circuit title, this victory is Abdine's third outright tournament title and pushes his live winnings up to over $1M, moving him up from 59th to 48th on the Australia All Time Money List on The Hendon Mob.

"It feels good, I've been deep in a lot of spots before that haven't worked out - that's just the way it goes sometimes - but today went really smoothly," said a relaxed and surprisingly mellow Abdine immediately after posing for his winner's shot.

"I've known Adrian for a while, we came up together and it's always really fun to play a good opponent. I didn't expect too much coming into the final table, I did come in with a slight lead, but lost it early so was in a bit of a situation where I had to tighten up a little to get myself back into it," he added.

"It's the title that means the most, the ring will probably go in the draw."

WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney $5k Challenge Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPrize (AU$)Prize (US$)
1Shivan AbdineAustraliaAU$260,000$175,980
2Adrian AttenboroughAustraliaAU$160,610$108,710
3Marc CamphausenGermanyAU$115,970$78,495
4Michael DoumaniAustraliaAU$85,170$75,650
5Ehsan AmiriAustraliaAU$63,630$43,070
6James ObstAustraliaAU$48,350$32,725
7Honglin JiangNew ZealandAU$37,350$25,280
8Charlie HawesNew ZealandAU$29,330$19,850
9George MitriAustraliaAU$23,400$15,840
Final Table
$5K Challenge Final Table

Final Day Action

A total of 21 players cashed for a share of the AU$1M prize pool, with 15 of them returning for the start of the second and final day. It took just a single 45-minute level to reach the nine-handed final table with a slew of early eliminations including Sosia Jiang and Vincent Huang. By the time the final table arrived, it was Abdine who had edged into a slender lead with a stack of just over 1M in chips, with George Mitri close behind with 929,000 with the rest of the field all with stacks smaller than 600k.

It took a grueling two hours before the first final table casualty, with Mitri enduring a torrid time of it where almost nothing went his way and his once proud stack was whittled down to 440,000. A big clash of hands then went down with Mitri, holding ace-queen suited, falling afoul of Camphausen's pocket kings. All the chips went in preflop and Camphausen's premium pocket pair held to see Mitri hit the rail in ninth for AU$23,400.

"It's the title that means the most, the ring will probably go in the draw."

Following the break, New Zealand's Charlie Hawes became the eight place casualty, moving all-in with ace-ten suited over the top of an Abdine open with the latter making the call with a dominating ace-queen. Adrian Attenborough hit a flush in a hand against Michael Doumani shortly afterward to flirt with the chip lead briefly before Abdine whacked Honglin Jiang to seize a lead he would not relinquish until play reached heads-up. Jiang's final hand was a coin flip, the New Zealander's suited ace-king losing a race to Abdine's pocket jacks to push the latter up.

Abdine continued to dominate, railing James Obst next after the latter moved all-in with ace-ten suited over the top of the former's open and Abdine made the call with pocket sevens, which held to further strengthen his chip lead. A level later Attenborough cracked Amiri's pocket aces calling the latter's ten big blind shove with the speculative nine-eight suited and hitting his flush to send Amiri out in fifth.

James Obst
Aussie poker icon James Obst came close to capturing a WSOP Circuit Ring

That left four, with Abdine and Attenborough as the two big stacks, and Doumani and Camphausen as the two shorties. Despite earning a double through Attenborough, Doumani could not mount a comeback. Attenborough took all his chips back with interest after Doumani three-bet all-in pre-flop from the small blind with ace-ten over the top of an Attenborough button raise and ran into pocket queens.

Camphausen departed close on Doumani's heels after tangling in a hand with Abdine in a blind on blind battle. Despite have the slightly better hand pre-flop with king-nine, Camphausen was out flopped by Abdine's queen-four with the Aussie hitting trip queens on the flop and Camphausen making a pair of nines on the turn, which is when all the chips went in.

However, the German will not be too disappointed with the AU$115,970 on offer for third place - Camphausen was on a year's holiday and was down to his last AU$3,000 prior to the series. After keeping $1,000 for a plane ticket home he spun $2,000 up to $8,700 in a daily tournament, then won a satellite for $500 into the $5k Challenge. That makes Camhausen AU$124,670 to the good for the series so far.

Once play reached heads-up, Attenborough and Abdine reached an accord and opted to go all-in blind for the WSOP Series Ring. Seven coin flips later, Abdine emerged the victor, his trey-deuce suited besting Attenborough's jack-six offsuit.

While that concludes the action in the $5k Challenge, the AU$2,200 Main Event is just around the corner with Day 1a getting underway at 12:30 p.m. local time. You can catch all the action on PokerNews so join us then.

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