Sean Ragozzini Wins 2019 The Star Sydney Champs A$20,000 High Roller (A$223,361)
Aspiring young Aussie poker pros and veteran regulars of The Star Sydney entered the most expensive event of the 2019 The Star Sydney Champs and a total of 37 entries created a prize pool of A$703,000 in the A$20,000 High Roller, which was split among the top four spots.
Down to the final three players, an ICM deal was agreed on and a blind flip decided over the champion. It was chip leader Sean Ragozzini that connected with the board to become the official winner of the tournament, while Tom Rafferty finished in second place and Michael Egan ended up in third.
As per the ICM deal Ragozzini takes home A$223,361, Rafferty earned a payday of A$220,466 and Egan scored A$188,873 for his efforts. Thanks to his victory, Ragozzini more than doubled his cashes on the live circuit so far and Egan hit a milestone as he will jump to more than $1.1 million in live cashes.
Final Result A$20,000 High Roller
| Place | Player | Country | Scheduled Payout (USD) | Actual Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sean Ragozzini | Australia | A$316,350 ($219,103) | A$223,361 ($154,699)* |
| 2 | Tom Rafferty | Australia | A$210,900 ($146,068) | A$220,466 ($152,694)* |
| 3 | Michael Egan | Australia | A$105,450 ($73,034) | A$188,873 ($130,813)* |
| 4 | Ebon Bokody | Australia | A$70,300 ($48,689) |
*Denotes ICM deal three-handed
The constellation at the start of the nine-handed final table was clear. There were two big stacks, four players closely bunched together in the middle of the pack and three shorter stacks. Nine hopes but only four spots guaranteed a return on their investment on the feature table at The Star Sydney.
It wouldn't take long for the action to kick off as eventual champion Ragozzini started the final day in style by sending Hun Wei “Alex” Lee and Mladen Vukovic to the rail in quick succession.
Gautam Dhingra also missed out on the money and Matthew Wakeman was unable to repeat his runner-up finish of the previous year after heading out in sixth place, two off the money. It was a classic flip that decided the fate of Wakeman, who came up short with ace-king against the pocket tens of Ebon Bokody.
Bubble Time
That left the final five hopefuls on the money bubble and the average was more than sixty big blinds deep. Two of them, Vincent Huang and Bokody, were fresh off a deep run in the A$5k Challenge in which they finished second and third respectively.
Ragozzini was seeking a rare cash outside of Melbourne, while Egan came into the final day as one of the most experienced players still in contention.
And then there was Sydney's Tom Rafferty, who entered the final table as the chip leader and remained in the top spot until the money bubble. Rafferty was cruising along until one hand changed the circumstances in dramatic fashion. Egan got it in with queens and Rafferty snap-called with aces only to see a queen appear on the turn.
Only a few hands later, Egan won a flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Huang to let the bubble burst thanks to an ace on the river. Now it was suddenly Egan in the driver's seat with three and a half times the buy-in locked up as the min-cash with four left.
What followed was a fierce battle and the overall lead changed several times. All four contenders for the title were in the top spot at some point until Ragozzini pulled away after taking big pots off Bokody and Egan.
It would be Bokody that had to settle for the min-cash as his ten-four suited ended up drawing dead to the ace-king suited of Egan. After having finished third in the A$5k Challenge, Bokody recorded another five-figure cash in the series and will be eager to do so in the upcoming Main Event as well.
Ragozzini boosted his stack to more than a million but Rafferty doubled through him with aces. The action slowed down again and Egan chipped up to almost close the gap to the duo at the top. When they got back from the break and agreed on deal numbers, it was a blind flip that ended up in favor of Ragozzini and he would sit down a few minutes later to pose for the winner shots.
While the High Roller action might be finished, the flagship event of the festival will kick off in fewer than 24 hours from now. With a buy-in of A$3,000, the Main Event provides a guaranteed prize pool of A$1,500,000 and the poker room has been buzzing throughout the last few days in the build-up to the highlight of the entire schedule.
If the numbers of all events so far and the very successful live satellites are anything to go by, it will be a big turnout in the days to come and the PokerNews team will be on the floor from start to finish to provide all the action.