Andy Lee Wins WSOP Sydney High Roller for $273,600

Young Sydney pro Andy Lee picked up the $273,600 first prize and the gold ring in the WSOP Sydney $20K High Roller yesterday after an epic heads-up battle against German pro Martin Finger that lasted for more than five hours.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the Star Poker Room with the WSOP Circuit in town and a field of 36 entries created a prizepool of over $600,000, with a fine mix of local talent and international experience chasing the money and the jewellery, including Brendan Rubie fresh off his win in the $5K and defending champion Warwick Mirzikinian.

The first day was a 10-hour slog to separate the contenders from the also-rans and the final table of nine who re-appeared for day two still had a lot of work to do, only 4 paid places up for grabs – although Lee, Finger and Tolly Sakellariou were way out ahead in the chip stacks.

Sakellariou had claimed his spot in the event via an $1100 satellite and seemed determined to make it count, keeping out of trouble as his fellow players hit the rail one-by-one, until Michael O’Grady’s fortune ran out, his pocket 8’s falling to Finger’s queen on the turn, leaving the remaining four at least $60K better off.

German pro Finger is a well-known face, his $7.5million or so in tournament earnings including some huge victories; the EPT Prague Main Event in 2011, Super High Roller titles in London 2013 and Barcelona 2015, and a WSOP title as well boosting him to 13th spot in the all-time German list – no mean feat given the German dominance of poker’s biggest buy-ins over the last few years.

Nevertheless, local talent Lee was more than a match for Finger once he had eliminated Sakellariou in 3rd spot, and a five hour battle ensued which Lee described afterwards as:

“The longest heads-up battle I have ever played in my life”.

Finger fought his way back into the match several times but finally the title was decided when the German found himself all-in, his Q♥ 6♥ doing fine against Lee’s 7♣ 8♣ until the flop came…

7♠ 7♦ 9♥

…a heart on the turn would have made things interesting, except that it was the …

8♥

…giving Lee the full house and making the K♣ river redundant.

Lee said afterwards:

“Martin is a very good player, so it was very tough”, adding: "I seem to be doing really well in Star Poker Tournaments lately. I guess I am just lucky in my home state!"

Final Table Results