The cards are in the air on the final table!

After eleven levels of play and over one hundred eliminations, the final table of the 2010 Sydney Poker Championships Main Event has been set!

Just after midday, 118 hopefuls took their seat in the Star City Poker Room to battle it out for a piece of the $544,500 prizepool that was on offer. Action kicked off at an incredibly fast rate with players whizzing out the door left, right and centre as no one was scared of putting chips into the pot.

Graeme Putt, Jimmy Siu, Grant Levy, Jai Kemp, Scott Smith, Ali Khalil, Sam Khouiss, Patrick Fletcher, Peter Aristidou and Tony Hachem were just a handful of those that exited shy of the thirty-seven players that received some money; one of which wasn't Tommy Yi who unfortunately took the moniker of bubble boy.

Expectedly, action continued at a fast rate once we snuck into the money with a full table being able to enjoy a home-cooked meal as the remaining twenty-nine players headed on dinner break. On return, a steady flow of eliminations followed before play hit a stall only to see Mathew Rolfe become the second bubble boy of the day when he busted in 10th place joining Sean Dunwoodie (36th), Daniel Kochan (34th), Leo Boxell (28th), Ricky Kroesen (22nd), Mike Ivin (18th), Stephen Lindeblad (17th) and Sheldon (15th) on the rail with a little more money then when they arrived.

In just over twelve hours, nine players will be returning to battle it out for the coveted trophy, title of Sydney Poker Championships Main Event Champion and $136,942 first prize as they line-up as follows:

Final Table Line-Up (average stack - 807,000)
Seat 1: Alec Smith (434,000 in chips)
Seat 2: Joel Sheridan (363,000)
Seat 3: Barry Forrester (382,000)
Seat 4: Andrew Capelin (880,000)
Seat 5: Joel Dodds (1,343,000)
Seat 6: Michael Mayar (335,000)
Seat 7: Milan Gurung (1,364,000)
Seat 8: Sasha Skalrud (450,000)
Seat 9: Honglin Jiang (1,725,000)

Leading the charge into tomorrow is Honglin Jiang who captured the Event 3: $1,100 Six-Handed tournament just a week ago for slightly under $20,000 and amassed a very healthy 1,725,000-chip stack through some aggressive play and lucky outdraws.

Snapping on his heels is Milan Gurung who final tabled this event last year and will be looking to make amends for his third-place finish. Sitting just behind him is the highly popular Joel 'Strong Play' Dodds who put his Day 1a chip lead to good use to finish with 1,343,000 in chips. Event 1: $550 Opening Event winner Alec Smith, Barry Forrester and local regulars Andrew Capelin and Michael Mayar round out the final table.

With play kicking off at 2:00 p.m local time, make sure to join PokerNetwork as we see who will follow in Jarred Graham's footsteps of being crowned the Sydney Poker Championships Main Event Champion!

Milan Gurung bumped it up on the button only to have Mathew Rolfe move all in from the small blind with Gurung making the call.

Gurung:
Rolfe:

The board ran out to see Rolfe become the final table bubble boy collecting $7,623 in winnings to leave the final nine to bag and tag their chips.

With that recent elimination of Eddy Hosni, we are now going hand-for-hand until we lose one more and the final table is set!

Honglin Jiang opened to 50,000 from the button only to have Eddy Hosni move all in from the big blind. Jiang made the call to put Hosni at risk.

Hosni:
Jiang:

The board ran out to see Hosni eliminated in 11th place for a $7,623 payday.

Sasha Skalrud pushed his last 180,000 in from the button and Eddy Hosni made the call from the big blind.

Skalrud:
Hosni:

The board ran out to see Skalrud's flush best Hosni's straight as he doubled through to 380,000 while Hosni slips to 350,000 in chips.

Joel Sheridan found himself all in preflop against Sasha Skalrud.

Sheridan:
Skalurd:

The board ran out to see Sheridan double to 440,000 as Skalrud slips to 230,000 in chips.