Brendon Rubie becomes $5K Challenge Champion of 2017 WSOP Sydney

The Star Sydney has played host to the World Series of Poker since November 28^th with plenty of poker action left to go. The WSOP International Circuit stop will continue through December 18^th, offering players in Sydney, Australia quality poker tournaments in that time frame. Just recently, the $5k Challenge finished up, with Brendon Rubie earning the first-place win.

The tournament was a No Limit Texas Hold’em affair with 229 players competing in The Star Poker Room. A total prize pool of $1,087,750 was up for grabs with everyone wanting to last at least until the final table to secure a higher payout. Rubie was no stranger to the $5,000 Challenge, having been close to earning the title last year, according to PokerNews. The poker pro finished second and was not about to lose this year.

The road to the final table would be rough for Rubie as top pros were in on the action. When the final table was set Rubie had a seat, but all eyes were on Sam Higgs as he had a tremendous chip lead. Higgs would use his lead to take down Antonis Kambouroglou and then Ray Liu back to back.

Things would start to change when Rubie made his move and called Charbel Boustani’s all-in. Rubie held A-J while Boustani showed pocket tens. The board was good for Boustani with 3-5-8 but and 8 on the turn and Jack on the river secured the win for Rubie and sent Boustani out in 6^th.

Then Rubie and Higgs would go head to head. Rubie decided to raise preflop with 55,000 and Higgs would call. Rubie would then bet 60,000 on the flop, which showed J-8-A. Higgs decided to call again. The turn showed a 7 with Rubie betting yet again and Higgs decided to one-up his competitor and go all-in. Rubie called. Higgs showed J-8 for two pair but Rubie had a better two pair with A-J of hearts. The 9 on the river was no help to Higgs, with Rubie gaining a ton of chips in the process.

Rubie then took out Andy Lee and Steve Pappas to move the game to three-handed play. Rubie, Higgs and Jordan Westmorland were the only three remaining. Higgs would quickly take care of Westmorland, leaving himself and Rubie to duke it out in heads-up play.

Heads-up play would last only two hands as an all-in would happen early. With both pros all-in, Rubie would show pocket queens and Higgs held pocket Jacks. The flop fell 2-8-Q, with Higgs needing runner-runner to remain in the competition. The A and 6 on the turn and river put Higgs out in second placing, giving Rubie the first-place win.

Final Table Results: