After two days and 341 player eliminations, the final table for the $2,500 PokerStars.com
Asia Pacific Poker Tour (
APPT) Macau
Asian Poker Open played out last night.
The event, the first hold'em poker tournament on Chinese soil, was the largest poker tournament ever held in Asia.
The APPT couldn't have asked for a more high-profile table, as it included 2005 World Series of Poker Champion and Team PokerStars representative Joe Hachem, one of the game's most highly respected female players, Liz Lieu, and two Team PokerStars members from South Korea who are also known for their professional computer game prowess, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Guillaume Party. Rounding out the remaining seats were players from London, Seoul, Singapore, Australia, and the chip leader, Dinh Le, a 27-year-old resident of Birmingham, England, and originally from Vietnam.
A small crowd filled the intimate television table filming area, and railbirds peered onto the set from the two stories of high-roller baccarat suites that ring the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino. Hachem, the crowd favorite, found his time at the table short-lived after he got all of his money in preflop with pocket aces against the A-Q of Sangkyoun Kim. Kim caught a straight and eliminated the champion in eighth place ($24,288).
It took 105 hands, spread over nearly eight hours of play, to declare a winner. In the end, Le beat out Ivan Tan in a short heads-up battle, which gave him the title and $222,640.
Tan, a cash-game player from Singapore who won his seat in the event via a live megasatellite, collected $129,536 for his runner-up finish.
Here were the final standings and payouts:
1. Dinh Le -- $222,640
2. Ivan Tan -- $129,536
3. Sangkyoun Kim -- $72,864
4. Guillaume Patry -- $56,672
5. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier -- $48,576
6. William Tam -- $40,480
7. Liz Lieu -- $32,384
8. Joe Hachem -- $24,288
9. Simon Randall -- $16,192
The Asian Poker Open also will feature a $15,000 buy-in high-rollers event that kicks of this morning, local time. Sixty-four players entered, and a number of big-name players, including Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Liz Lieu, Chad Brown, Travis Rice, Lee Nelson, Nick Schulman, Kirk Morrison, and Yosh Nakano are playing in the two-day televised event.
