Welcome Aboard the APT Roller Coaster

Macau, China - a fitting location for the Asian Poker Tour's second leg. For those who don't know, Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia; millions board planes, trains, and boats to visit this gambling Mecca every waking minute. The APT guaranteed $500,000 for the eventual winner, a record in this region of the world. Record breaking aside, Macau was holding its breath in anticipation for another big reason: The godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson, had made the flight over with Jack Binion to officially open the APT at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino. The turnout on the rail alone confirmed Macau is crazy about poker … move over baccarat (well, at least for one week).

The first day of play attracted some familiar names, including Manila winner David Saab, J.C. Tran, and, of course, "Texas Dolly." Saab, a Scotty Nguyen and Phil Hellmuth hybrid (although he will argue he is better-looking than both!), is renowned for his lighthearted table talk. After Saab limped in from under the gun, two came along for the ride. The player on the button then raised it to 300. Saab announced a raise to 1,250. All three players folded, and Saab took down the pot.

"Stop squeezing!" chirped Saab.

"What's squeezing?" queried his opponent.

"Well, it's rude to squeeze. I won't have it," laughed Saab as he raked in the chips.

The table talk and laughter would be short-lived, as a level later, the champion had gone, closely followed by Tran and Brunson. Clearly, all three were not on their A-games. Perhaps it was the talk of the big cash game, a televised $100,000 buy-in, or maybe it was the thought of all that exotic Oriental cuisine; earlier in the day, Doyle had been offered a cheeseburger, and his response was, "I didn't travel 20,000 miles to eat a cheeseburger."

Lithuanian born Yevgeniy Timoshenko, the prolific online whiz on his first outing in Asia, was quickly making a name for himself. After a player had limped in from middle position, Yvo Molin and Timoshenko obliged from the blinds. They took a flop of 7 5 3. Timoshenko led out from the big blind with a bet of 2,000. Both opponents made the call. The turn was the 6, and Timoshenko fired 4,000. The next player folded, and Molin thought for a few moments before folding the nut-flush draw with the A 10 faceup, to the surprise of his opponents. Timoshenko ended the day with 60,000 and was among the chip leaders.

Day 1B saw the field swell to 154 as big names took their seats one level into play. John Juanda and Kenny "Sick Call" Tran were among the late starters. Play proved to be swift and the field was cut down by a sizeable number, as more than 100 players made their exit during the day. After level 10 had ended, Turkay Guray was on top of the leader board with 117,000. Guray remarked, "I love this place so much, I'm going to move here." After being asked why, he replied, "Are you kidding me? Women, clubs - oh, and poker, of course!" Among the 48 returning, notables included Kai Danilo Paulsen, Mel Judah, and Irishman Thomas Dunwoodie.

Day two would see the passing of the money bubble, and the remaining field started the day timidly approaching that benchmark. Two hours later, the bubble had popped, and action sped back up and resumed its inevitable march. One of the most talked about hands in the tournament took place during the money bubble. J.J. Liu was all in for 400 in chips in the ante, with two limpers as well as the blinds coming along. The four live players checked down the board in an attempt to eliminate Liu from the tournament. The board read J 10 3 10 K. Liu hadn't looked at her cards, but flipped up the 8 8. Another player sheepishly said, "You're not going to like me," as he flipped over the Broadway straight (A Q), and Liu exited as the bubble girl. Amazingly, Piotr Gruszczynski, sitting next to her, had only one black 100-denomination chip remaining. That extra chip made him $6,000 richer as the remaining 40 players hit the money.

Midway through the day, a landmark hand gave one player an awesome chip lead. Richard Bonzon opened the pot for 6,000. He was called by Spanish professional Julio Diaz from the button, and Guray Turkay reraised from the small blind to 15,500. Both of the other players called. The flop was J 8 5. Turkay shoved his 86,000 stack into the middle. Bonzon elected to call all in for about 55,000. Diaz shrugged and said, "OK, I call," before revealing the J J. Diaz was miles ahead, and when the board bricked out, he eliminated two players, giving himself 467,000 in chips - almost double his nearest competitor. Michelle Ferrari had slid under the radar undetected. The JBet poker professional proved that silent is indeed deadly, as with not so much as a yelp, the ice-cold Italian could have been mistaken for a statue throughout the week. Ferrari was attempting to make the final table for a second time, having finished fifth in Manila. Things were going according to plan as Ferrari moved all in from early position when nine-handed. Casey Kastle had him covered and elected to flat-call. The remaining players got out of the way as Ferrari tabled pocket sixes against Kastle's pocket tens. There was no miracle for Ferrari, and he exited on the TV bubble.

Casey Kastle: 456,000

Chong Wing Cheong: 454,000

Rober Karian: 419,000

Yevgeniy Timoshenko: 318,000

Quang Nguyen: 315,000

Julio Diaz: 315,000

Joon Hee Yeah: 160,000

Michael Pedley: 132,000

The final table was a quick affair. On the very first hand, the short-stacked Michael Pedley moved all of his chips into the middle with a pair of sixes, only to be flushed on the turn by Nguyen. It was a nervy final table, which saw online specialist Timoshenko exerting total control and playing an aggressive style that built him an early chip lead. Chong Wing Cheong was one of the first players to experience that aggression when his K Q was no match for the young gun's A Q. The "Shenko Train" continued to bulldoze his opponents, dispatching Nguyen in sixth, and then Julio Diaz, when his A 10 was beaten by Timoshenko's 6 6. An unstoppable force with 1.7 million, his nearest rival had 300,000. Could anyone get in young Timoshenko's way?

With four players left and the blinds at 10,000-20,000, the players took a short break. Some 15 minutes later, all but Timoshenko had returned. As the final table restarted, the chip leader was nowhere to be seen. Ten minutes later, a flustered Timoshenko appeared, and went on to explain to the tournament director, Matt Savage, that he had a problem with his room key.

"How many did I miss?" Timoshenko asked (referring to the number of hands played).

"Four," replied Savage.

"Four. You couldn't have waited?" asked an annoyed Timoshenko.

"No," Savage said.

"That's cold-blooded, Matt."

Timoshenko was not happy. As he reseated himself, he immediately raised two pots in a row; was he steaming?

He made it 45,000 from the button, and Casey Kastle moved all in for 132,000 from the big blind. Timoshenko made the pot-committed call with a surprising K 3, up against the 10 10 of Kastle. The board fell 6 5 2 5 K, with Timoshenko spiking a king and cruelly dispatching Kastle in fourth place.

Part two was a similar event. He opened the pot for 45,000, bringing a quick all-in declaration from next-to-act Karian.

Timoshenko wasted no time in calling with the A J, and Karian winced before tabling the A 9. A board of 5 4 2 7 7 confirmed Karian's fate, although a $126,000 payday should go some way to healing the pain!

After four days of battle, we were heads up. Korean Joon Hee Yeah had battled miraculously to make it to the final table, but with a 10-1 chip deficit, even the optimists had resigned themselves to silver. There were early signs of hope as Yeah doubled up with pocket kings, but the continual raising of Timoshenko meant it was only a matter of time before Yeah would have to take a stand with any two cards. That time was one hour into heads-up play. Timoshenko raised all in, and Yeah instantly announced, "Call." Timoshenko revealed pocket queens, with Yeah flipping over the K Q. The flop came down A J 6, remarkably making Yeah the favourite (55 percent, to be exact) with maximum outs, including a royal-flush draw. However, there was to be no fairy-tale comeback, as the board bricked out to give Timoshenko the Macau Asian Poker Tour title. A visibly ecstatic Timoshenko commented on his win: "I ran extremely well. The final table was a tough lineup. I'm so happy I finally won a main event."

Finally? You're 20 years old!

Expect big things from this young man … well … boy!