TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan – It’s starting to appear that the locals don’t want the Asian Poker Tour (APT) to leave as the players successfully negotiated with tournament staff to put up one more Head Hunter event and a fifth NT$27k (US$850.00) High-Rollers event even as trophies were awarded for two of the last three scheduled events at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club) here.
This will be the second “extra” High-Rollers included in the competition and the first Head Hunter tilt since the Mystery Bounty as the poker community here can’t seem to get enough of the high-level action the tour has brought in its only stop in this country this year. So far, 14 entries have been tallied for this bonus game while the original (Event #17) NT$43k (US$1,366.00) High-Rollers was able to net eleven as those who busted out of the recently concluded (Event #18) Monster Stack.
Ending up winning that version of the High-Rollers was Wu Chia Yun who just needed to hurdle a field of twelve entrants to capture the win and the top prize of NT$326,000.00 (US$10,310.00) while second place went to Chi Chang Chang for NT$139,600.00 (US$4,415.00).
It was Yu Jyun Chang coming away with the Monster Stack title by defeating a field consisting of 150 entries for his first ever APT trophy and the biggest cash of his career at NT$253,000.00 (US$7,988.00). This part-time dealer here at the CTP Club has had one previous cash of close to US$2.000.00 by wining one of the local tournaments and this life-changing victory could have him at the crossroads in his career.
Second place went to Bulgaria’s Kristof Segers for NT$168,000.00 (US$5,307.00) but more importantly picked up his ninth ITM and could have earned enough points to catapult him past Main Event champion Zhan Shuo Guo for Player of the Series (POS). The tabulation is ongoing.
Third went to Lok Ming Chan of Hong Kong for NT$117,000.00 (US$3,696.00).
In (Event #19) the Deep Stack Hyper Turbo, Chi Jen Chen capped a string of personal best cashes this year with his first ever APT title in railroading 58 entries to claim the crown along with the top prize of NT$41,000.00 (US$1,296.00) while Pei Lung Cheng got second for NT$27,300.00 (US$863.00) and third went to Yuan Hao Chang for NT$19,100.00 (US$604.00).
It was a reversal of roles in the winner’s photograph following (Event #20) the fourth NT$27k (US$850.00) single-day High-Rollers as Hua Wei Lin this time was in the champion’s chair after outlasting her significant other and two-time APT High-Roller winner Chang Yu Chung in their Heads-up battle for the championship.
Lin was the second woman to win a trophy in these proceedings following the triumph of Chen Yi Liu in the third edition of this event and received NT$186,000.00 (US$5,908.00) and her first APT title. Chang didn’t get a bad payday either with NT$80,000.00 (US$2,530.00) for his runner-up finish but still got to pose in the photo afterwards.
The final update later on will be about the two “extra” events created “due to insistent public demand”.