HomeWhile the city streets went on lockdown due to Typhoon Haima, it was business as usual at the Crystal Palace of the Casino Lisboa with the Asian Poker Tour Macau 2016 in full swing. The highlight event was none other than Day 1A of the HKD 22,000 APT Macau Main Event. After a trimmed down six rounds of play, 24 players bagged up at the buzzer with Hong Kong’s Kevin Tse Chi Ho leading the bunch.
Main Event Day 1A Chip Leader, Kevin Tse
Alike the brewing storm gaining strength outside, Tse dominated the felt from the get-go and amassed an intimidating stack very early. He increased even further after winning a big pot with 7♥ 7♠ full house on a board of J♥ 7♣ 10♣ J♠ Q♥. Tse closed the day with 179,900 in chips. Coming in the second spot was UK’s Daniel Tang bagging up 138,600 in chips, and in third position was Spain’s Saul Oliver Fortea with 113,800 in chips.
In addition to the top three leaders, there was no shortage of pros making the cut. The defending champion, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen, survived the day with a healthy stack. Tollefsen won the APT Macau Main Event back in 2013 and was the first two-time APT champion. Past APT champions Feng Zhao (Singapore) and John Tech (Philippines) also secured a Day 2 seat along with New Zealand pro Thomas Ward and Russia’s Vladimir Dobrovolskii.
Day 1A chip counts can be found in the APT facebook page. The Main Event continues tomorrow with Day 1B kicking off at 1pm.
A solid High Rollers victory for Russian pro Vladimir Dobrovolskii
High Rollers Champion, Vladimir Dobrovolskii
In his first appearance at an APT event, Russian pro Vladimir Dobrovolskii overcame a field of 16 players at the two-day High Rollers event to claim his first-ever APT trophy and the first place cash prize of HKD 388,000. In his quest for the title, the highly decorated Russian had to get past two very tough opponents, Bulgaria’s top ranked player Dimitar Danchev and one of Malaysia’s top ranked pros Ying Lin Chua.
With all three players highly skilled, the chip lead moved from player to player several times until Chua scooped a big double up, giving him half the chips in play. During the hand, Chua’s 10♠ 10♦ held up against Dobrovolskii’s A♦ 9♦. Dobrovolskii quickly made up the lost chips by eliminating Danchev with A♣ 10♦ owning the felt against A♥ 7♥.
Entering the heads up match against Chua, both players were at par cradling even stacks. The first one to charge upwards was Chua winning multiple decent pots. Despite his consistent rise, Dobrovolskii took it all back with a big double up holding 5♥ 7♥ two pair over Chua’s 9♦ 9♠. Both players were all in on the flop which completed to 5♣ 7♠ 10♣ J♥ 6♠. The final hand saw Chua pushing with 10♥ 10♠ and Dobrovolskii having him well dominated with J♦ J♠ on a board that ran dry.
Payouts
1st Vladimir Dobrovolskii – Russia – HKD 388,000
2nd Ying Lin Chua – Malaysia – HKD 233,000
3rd Dimitar Danchev – Bulgaria – HKD 155,000