HomeRise of the short stacks! Kevin Choi wins Warm Up event; High Roller and Head Hunter resume tomorrow
From the bottom of the pile to the top of the heap, that was the story today of the final two players in the Warm Up event. In the end, it was Hong Kong’s Kevin Choi who prevailed over China’s Zhongcai Peng to capture the title and the HKD 111,000 first prize.
Main Event Warm Up Champion, Kevin Choi
The APT Macau 2017 resumed earlier today with the Warm Up event opening the floor. Returning to the felt were 17 players out of the 59 that signed up, however only nine of them would make it to the money round. As soon as the final table of ten was formed, it was bubble time with half of the players sitting on fifteen big blinds and less.
The first big action was massive stacked Kilian Loffler doubling up short-stacked Peng. Unbeknownst to all, this was the boost that Peng needed to get him all the way to the heads up round. After the bubble popped, one player quickly followed, then the day’s entering chip leader Kwok Luen Hei doubled up Choi’s short stack. Alike Peng, this was the turning point for Choi to land the throne.
One player who averted elimination during the eight-handed round was short stacked SJ Kim. Kim cracked Hung Sheng Lin’s pocket aces with his pocket nines when it improved to a straight. Afterwards, he staged a good run but fell short in 4th place with Choi giving him the final boot.
The three-way match kicked off with Peng fully dominating the table until Choi decided to risk all his chips with K♦ Q♣ against Peng’s 5♣ 5♦. Choi won the flip with a queen dropping on the flop. Weicong Tang also doubled up through Peng but was unable to hold on for very long. Peng challenged back twice for his lost chips and eliminated Tang by cracking aces with 6♦ 9♣ straight on a board that ran 2♠ 7♠ 5♥ 8♣ 6♥.
The heads up round had both Peng and Choi even in stacks. Choi went on to win it in just two quick hands.
Payouts
1st Yun Lam Kevin Choi – Hong Kong – HKD 111,000
2nd Zhongcai Peng – China – HKD 68,500
3rd Weicong Tang – China – HKD 50,100
4th SJ Kim – Korea – HKD 38,900
5th Kilian Loffler – Germany – HKD 33,700
6th Alan Lau King Lun – Hong Kong – HKD 29,200
7th Hung Sheng Lin – Chinese Taipei – HKD 25,600
8th Luen Hei Kwok – Hong Kong – 22,800
9th Nishant Sharma – India – 20,800
Side Events Results
The High Rollers event saw 20 players cough up the HKD 33,000 entry fee for a prize pool of HKD 582,000. By the end of the scheduled 12 rounds, only 9 remained. They will be returning tomorrow to battle it out for the HKD 291,000 first prize. Here’s a look at their chip counts:
High Rollers Final 9
Seat 1: Weiyi Zhang – 177,500 (chip leader)
Seat 2: Winfred Yu – 82,500
Seat 3: Greame Siow – 100,500
Seat 4: Kosei Ichinose – 72,000
Seat 5: SJ Kim – 78,500
Seat 6: Mikita Badziakouski – 97,000
Seat 7: Linh Tran – 50,000
Seat 8: Michael Soyza – 47,000
Seat 9: Wang Ye – 95,000
The Head Hunter event also closed without a winner with the final 8 players left out of 59 entries. The prize pool came to HKD 169,900 with the eventual winner taking home HKD 47,000. Two players bagged up the largest stacks, both very close in chips. Manoj Pentakota had the largest stack of 154,500 while Vincent Li Kwun Ngai packed up 154,000. At the final table of ten, Ngai went on a bounty spree eliminating two players that were needed to close up shop and resume for tomorrow.
Head Hunter Final 8
You can watch daily highlights in the APT YouTube channel.