HomeIt was a roaring day at the Asian Poker Tour Finale Macau 2016 with 104 entrants for Day 1A of the festival’s highlight tournament, the HKD11,000 buy-in Main Event. By the end of the scheduled eight rounds, the field downsized to exactly half, leaving 52 players at bagging time. Finishing up with the largest stack was Singapore’s Terminator T with 449,000 in chips.
When the final few hands of the day was announced, heated action was taking place at the Terminator’s table. On a flop of 5♦ 3♠ 7♦, the Terminator was all in with Guam’s Annie Bordallo joining in for her tournament life. Bordallo opened up 5-3 two pair but was sorely behind the Terminator’s 7♠ 7♣ set. The turn of 4♣ and river of Q♣ eliminated Bordallo and the Terminator rose to become the day’s chip leader.
Terminator T with his huge stack after eliminating Bordallo
Day 1A began with 30 players getting an early start to avail of the Main Event Bubble Protection. As the day progressed, many notables were seen at the felt such as current APT Player of the Year leader Iori Yogo, Poker King Cup President Winfred Yu, Japanese pro Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, and APT regulars Yohn Paredes, Jun Funabashi, Yoichi Uesugi and Yuichi Fujiya. All of them survived the day.
As for the fallen, there were also quite a number of notables on the list. Among them were Gerard Bringley, Lim Yo Hwan, Kosei Ichinose, Aso Seitaro, Dhaval Mudgal, and defending champion Dong Guo who busted out at the final hand of the day. Luckily for them, there is still one more day to get back in the game with Day 1B kicking off tomorrow, Sunday December 11th at 1pm.
Day 1A chip counts can be found in the APT Facebook page.
Edward Pastoll comes from behind to win the High Rollers event
High Rollers Champion, Edward Pastoll
The High Rollers event finished up early this evening with South Africa’s Edward Pastoll coming from behind to ship in the sweet HKD362,800 first place cash prize.
The two-day event began yesterday with 29 players contributing HKD33,000 each for a prize pool of HKD843,900. Action resumed today with 9 players battling it out to reach the money round of four places. Leading the crew was China’s Devan Ying Tang while at the bottom section of the totem pole was eventual winner Pastoll.
Pastoll’s rise from the dregs happened after he won a three-way showdown with Q♥ Q♣ against K♠ 10♦ and A♥ 10♣. His ladies ran well, improving to a full house on a board of 7♣ Q♦ 9♠ 5♦ 7♠, to earn him a triple up with one player railed in the process. After several more players fell, including Japan’s Kosei Ichinose, Pastoll delivered the bubble with his dominating pocket aces.
In the Money round
Entering the money round, the man to catch up to was still Tang who jumped to an even bigger lead after finishing off Japan’s Takashi Ogura in 4th place. At three-handed, Tang played aggressively against his opponents, Pastoll and Hong Kong’s Nick Cho Wong, often raising and winning consecutive small pots. When he shut the door on Wong in 3rd place with A-K over A-J, he entered the heads up round against Pastoll with a 3:1 chip advantage.
The final duel began with small pots being exchanged until a big pot was shipped over to Pastoll’s side of the felt. During the hand, Pastoll shoved on a flop of 9♣ 8♣ 5♠ and Tang quickly called. Tang was ahead with 6♦ 7♠ straight but Pastoll had an open ended with J♥ 10♦. The turn card Q♦ instantly gave Pastoll the better hand and he doubled up.
From that moment onwards, Pastoll was simply unstoppable. He won another pot to bring them even in stacks then surged higher, amassing a dominating chip lead, after winning two big ones (with betting that reached the river) without a showdown. The last hand of the tournament saw Tang move all in on a completed board of 5♦ 9♥ K♠ 9♣ 6♣ holding 4♣ 5♠ two pair but Pastoll had him beat with 4♦ 9♦ trips.
Payouts
1st Edward Pastoll – South Africa – HKD362,800
2nd Devan Tang – China – HKD227,900
3rd Nick Cho Wong – Hong Kong – HKD143,500
4th Takashi Ogura – Japan – HKD109,700