APPT Macau 2018: Diego Palma Tops Main Event Day 1A; Alex Foxen Takes Down Super High Roller & Shuize Cai Ships APPT National Event

APPT Macau 2018
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  • PG News March 20, 2018
  • 4 Minutes Read

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau 2018 currently underway at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room in the City of Dreams marches unabated with the kick-off of its most significant tournament, the Main Event. The first of the two starting flights wrapped up yesterday with Chilean Diego Palma bagging the overnight chip lead with 133,500. The event saw a total of 153 runners on Day 1 and only 98 advanced to Day 2 of the event.

Even as the Main Event rolled out, two other featured events of the series came of a close. 27-year-old poker pro from New York Alex Foxen shipped the HK$400,000 APPT Macau Super High Roller event for HK$7,560,000 while, 30-year-old Chinese stockbroker Shuize Cai took down the APPT National event for HK$1,293,200.

In other side events, Calvin Chong Wei Li won the Knockout event for HK$49,218.

 

APPT Main Event – Day 1A

The first of the two starting flights of the much-awaited Main Event, which is also the second of four events at the series offering a Platinum Pass to the winner, attracted a total of 153 entries.

At the end of the day’s play, 98 players survived and booked their berth in Day 2 with Chilean Diego Palma leading the pack with a stack of 133,500.

Other notables who made it through to Day 2 included China’s Ye Wang (131,000), Xiaoyang Luo (117,900), Wei Gong (111,300), 2016 ACOP Super High Roller Champion Yuan Li (107,300), Luc Greenwood (70,700), Aaron Been (53,100), Matt Moss (29,600) and Alvan Zheng (21,500).

The only Indian in attendance was Adda52 pro Kunal Patni who unfortunately failed to make the cut.

The only PokerStars Team Pro in the field, Maria Konnikova, took an early hit after a kings versus aces confrontation and could not recover.

Other familiar faces who couldn’t go the distance were Kristen Bicknell, Joe Hachem, JC Alvarado and local heroes Sparrow Cheung and Pete Chen.

Top 10 Stacks at the End of Day 1A

1. Diego Palma – 133,500
2. Ye Wang – 131,000
3. Xiaoyang Luo – 117,900
4. Wei Gong – 111,300
5. Yuan Li – 107,300
6. Preston Lee – 96,700
7. Pedro Pellicer – 90,800
8. Jean Ferreira – 90,000
9. Tokyo Yoshinaga – 87,000
10. Titi Suwito Tjiauw – 81,000

 

Super High Roller

27-year-old New York poker pro Alex Foxen couldn’t have asked for a better Macau outing! Just days after his girlfriend Kristen Bicknell created history by becoming the first female player to win a High Roller event in the series’ history, Foxen crushed the HK$400,000 APPT Macau Super High Roller event for a whopping HK$7,560,000 payday.

Similar to his girlfriend Bicknell’s heads-up match, Foxen defeated Chinese businessman Shan Huang after a lengthy heads-up battle to take the trophy and the title.

Foxen has been trailblazing the live circuit recently having finished runner-up in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic last December and then he went ahead and won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic for US$424,625. Now with this win, his total live earnings have crossed US$3.5 Million. The power couple now boasts of over HK$9.75 Million in combined winnings.

The event featuring a 30-second shot clock format registered a total of 68 entries (including 19 re-entries) creating a whopping HK$25,850,880 prize pool that paid out the top nine places.

Foxen topped both the Day 1 and Day 2 chip counts and came to the final table with a commanding lead with close to 40% of the chips in play.

The American player bulldozed his way through a final table that featured an elite lineup with the likes of Patrik Antonius, Isaac Haxton, Rainer Kempe, Brian Rast and Kahle Burns, all in contention for the title.

 

Final Table Recap

Isaac Haxton was the first to exit when he jammed with and got one caller in Brian Rast who tabled a better and won the hand eliminating the former in the process.

Foxen then busted Christoph Vogelsang in eighth place when the latter’s were crushed by Foxen’s .

Brian Rast got short and shoved with and Rainer Kempe called with . Kempe hit two pairs on the board to bust Rast in seventh place.

Down to six players, the eventual runner up Huang got involved in a three-way all-in holding . Kahle Burns had while Patrick Antonius had the best hand . The board was indeed a heart numbing one; the flop gave Huang a set but the turn completed a straight for Burns. However, the river paired the board and Huang took down the huge pot with his full house eliminating Antonius in sixth and Burns in fifth place respectively.

Soon thereafter, Rainer Kempe was sent packing by Sam Greenwood in fourth place who incidentally was the next to fall and with that the heads-up match was set.

While Huang started with the chip lead holding 10.04 million to Foxen’s 6.96 million chips, Foxen eventually brought his opponent down to 10 big blinds and on the last hand of the event shoved with . Huang called with and lost the hand to settle for a runner-up finish..

Alex Foxen
Alex Foxen

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Alex Foxen – HK$7,560,000

2. Shan Huang – HK$5,429,000

3. Sam Greenwood – HK$3,529,000

4. Rainer Kempe – HK$2,663,000

5. Kahle Burns – HK$2,068,000

6. Patrik Antonius – HK$1,603,000

7. Brian Rast – HK$1,267,000

8. Christoph Vogelsang – HK$981,880

9. Isaac Haxton – HK$750,000

 

APPT National

30-year-old Chinese stockbroker Shuize Cai came on top in the 689-entry field at the APPT National event and walked away with a massive HK$1,293,200 payday along with the coveted Platinum Pass.

Cai defeated Malaysia’s Yau Shern Yen heads-up to win his first-ever poker tournament. Cai, who had only played cash games before, said, “This National Championship win will already change my life. Having my wife and friends here to cheer for me and support really helped me deal with everything in the tournament. I only found out about the Platinum Pass when I made the final table. Now that I’ve won it I can’t wait to celebrate!

From the Indian camp Sahil Chutani, Raghav Bansal and Arjjun Singh made deep runs. Chutani was eliminated in 11th place and collected HK$78,200 (~₹6,48,329) for his finish, Bansal settled for 32nd place for HK$28,900 (~₹2,40,197), while Singh hit the rail in 59th place for HK$21,700 (~₹1,79,907).

Eight players returned for the APPT National Final Table with Spain’s Paul Castrillon leading the charge with 4.08 million in chips and the eventual champion Cai was not far behind with 3.38 million in chips.

 

Final Table Recap

The first two casualties were China’s Chaofei Wang and Jiaxiu Liu who settled at eighth and seventh place respectively.

Another seasoned player, Macau’s Yue Hin Lam walked out next and soon thereafter China’s Haijian Qiu (5th place) and Korea’s Jae Kyung Joe (4th place) bowed out in quick succession.

The start-of-day chip leader Castrillon hit the rail in third place for his largest-ever career score and with that, the heads-up between Malaysia’s Yau Shern Yen and Cai began with the former starting with a 2-1 chip lead.

Cai was vigorous and soon seized the chip lead after a brutal backdoor flush over flush hand. Cai was an unstoppable force thereafter and forced the short-stacked Yen to move all all-in with ace-king. Cai made the call with ten-nine suited and spiked a ten on the turn to win the title!

Shuize Cai
Shuize Cai

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Shuize Cai – HK$1,293,200*

2. Yau Shern Yen – HK$801,200

3. Paul Castrillon – HK$496,200

4. Jae Kyung Joe – HK$375,900

5. Haijian Qiu – HK$255,600

6. Yue Hin Lam – HK$195,500

7. Jiaxiu Liu – HK$162,400

8. Chaofei Wang – HK$135,270

*does not include Platinum Pass

 

HK$2,500 Knockout Event

The HK$2,500 Knockout event saw 119 entries in the mix to cerate a prize pool worth HK$200,218 with the top 12 places making it in the money. An additional HK$59,500 was awarded in bounties.

Topping the field was Hong Kong native Calvin Chong Wei Li who collected HK$49,218 post a heads-up deal with Wai Man Chan.

Calvin Chong Wei Li
Calvin Chong Wei Li

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Calvin Chong Wei Li – HK$49,218

2. Wai Man Chan – HK$40,000

3. Shijian Tang – HK$24,000

4. Xingbiao Zhu – HK$19,000

5. Yiu Heung – HK$15,000

6. Timothy Eric Alban Mitchell – HK$13,000

7. Yi Shi – HK$11,000

8. Amir Mohammad Darbani – HK$9,000

9. Dong Woo Lee – HK$7,000

Keep following all the updates from APPT Macau 2018 right here on PokerGuru!

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