Hong Kong’s Kwan Kit Kwok will go down in history as the inaugural winner of APT Vietnam after outlasting a star-studded final table at Ho Tram Resort Casino last night.
Kwok headed into the last day’s play sitting second in chips but still with plenty of work to do given the presence of highly accomplished players such as Bryan Huang, David Steicke and Sam Razavi.
In the end Kwok rode his luck to secure the trophy and a first prize of US$26,800 on the back of two key hands. The first saw him get it in with AQ suited against the 44 of overnight chip leader Norbert Koh, the flop giving him plenty of outs with two overs and a flush draw which he completed on the river before the key hand of the tournament three-way when his two pair held up against Huang’s flush draw.
Sunny Zhang’s exit in third place saw Kwok enter heads-up play holding a 5 to 1 chip advantage and he soon finished the job – consigning Huang to consecutive runner-up finishes after a similar result at APPT Seoul last month.
Kwok, who resides in Macau, became the very first champion of APT Vietnam which looks set to become one of the Asian Poker Tour’s flagship events. A field of 119 players took their seats at Ho Tram with the superb facilities and tropical beachside location proving an irresistible combination for all involved.
Final table payouts:
1st – Kwan Kit Kwok – US$26,800
2nd – Bryan Huang – US$20,000
3rd – Sunny Zhang – US$11,900
4th – Sam Razavi – US$8,700
5th – David Steicke – US$7,200
6th – Erik Billgren – US$5,900
7th – Norbert Koh – US$4,900
8th – Hideki Takafuji – US$4,100
9th – Jereld Sam – US$3,500
