Tournament coverage Poker

Kwok crowned APT Vietnam champ

Written by Ben Blaschke

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