The final event of APPT Season 8 came to an end overnight with 26-year-old Australian Minh Nguyen outlasting a field of 224 players at APPT Auckland to complete the biggest result of his young career.
Nguyen’s victory ensured 2014 would be a memorable one for the Nguyen family after brother Edison won ANZPT Melbourne just a few months back, and Minh didn’t waste any time in admitting he had been under some pressure to match his brother’s feats ever since.
Ironically, however, Minh’s performance in Auckland proved somewhat costly for Edison, who led the ANZ Player of the Year race until the dying stages. Needing rival David Lim to miss the money in order to maintain his lead, Edison instead saw a short-stacked Lim survive when Minh busted Robert Spano on the bubble on Saturday!
Nevertheless, Minh proved to be an unstoppable force on the final table despite the presence of fellow young guns Jesse McKenzie and Michael Guzzardi plus ANZ Player of the Year contender Dean Blatt.
With seven players remaining he had five times as many chips as any other player and by the time play was four-handed held almost 75 percent of the chips in play. Only Thomas Ward would manage to recover as the pair went heads-up but after doing a deal and deciding to finish the battle by flipping for the win it was Minh who came out a deserving winner and NZ$111,600 richer.
Lim finished the season as ANZ Player of the Year ahead of Edison Nguyen and Dean Blatt.
