This article first appeared in the Nov/Dec 2014 issue of World Gaming magazine.
It’s been a relaxing few months for this Railbird and a much needed break at that given the hectic period coming up in late October and early November. With just a few events of note in the Asia-Pacific region, I’ve finally had a chance to preen my wings at some of Macau’s luxury spas between a quick trip to Melbourne and a brief stint in Manila.
It was off to Australia first for the latest running of ANZPT Melbourne and what a wonderful event it proved to be – attracting an ANZPT record field of 516 players and a prize pool of over AU$1 million. There was plenty of talent in the field too including 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem, fellow WSOP bracelet winners Jackie Glazier, Gary Benson and Jarred Graham, Australian Poker Hall of Famers Billy Argyros, David Gorr and Leo Boxell plus Bryan Huang, Michael Kanaan, David Steicke, David Yan and Martin Kozlov among many others.
Edison Nguyen celebrated his ANZPT Melbourne win with girlfriend Grace Sia
By the time the players returned on Day 3 to play down to a winner, just 34 remained and it was going to be a long day for whoever managed to go all the way. The final table of nine boasted a few notables including affable Aussie Dennis Huntly, online guns Edison Nguyen and Dylan Honeyman and up-and-comer Luke Spano. Huntly and Nguyen, along with Corey Kempson, quickly reduced the field to three before an epic battle raged that saw another three hours go by before heads-up play was finally reached. The unlucky victim was Huntly, leaving Nguyen and Kempson to fight it out for the title.
Clearly exhausted, they soon decided to shove blind for the title after making a deal and it was Nguyen’s Q6 holding strong over Kempson’s 64. Nguyen, already renowned as one of Australia’s best online tournament players, added the ANZPT Melbourne title and AU$217,500 to his rapidly expanding resume.
From Melbourne it was off to the Philippines for the latest rendition of APT Manila. One of the more popular stops on the Asian Poker Tour, this year’s event attracted 356 starters including WSOP and WPT bracelet winner Gavin Smith, former Macau Poker Cup champion Terry Fan, Sam Razavi and Roger Spets among others. Also following Railbird Ronny from Melbourne were Huntly and Huang whose appetite for poker is almost as big as mine!
Mike Takayama proved too good at APT Manila
Huntly’s impressive form of late saw him reach a second final table in the space of two weeks as he went on to finish fifth, while Razavi also featured on the final day with a respectable third place finish.
However, it was local player Mike Takayama who stood tallest to pocket the US$77,700 top prize, adding to his recent victory in the 6-max event at MPC21.
Finally, it was back home to Macau for ACOP Platinum Series VI – the final event in the PokerStars LIVE Macau room before the upcoming ACOP in late October. A total of 270 players took part in the Main Event and it was none other than 2013 APPT Macau winner Alexandre Chieng taking home the HK$279,300 first prize.
Alexandre Chieng added another title to his resume at ACOP Platinum Series VI
Chieng’s win moved him to eighth on the Asia Player of the Year standings although he has a lot of work to do if he is to catch current APOY leader Pete Chen.
