APT Super High Roller - 8 Max Final Day

Vietnam’s Nguyen Trung Quan has defeated the largest Super High Roller field in in Asian Poker Tour history, claiming victory in the ₫88,000,000 APT Super High Roller – 8 Max for a payday of ₫1,196,680,000 (~$51,450). Quan defeated a 56-strong field comprised of 34 unique entries to make his first live title score and maiden APT title win a memorable one.

After scoring a shock double elimination when the tournament was four-handed to take play heads-up, Quan and his sole remaining opponent Anarbayasgalan Sainjargal cut a deal that saw the Vietnamese player take the title and trophy, with Sainjargal receiving a pay-out of ₫1,050,000,000 (~$45,150) for his runner-up finish.

Just eight players returned for the second and final day, all looking to stake their claim to the title and top prize. It was Anarbayasgalan Sainjargal who returned as the start-of-day chip leader, and the Mongolian player padded out his lead almost immediately, becoming the first player to crack the 3-million chip mark on the second hand played, hitting a full house on the river in a pot against Hon Cheong Lee.

Lee’s inauspicious start proved to be just a taste of things to come, with the Hong Kong native losing two huge pre-flop coin flips on the first two levels played.

The first saw Lee and the Czech Republic’s Roman Hrabec become embroiled in a raising war that saw the former pull the trigger for stacks with pocket queens, with the latter making the call for his tournament life with ace-king and spiking an ace on the flop to double-up and drop Lee down to just under ten big blinds.

A level later Lee found himself on life support, dropping down to less than a single big blind after his ace-king lost a race to Shardul Parthasarathi’s pocket threes. Despite earning a double-up at the expense of the Philippines’ Mike Takayama, Lee could not mount a comeback, with Parthasarathi administering the coup de grace shortly afterward, waking up with ace-ten when the short-stacked Lee shoved with king-eight.

Hon Cheong Lee finished in 8th place

China’s Yake Wu began to make some waves shortly after Lee’s departure, winning a pot from Quan with ace-jack against the former’s pocket sevens, before showing Takayama the door. The two-time former Main Event champion’s departure was a brutal one, and while Takayama got his chips in the middle ahead with ace-ten suited against the king-queen of Wu, improving to top pair on the ace-high flop, running cards saw Wu river Broadway to send the Filipino out in seventh.

China’s Yuhang Chen made his play for the tournament top spot shortly afterwards, climbing into the lead after tangling in a hand against Sainjargal. The Mongolian got frisky pre-flop from the button with jack-ten, pairing his ten on a king-high double heart flop and barrelling both the flop and the queen of hearts turn card.

However, Chen put a spanner in the works with a check-raise shove to send Sainjargal deep into the think tank. After burning through several timebank chips Sainjargal – holding the jack of hearts for a live flush draw to accompany his pair of tens – made the call but could not overcome Chen’s king-queen turned two pairs when the river bricked out.

Quan’s tournament almost ended abruptly later that same level after a battle of the blinds against Hrabec; the Vietnamese player pulled the trigger with a four-bet shove holding jack-nine and found himself dominated by Hrabec’s ace-jack, but the runout came nine-high to grant Quan the double-up.

Despite earning two double-ups during the first two levels Parthasarathi’s tournament came to an end on the third level played, his three-bet shove with ace-three suited running into kicker troubles against opening raiser Anarbayasgalan Sainjargal’s ace-nine.

India's Shardul Parthasarathi busted in 6th place

That left five, which quickly became four after Roman Hrabec moved all-in pre-flop from the small blind for his last 900,000 in chips holding king-eight suited. Unfortunately for the Czech player, Sainjargal woke up in the big blind with ace-ten and immediately flopped top two pair to send Hrabec to the rail in fifth place.

Following Hrabec’s departure, Quan clashed with Sainjargal in the largest pot played in the tournament so far with the duo getting all the chips in on a six-high flop in a three-bet pot; Quan, holding king-five suited, had paired his five while the Mongolian had the best of it with pocket eights. However, a king on the river gave Quan two pair and marked the start of the Vietnamese player’s meteoric rise to the top of the chip counts, and subsequently, the title.

A level later, it was all over; Following an under-the-gun minimum open from Chen and a flat call from Wu, Quan opted to apply maximum pressure and moved all-in for 5.5 million – easily having both his opponents covered. Both Chen and Wu made quick calls and Quan was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, his king-nine suited trailing to both Chen’s ace-jack and Wu’s pocket queens.

However, fortune favors the bold and the ace-high flop brought something for everyone, giving Chen top pair, Wu an open-ended straight draw and Quan a pair of kings. A nine on the river saw Quan score a double elimination to take play heads-up, with the Vietnamese player coming into the confrontation with over an eight-to-one chip lead.

Mongolia's Anarbayasgalan Sainjargal claimed 2nd place

While that concludes the APT Super High Roller action, the second and final day of the ₫9,000,000+900,000 Event #4 Mystery Bounty Hunter is running concurrently and you can follow all the action via the APT blog live updates. Then there is the ₫30,000,000+3,000,000 Main Event, which gets underway on Monday, March 27 – the APT live blogging team will be on hand to bring you all the tournament thrills and spills as they happen so join us then as we see who has what it takes to become the APT Phu Quoc 2023 Main Event champion!