Thailand's Phanlert Sukonthachartnant wins the 250K High Roller
The HK$250,000 High Roller was a terrific spectacle this year, with a huge prize pool by the standards of live Asian poker events, which reached HK$14,800,000 ($USD 1,909,206). 63 players entered, and only 7 reached the money. As expected several international poker celebrities joined the event. John Juanda, Sam Trickett, Erik Seidel and Fedor Holz registered the event but only Fedor Holz made it to the final table bringing a strong chip stack with him. Having finished an admirable 25th place at the WSOP Main Event this year, and picked up almost USD$200,000 in live cashes during the last month alone, along with being a WCOOP Main Event champion, Fedor Holz was among the favourites when the day started.
Eric Seidel and John Juanda (Photo Kenneth Lim, Courtesy of PokerStars)
The High Roller final table reached its conclusion in record time, with Fedor Holz making a shock exit in 7th. Just a few hours later, Thailand's Phanlert Sukonthachartnant defeated Stanley Choi heads up to win the title. Phanlert took home HK$ 4,890,600 (USD$ 652,080) for his victory. Last year he featured in the final table for this exact same event, but ended up finishing 9th.
Stanley Choi, who occupies 1st on China's all time money list, won't even come close to topping his best ever score for this 2nd place, but won't be unhappy with his USD$ 414,933. The Chinese Businessman won the Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller for USD $6,465,574 in 2012.
| Place | Last Name | First Name | Prize (HKD) | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Sukonthachartnant | Phanlert | $4,890,600 | $ 652,080 |
| 2 | Choi | Stanley | $3,112,000 | $414,933 |
| 3 | Wang | Zuo | $2,074,000 | $276,533 |
| 4 | Astapau | Anton | $1,630,000 | $217,333 |
| 5 | Aleksandar | Denisov | $1,185,000 | $158,000 |
| 6 | Chew | Stevan | $1,037,000 | $138,267 |
| 7 | Holz | Fedor | $889,000 | $118,533 |
Vladimir Troyanovskiy tops an extremely tough final table in the HK$2 Million GTD Spadie Event
Event 6 at the ACOP festival had a substantial guarantee of HK$2 million which coaxed many top players to the felt. The ACOP prides itself on being the richest festival on the Asian tour, and the 'HK$2 Million Spadie' is one of a few jewels in that particular crown. The prize pool ended up beating the guarantee by some distance, with 655 entrants (ACOP record for field size) paying HK$9,000 to create the final prize pool figure of HK$5,146,355.
The finalist players in this event created an extremely strong final table, with more notable names than unknowns in view. Naoya Kihara, World Series bracelet winner and PokerStars Team Online player from Japan, Vladimir Troyanovskyone one of the best High Stakes Russian players, Linh Tran, who very recently won the APT Cambodia Main Event, were all at the fiinal table. But the list doesn't end there. They were accompanied by Yuliyan Kolev who has been a regular fixture at the WSOP, EPT, and Asian Events over the past 5 years along with Chris Chong, the Singapore pro and man who won this event last year, and Yosuke Sekiya, who has been running deep on the Asian tours, and at the WSOP for some time, and occupied 7th on Japan's all time money list before yesterday.
The final table of the 2m GTD Spadie event (Photo Kenneth Lim, Courtesy of PokerStars)
After a long battle, Vladimir Troyanovskiy eventually claimed the '2m GTD Spadie' title and the HK$ 927,635 (USD$ 119,670) prize after defeating Jiabin Cui heads up. The players struck a deal for the prize money during heads up play.
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Dong Guo crowned champion in the ACOP Warm-UP
The ACOP Warm Up with it's HK$25,000 buy in, had a tough time matching up to the final table of the Spadie, but with 256 players battling it out for their piece of the HK$5,711,360 prize pool, this event certainly had it's fair share of excitement. The final table didn't quite have the same number of big names as the Spadie event, but Yifan Zhang, who finished 3rd at the Red Dragon event in March this year for over USD$100,000 and has a number of other deep runs to his name, did make the final table. He was accompanied by Russian pro Mikhail Shalamov, who is an accomplished player, and member of Pokerstars team online.
Dong Guo (Photo Kenneth Lim, Courtesy of PokerStars)
After a few hours of play, it was Chinese national, Dong Guo, who won the trophy and the HK$1,370,860 (USD$176 841) that goes with it. It's not the first accomplishment for this player on the rise, who has been doing very well in Asian events since his 29th place at the WSOP Main Event last year.
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Article by Craig B.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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