APT Taiwan 2020: Hamish Crawshaw wins the Main Event; Chan Lok Ming crushing the side events

While many events cancelled around the region, the Asian Poker Tour went ahead with APT Taiwan 2020 in Taipei City. The twelve day series has been ongoing since March 4 and is set to conclude on March 15. As expected ,the numbers have been low due to the COVID-19 situation however the Main Event did draw a decent number with New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw claiming the victory. This was Crawshaw’s second Main Event title in Asia.

Other stories were Hong Kong’s Chan Lok Ming and Vincent Huang. Both players won two side events. Ming was seen at numerous final tables resulting in six cashes while Huang reached ITM at the Main Event. At the Ladies of Poker, series defending champion Liu Chen Yi brought home a second trophy. We’ve got all those stories below.

Hamish Crawshaw wins the APT Main Event

Hamish Crawshaw continues to make headlines during his stay here in Asia. The New Zealand pro just crossed into a million in live earnings after taking down his second major title in the region. Crawshaw overcame a field of 82 entries at the APT Taiwan Main Event for a cool TW$ 725,200 (~US$ 24,200).

Buy-in: TW$ 33,000 (~US$ 1,100)
Entries: 82
Prize pool: TW$ 2,386,200 (~US$ 79,300)
ITM: 9 places

The Main Event ran from March 6 to 9 with 82 getting on the felt. Intended for a five day run, it was cut short by one day when the final table was reached at the end of Day 2. Entering the final day, Crawshaw was chip leader which he held throughout.

The final table was dominated in numbers by six Taiwanese players. After a quick two and a half hours, all of them fell except for Ho Chung Yi who faced Crawshaw for the title. Crawshaw eliminated three of the finalists to amass a 6:1 advantage and looked to be headed for a quick finish to his day until Ho landed a few double ups to even up the stacks. The first two double ups, Ho out-drew Crawshaw, the next one was a deserving quads against a full house.

Despite the numerous stack boost, Ho couldn’t keep it intact. Crawshaw returned to grinding down his opponent until Ho pushed it all with top pair flush draw on a board . Crawshaw was ahead with two pairs. The river further improved Crawshaw to a full house to finally close it out and lift his first-ever APT Main Event title.

This was Crawshaw fourth career Main Event title. Two were in Australia, the third one was at last year’s WPT Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. He is currently one of the joint front runners of the WPT Asia Pacific Season XVIII Player of Year race. The Hendon Mob has him ranked 5th in the New Zealand All Time Money List.

Payouts

1st Hamish Crawshaw – New Zealand – TW$ 725,200
2nd Ho Cung Yi – Taiwan – TW$ 483,400
3rd Chi Jen Chu – Taiwan – TW$ 336,000
4th Chin Wei Khong – Singapore – TW$ 242,700
5th Hsien Hua Chin – Taiwan – TW$ 181,500
6th Liu Chen Yi – Taiwan – TW$ 140,100
7th Vincent Huang – Australia – TW$ 111,200
8th Yi Wei Peng – Taiwan – TW$ 90,600
9th Carter Ching Wei Chen – Taiwan – TW$ 75,500

Chan Lok Ming captures two events among six ITMs

There are usually a flood of Hong Kong players attending poker festivals in Taiwan however this time, only few showed up. One of them was Chan Lok Ming who has been tearing up the APT felt since the start. Ming was chip leader of the opener KMGM Monster Stack event and finished in the money in 8th place. This was the first of six ITM finishes for Ming, two were triumphs.

His first title was at Event #5 No Limit Hold’em where he agreed on a deal with Chen Chien Sin at heads up. With more chips, Ming was awarded the win and trophy.

Buy-in: TW$ 11,000 (~US$ 365)
Entries: 25
Prize pool: TW$ 242,500 (~US$ 8,100)

Payouts

1st Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 90,000
2nd Chen Chien Sin – Taiwan – TW$ 73,600
3rd Ori Kossonogi – Israel – TW$ 37,200
4th Chi Jen Chu – Taiwan – TW$ 24,500
5th He Zong Chi – Taiwan – TW$ 17,200

His second victory was at the Event #8: Deep Stack Hyper Turbo overcoming the 37 entry field.

Buy-in: TW$ 5,500 (~US$ 180)
Entries: 37
Prize pool: TW$ 179,400 (~US$ 5,900)

Payouts

1st Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 61,700
2nd Chou Chun An – Taiwan – TW$ 39,600
3rd Kuo Cheang Seng – Taiwan – TW$ 26,700
4th Nithiwat Suphanit – Thailand – TW$ 18,800
5th Lee Kuan Han – Taiwan – TW$ 13,800
6th Nguyen Van Dai – Vietnam – TW$ 10,500
7th William Chan Chun Kuang – Taiwan – TW$ 8,300

Ming currently leads the APT Player of the Series race. He has collected TW$ 287,500 (~US$ 9,500) in winnings. At the time of writing, he is seated at the High Rollers event.
Back to back wins for Vincent Huang and Main Event ITM

Back to back wins for Vincent Huang and Main Event ITM

The first player to win two events at the series was Australia’s Vincent Huang. He was the festival’s first champion, taking down the KMGM Monster Stack opener. Following that event, he jumped into the already running High Rollers and shipped it as well.

For the Monster Stack, 55 bought in at TW$ 16,500 (~US$ 550) each for a prize pool of TW$ 800,200 (~US$ 26,800). Only 10 players profited.

Payouts

1st Vincent Huang – Australia – TW$ 236,900
2nd Chi Jen Chen – Taiwan – TW$ 157,900
3rd Ho-Ru Wu – Taiwan – TW$ 109,800
4th Nithiwat Suphanit – Thailand – TW$ 79,300
5th Chen Shou Dien – China – TW$ 59,300
6th Ronaldo Junio – Philippines – TW$ 45,800
7th Cheng Chao Ting – Taiwan – TW$ 36,300
8th Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 29,600
9th Chih Chiang Hu – Taiwan – TW$ 24,700
10th Wu Chia Hun – Taiwan – TW$ 20,600

At the two day High Rollers, Huang prevailed against players Crawshaw, Pete Yen Han Chen, and Chan Lok Ming. Entering heads up, Huang had a monstrous lead. He defeated Chi Jen Chu on the first hand.

Buy-in: TW$ 86,000 (~US$ 2,900)
Entries: 15
Prize pool: TW$ 1,164,000 (~US$ 38,900)

Several days after his two victories, Huang navigated his way to the final table of the Main Event eventually finishing in 7th place for another TW$ 111,200 in earnings.

Payouts
1st Vincent Huang – Australia – TW$ 663,500
2nd Chi Jen Chu – Taiwan – TW$ 325,900
3rd Lin Chen An – Taiwan – TW$ 174,600

Event 2: Chen Yi Liu awarded second APT Ladies of Poker trophy

At the APT Finale 2019 in Taiwan, the country’s own Chen Yi Liu lifted the first APT Ladies of Poker trophy offered. At the ongoing series, the event was back on the roster but with numbers compromised, the ladies agreed to include the men with one exception. The trophy would still be awarded to a woman. Out of the 21 sign ups, seven were non-ladies. Two of them secured the top two spots and decided to split the money evenly. In third place was Liu. As the last woman standing, she claimed the trophy.

Buy-in: TW$ 7,700 (~US$ 260)
Entries: 21
Prize pool: TW$ 142,600 (~US$ 4,700)

Payouts

1st Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 53,600 (~US$ 1,800) – deal made
2nd Lee Po Wei – Taiwan – TW$ 53,600 – deal made
3rd Chen Yi Liu – Taiwan – TW$ 21,700
4th Fulin Tseng – Taiwan – TW$ 13,700

Other Results

Event 3: Pot Limit Omaha Hi

Buy-in: TW$ 8,800 (~US$ 295)
Entries: 38
Prize pool: TW$ 294,900 (~US$ 9,800)

Payouts
1st Cheng Chao Ting – Taiwan – TW$ 76,300 (~US$ 2,500) – deal made
2nd Jason Saaristo – USA – TW$ 60,000 – deal made
3rd Yang Tsu Yun – Taiwan – TW$ 55,000 – deal made
4th Philip Wang – Taiwan – TW$ 50,000 – deal made
5th Kuo Chun Liang – Taiwan – TW$ 22,700
6th Tsai Xang Ching – Taiwan – TW$ 17,300
7th Kristof Segers – Belgium – TW$ 13,600

Event 7: No Limit Hold’em Single Day

Buy-in: TW$ 7,700 (~US$ 260)
Entries: 46
Prize pool: TW$ 312,300 (~US$ 10,400)

Payouts
1st David Tai Hsing Hsiung – Taiwan – TW$ 98,200 (~US$ 3,300)
2nd Kuang Hung “Luke” Lee – Taiwan – TW$ 65,300
3rd Kuo Chen Hung – Taiwan – TW$ 45,400
4th Chih Ying Liang – Taiwan – TW$ 32,800
5th Po Cheng Yang – Taiwan – TW$ 24,500
6th Anthony Hope – Australia – TW$ 18,900
7th Pete Yen Han Chen – Taiwan – TW$ 15,000
8th Su Wei Yu – Taiwan – TW$ 12,200

Event 9: No Limit Hold’em

Buy-in: TW$ 9,900 (~US$ 330)
Entries: 28
Prize pool: TW$ 244,400 (~US$ 8,100)

Payouts
1st David Soin – Singapore – TW$ 80,000 (~US$ 2,600) – deal made
2nd Chih Ying Liang – Taiwan – TW$ 65,000 – deal made
3rd Wang Tzo Wei – Taiwan – TW$ 51,400 – deal made
4th Iori Yogo – Japan – TW$ 24,700
5th Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 17,300

Event 10: No Limit Hold’em

Buy-in: TW$ 9,900 (~US$ 330)
Entries: 30
Prize pool: TW$ 261,900 (~US$ 8,800)

Payouts
1st Ori Kossonogi – Israel – TW$ 111,900 (~US$ 3,700)
2nd Chan Lok Ming – Hong Kong – TW$ 64,900
3rd Ping Jui Lai – Taiwan – TW$ 40,100
4th Thanakrit Sidhisantikul – Thailand – TW$ 26,500
5th Tetsuya Enoki – Japan – TW$ 18,500

Special Event: Pot Limit Omaha Hi

Buy-in: TW$ 8,800 (~US$ 290)
Entries: 16
Prize pool: TW$ 77,600 (~US$ 2,600)

Payouts
1st Chia Yu Shr – Taiwan – TW$ 44,300
2nd Kang Chung Chieh – Taiwan – TW$ 21,700
3rd Zheng Yu Xuan – Taiwan – TW$ 11,600

Remaining games

Running from March 11 to 15 is the APT Championships Event. This is the second featured tournament of the series. Buy-in is TW$ 49,500 (~US$ 1,600). At the side events, there are High Rollers, Turbos, a variety of NLH, and PLO still on tap. Buy-ins range from TW$ 5,500 (~US$ 180) to TW$ 75,000 (~US$ 2,500).

Stay tuned to Somuchpoker for all the results.