Local master Daniel Gilles wins the APT Noumea 2016 Main Event

New Caledonia’s Daniel Gilles took down the big one for the host country after overcoming a deficit at the heads up round against Vanuatu’s Joel Douaglin. Gilles became the first-ever APT Noumea 2016 Main Event champion and was awarded the XPF 3,402,300 (US$30,065) first place cash prize.

For the past five days, the highlight attraction at Casinos de Noumea was the XPF 110,000 buy-in Main Event. There were a total of 143 entries, generating a prize pool of XPF 13,728,000 with 18 players ultimately seeing a profit.

Prior to the Final 8 round, Gilles already made his presence felt. He bagged up the largest stack at the end of Day 3. Entering the final table, he was running third in chips out of eight players with the field seeing six New Caledonians in the lineup. Leading the pack however was China’s Zhong Wen Chen.

When the field downsized to half, Chen amassed a dominating lead by eliminating New Caledonia’s Joseph Cona in fourth place with a flush over top pair. At three-handed, Chen continued to own the table while Gilles found himself losing a big pot against Chen to fall way below average.

Despite his lead, Chen wasn’t able to sustain the momentum. Douaglin claimed a big one with a full house to eventually overtake Chen in chips; Gilles shipped in a massive pot that cripple down Chen (king-seven won over pocket queens); and Chen attempted a comeback but took 3rd place with two pair losing to Douaglin’s nuts straight.

Heads up round

The heads up round began with Douaglin having the chip advantage over Gilles. After Gilles won successive big pots, including a three-of-a-kind queens, he ran away with the chip lead and never looked back. The final hand saw Gilles complete a low-end straight on the river holding ace-jack to defeat Douaglin’s pocket nines.

Final 8 Payouts
1st Daniel Gilles – New Caledonia – XPF 3,402,300 (US$30,065)
2nd Joel Douaglin – Vanuatu – XPF 1,990,800
3rd Wen Chen Zhong – China – XPF 1,378,200
4th Joseph Cona – New Caledonia – XPF 1,005,400
5th Eric Mottet – New Caledonia – XPF 832,300
6th Sophie Auger- New Caledonia – XPF 685,800
7th Yuen Kwong Lau – New Caledonia – XPF 565,900
8th Vincent Nguyen – New Caledonia – XPF 472,700

Olivia Briene takes two

In other news, New Caledonia’s very first side event winner was Olivia Briene who won the Head Hunter event. Briene continued to display mastery, capturing a second title after winning the WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo event. There were a total of 95 entries for that event.

Now that the Main Event is over, the APT Noumea 2016 is close to wrapping up its first-ever festival in New Caledonia. Only a few side events remaining including the high rollers event. So stay tuned to somuchpoker.com for the latest updates.

Article by Triccia David

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