APT Macau Championships 2018: Hung Sheng Lin wins the Main Event

At the APT Macau Championships 2018 ongoing at Macau Billionaire Poker, Taiwanese pro Hung Sheng Lin dominated the Final 8 of the Main Event to capture the exclusive APT Championship Ring and the HK$ 587,000 (~US$74,700) first prize.

This has now become Lin’s single largest live tournament career score and his first major victory since 2011.

377 entries in the Main Event

The Main Event ran a course of five days, from April 28 – May 2, with 377 total entries. This welcoming turnout broke the brand’s previous Macau record attendance of 326 set back in 2009. With the buy-in at HK$11,000, the prize pool surged as well to HK$3,619,200, exceeding the 2M advertised guarantee.

At the start of the festivities, numerous powerhouse players were spotted in the field. Among them were Iori Yogo – the recent APT Championships Event title-holder, Dong Guo – another decorated APT champion, current GPI Asia leader Daniel Tang, Macau Millions 2018 champion Michael Soyza, Kosei Ichinose, Victor Chong, Wenling Gao, Ben Lai, Florencio Campomanes, and Eugene Co. All of them missed the mark though, unable to reach the 63 player ITM cut.

Among those who did cash in before the Final 8 were Raiden Kan (54th), En Ching Wu (49th), Park Yu Sparrow Cheung (39th), Lim Min Soon (34th), Zhang Chenxu (32nd), Tetsuya Tsuchikawa (27th), Yoichi Uesugi (13th), Phachara Wongwichit (10th), and Piet Pape (9th).

Winner’s story

The Final 8 was heavy with newcomers. The only APT regular in the lineup was eventual winner Hung Sheng Lin. Among Lin’s impressive stats, he was also decorated with an APT Regional Player of the Year title and has appeared in two APT Main Event final tables. Last year, he finished 7th at APT Daegu and 8th at the Championships Event in Macau last December.

Entering the Final 8, Lin was a smidgen below average stack. After railing two players, Hiroshi Matsumoto (7th) and Hele Liu (5th), he took over the leader’s status amassing over half of the chips in play. During the hand against Liu, Lin won with flush over Liu’s straight on a board with the shoves seen on fourth street. From there, he proceeded to eliminate Sai Ho Philip Chiu in 3rd place to face Russia’s Evgeny Kurilenko for the title.

Prior to the Final 8, the past qualifying days witnessed Kurilenko prove himself to be one of the strongest contenders always bagging up an above average stack. He entered the Final 8 as the massive chip leader and held on to his big stack to vie for the title against Lin.

Kicking off the heads up round, Lin was ahead in the count. He continued his momentum, dominating the competition. He claimed a majority of the pots both big and small to slowly dry out Kurilenko. The final hand saw Lin defeat Kurilenko with run a better spread than on a board .

Final 8 payouts
1st Hung Sheng Lin – Taiwan – HKD 587,000
2nd Evgeny Kurilenko – Russia – HKD 391,200
3rd Sai Ho Philip Chiu – Hong Kong – HKD 271,100
4th Wang Jun – China – HKD 195,800
5th Hele Liu – China – HKD 146,900
6th Toshimitsu Kamei – Japan – HKD 115,100
7th Hiroshi Matsumoto – Japan – HKD 93,700
8th Wang Meng – China – HKD 79,300

Article by Tricia David