Tag: APPT

Online Poker Pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew Wins APPT Macau Main Event

Last Updated on

asia pacific poker tourRandy “nanonoko” Lew is one of the most profitable, and well-known online poker players in the game today.  Lew started out his online poker career like many other did, simply dabbling in cash games and figuring out the “how to” of online poker.  Lew now consistently achieves the Supernova Elite status on the massive online poker site PokerStars, and is also a member of the Team PokerStars Poker pros.  Lew was stuck in a tough spot after Black Friday though, as he could no longer play the game that was actually his full time job, and he ended up moving to Canada in order to continue playing.

This past week though, Lew decided to dabble a bit more in the live tournament circuit, and found himself at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau’s Main Event.  The event drew in some big names from the poker world, including one of the biggest in Phil Ivey, who was sent home during Day 2 of the action.  While Lew has played over 5 million online poker hands since August of 2008, he was not nearly as used to playing on the live tournament circuit, so it was a different feel you could assume.

Fortunately, Lew knows the game of poker incredibly well, and he found himself heading into the final table of the event.  Lew was nearly sent home in 9th though, as he was all in with his Queens and was able to hit the third queen to give him a nice double up and send him to the final table against the pocket Aces of David Steicke.  He had his work cut out for him though, as he started the final table with the fewest chips out of any of the players at the table, and had some building to do in order to become a serious contender.

He did what he does best at the final table though, and found himself grinding it out and building up his stack over time.  When all was said and done it was him against Jimmy Pan for the heads up match, and he had a slight advantage to start the action.  A few hands later, Lew found himself at risk with pocket sixes, and was against two over cards in the A-9 that Pan was holding.  Lew hit a six to give himself a set, and grabbed the chip lead back.  He went on to hold off his opponent from any type of comeback, and took down the grand prize of $484,617.  Pan got a nice prize for his efforts as well, and he went home with $304,106.

Ivey Sent Home on Day 2 of APPT Macau; Seet Gets Hot

Last Updated on

We recently ran a story about the living legend of poker Phil Ivey finally getting back to the live poker tournament circuit at the APPT Macau event, and he ended the day with just over 51k in chips. Day 2 has come and gone, but unfortunately Ivey was not able to make it through to Day 3.  It wasn’t fully due to rust, as Ivey was said to still be looking at the top of his game, but he just wasn’t able to hit his cards at the right time it seemed. To start off Day 2, Ivey got his chip stack a little bit higher than the 51k, but was never able to take it to the next level and put himself in contention.

Ivey wasn’t able to pick much up and found himself running low on big blinds, and he three-bet himself all-in with the King of clubs and the 9 of hearts, but was called by the Ace of diamonds and Jack of clubs. Ivey quietly made his way from the tournament, and we are hoping that we’ll get to see the man who has won over $14 million in live poker tournament earnings sooner than later.

While Ivey’s run didn’t last, one player that stuck out at the end of the day was Nataniel Seet, who is a player from Singapore. Seet had a nice chip lead at the end of the day, and held 774,500, which was an impressive five times the size of the average stack at the event. Seet is mainly a cash game player, but also has pulled in some good results in his poker career to this point; which includes a win at an event in Manila in 2008, which featured a very large buy-in.

It looks like the remaining field will have some work to do, and that includes the player who is sitting in second right now, Danny Park. Park is a pro from Korea, and has pulled in a strong stack of 478,100. One other player that may stand out to poker fans and players out there is David Steicke, who is a high stakes player from Hong Kong, and finds himself in the top five at the end of the day.

While the most well-known player Ivey was sent home, you’ll find one player who is almost as well-known as Ivey remaining in the field. Johnny Chan is a ten time bracelet winner, and he is holding a solid stack of 244,400 chips. Chan is definitely a player to keep your eye on, and if he gets on a run the rest of the field could be in some trouble.

Phil Ivey Returns to the Live Poker Tournament Scene

Last Updated on

Phil Ivey has been a tough man to find since Black Friday for any of you poker fans out there.  He was angry at the massive online poker site Full Tilt for not helping their players with deposits, and he saw his money stuck on the site, unable to get anything off.  He also went on to sue the site this past June, and “refused to accept non-action as to repayment of players’ funds”.  Ivey is essentially a legend in the game of poker, but he decided not to play in the World Series of Poker because he didn’t feel that it was fair that he could play when other poker players could not.

Ivey has won around $14 million on ONLY the live tournament circuit, which is one of the most impressive numbers out there.  He also has won an incredible amount of money in cash games, and the same thing goes for online poker in his career.  To top this all off, the  name “Phil Ivey” also has eight World Series of Poker gold bracelets next to it as well.  Overall, he is by far the most well-known and popular player in the game of poker right now.

This is where the story comes in.  Ivey apparently is back on the live poker tournament circuit, as he participated in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau.  Many people had said that he was in town and was actually registered for the event, but play went through the entire first level of Day 1A with no Ivey to be found.  It wasn’t until the second level when Ivey showed up for the event, and walked over to his seat to get back into the action; hopefully for good.

When all was said and done of the day, Ivey made it through the day (which we can assume that most people expected, or at least I did).  He rounded out with 51,200 chips, and in comparison, the chip leader from Day 1A was Shih-Chieh Su, who pulled in an impressive 171,800 chips.  While Ivey isn’t at the top of the leaderboard, it was still nice to hear that he ended his time off from the tournament scene, and we are hoping to get to see more of Ivey in 2012.