The weather might be gloomy and wet in the streets of Macau, but you probably wouldn’t be able to tell once you’re inside the Galaxy Star World Hotel. That’s because APT Macau 2012 was in full swing and as usual, the buzz was palpable and the smell of felt was unmistakable. A poker frenzy was in the air and on the second day of the week-long poker extravaganza, three winners – US pro Nam Le, China’s Wu Bo and Katsuhiro Motu from Japan – ended the day with fatter wallets and glass trophies in hand.
The first of these winners was Nam Le, who, just like his brother Allan Le at APT Philippines 2012, took down the HKD$ 100,000 PokerAce High Rollers event, beating out 21 of the best players in the business that included Asian Poker Tour Ambassador Joe Hachem, Oliver Spiedel, Winfred Yu, and Conrad Coetzer. More than just this impressive list of names, it was Nicholas Wong who fell victim to Le in their heads-up showdown. The final hand saw the short-stacked Wong push his remaining chips in the middle with a Kh10d to which Le called with an Ac9h. As soon as the flop turned up As6h7c, the result was all but academic. The turn even turned up an Ah, giving Le trip aces and more importantly, the title of PokerAce High Rollers champ to go with a cool $HKD 841,000.
Meanwhile, the day’s HKD $4,400 Head Hunter Event saw Wu Bo wrest control of the title over Liam Anderson to also score his first APT title. In addition to Anderson, Bo outlasted a total of 103 players that included yesterday’s Heads-Up winner, Gordon Huntly, to stake claim to the event and winning HKD$ 119,700 in the process. Similar to Le’s win, Bo found lady luck wrapped around his shoulders on the 6d7c9c flop when his Ks9d drew top pair compared to Anderson’s Qh8c straight draw. Needing a 5 or a 10 to make his straight, Anderson couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle when the turn showed Js followed by the 3s on the river, giving the title to the first-time APT winner from China.
The third and final winner of the second day was Japan’s Katsuhiro Motu, who won the Charity Event after beating out Baohua Zhang in their heads-up clash. With the win, Motu took home a tidy HKD$ 17,600. More importantly, though, at least for this tournament, was that all the add-ons from the buy-ins went directly to a donation the APT will make to the Holy House of Mercy of Macau.
For Le, Bo, and Motu, APT Macau 2012 couldn’t have gone off to a better start. Expect to hear more from these guys because this early, they’re already looking like their in peak form and ready to conquer even more events as APT Macau 2012 continues.
