APPT Jeju 2019: Jiang Chen Wins High Roller For ₩61,895,000 ($53,400)

The 2019 World Series of Poker may have taken the entire poker world by storm but closer home there is another stop that is attracting attention. The 2019 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) that is underway at the Landing Casino is visiting the island of Jeju for the very first time. The series took flight on June 22 and after a week-long sojourn will finally come to a close on June 29 with the crowning of the ₩2,500,000 APPT Main Event champion.

The first of two ₩6,000,000 buy-in High Rollers on the schedule found a worthy champion in WSOP bracelet winner Jiang Chen (cover image) on June 23. For Chen, this win was a redemption of sorts after two close calls at the 2019 APPT Korea two months back. Chen had finished 2nd in the Super High Roller at APPT Korea followed by a fourth-place finish in the Main Event. This time around, however, he went the distance and defeated fellow countryman Hao Tian heads-up to win his first APPT title and ₩61,895,000 (~$53,400) in prize money.

Meanwhile, the flagship ₩2,500,000 buy-in APPT Main Event has already taken flight. Sporting a jaw-dropping ₩500 Million (~₹3 Crores) guaranteed prize pool the Main Event has already registered 286 entries from the first two flights. While the majority of the Indian contingent is bracelet hunting at the 50th annual WSOP, there are two Indian challengers present at this stop. Young Gun Sahil Chuttani is the most prominent Indian name at the series. He reportedly played Day 1A of the Main Event without success and fired another bullet on Day 1B – the outcome of which was yet unclear at the time this report was published. The other Indian, Amanpreet Singh, fired two bullets on Day 1B without success. A complete recap from the Main Event will follow shortly.

₩6,000,000 High Roller

The field comprised of 25 unique players who accounted for an additional 9 re-entries, generating a prize pool of ₩182,050,000. The top six finishers made it in the money with a min-cash good for ₩12,744,000.

The nine handed unofficial final table began after Hao He`s elimination.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Changyang Liu – 590,000
2. Shawn Busse – 218,000
3. Xinglong Huang – 203,500
4. Hao Tian – 148,000
5. Jiang Chen – 113,000
6. Lei Yu – 97,500
7. Vitaliy Kim – 96,500
8. Wei Huang – 75,500
9. Wei Zheng – 57,500

Final Table Recap

Wei Zheng was the first one out after losing a coin flip holding pocket nines to Hao Tian’s ace-king. Vitaliy Kim headed out next when Chen’s top pair and top-kicker defeated his pocket deuces.

The tension was palpable in the air as the money bubble loomed, but the suspense did not last long. Wei Huang’s lost out to Shawn Busse’s pocket tens as the latter hit a full house on the board. With Huang out in seventh place, the remaining six players were all in the money.

The next elimination took well over an hour of play, and it was the short stack Lei Yu who was eliminated in sixth place.

Shawn Busse, who was one of the two WSOP bracelet winners on the final table, hit the rail in fifth place. The American pro shoved his 15 big blind stack with and got one caller in Changyang Liu who turned over . Liu hit two pairs on the river and took down the pot. Busse`s elimination made the final table an all-Chinese affair with the remaining four finalists all hailing from mainland China.

The first of the four to bust was Xinglong Huang, who lost his stack holding to Liu’s .

Changyang Liu was not far behind and exited in third place. He moved all-in with and Chen looked him up with . With no king or queen on the board, Liu hit the rail in third place.

The heads-up play started with both Chen and Hao Tian more or less evenly placed. The initial phase of the duel was slow, but Chen turned on the aggression by jamming almost every other hand, and suddenly nearly half of Tian`s stack was depleted. On the final hand of the tournament, Chen moved all-in with , and Tian decided to call holding . The community cards opened , and Chen took down the pot and the first High Roller title of the series!

Final Table Results (KRW)

1. Jiang Chen – ₩61,895,000
2. Hao Tian – ₩42,782,000
3. Changyang Liu – ₩27,308,000
4. Xinglong Huang – ₩20,936,000
5. Shawn Busse – ₩16,385,000
6. Lei Yu – ₩12,744,000

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerStars Live

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