A big name in internet poker – Randy 'nanonoko' Lew has finally scored his first major live event title. On Sunday, November 27, Lew won the 2011 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Main Event collecting HKD$3,772,000 along with the APPT trophy. The member of Team PokerStars Online and a PokerNews poker strategy analyst brought the shortest stack of them all to the final table of the tournament, but then outplayed his competition and scored the first major live trophy in his poker carrier.
The last day of the APPT Macau Main Event gathered the remaining 15 players, only nine of whom advanced to the final table. Kai Yat Fam was the chip leader with 4.5 million chips in his account before the final stage, whereas Lew was the one with the least chips – just 750K. Three more contestants had more than 2 million in their chip stacks, however, none of them managed to maintain the advantage.
Here's how the last nine players lined up before the final table:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Randy Lew | 750,000 |
| 2 | Jeff Rossiter | 1,725,000 |
| 3 | Fabian Spiedelmann | 2,295,000 |
| 4 | Zuo Wang | 2,180,000 |
| 5 | David Steicke | 965,000 |
| 6 | Kai Yat Fam | 4,515,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Nordstrom | 800,000 |
| 8 | Jimmy Pan | 2,010,000 |
| 9 | Zheng Tai Tan | 1,685,000 |
One of the short stacks – David Steicke was the first player to leave the table after he was left with just a few BBs. He pushed his last chips with 7-4 and was called by Daniel Nordstrom holding the rockets. Some hope for Steicke came with the 5-3-2 flop, however, the rest of the cards on the table did not complement Steicke's straight draw sending him out of the game.
The next rail hit contained the clash of the pocket pairs – Zheng Tai Tan's deuces were up against Jeff Rossiter's eights. The board brought another pair – fives, but no other changes and Tan was out in eighth place. Rossiter's next victim was Nordstrom who left the table in seventh place followed by the former chip leader Fam who finished the tournament in sixth position after bumping into Lew. Zuo Wang and Fabian Spielmann left the tournament in fifth and fourth place respectively.
With just three players left – Australia's Rossiter, Macau native Jimmy Pan, and America's Lew - Rossiter was the one in the lead, however, not for long. First Lew doubled-up going all-in with a pair of Tens against Rossiter's A-J – table cards made no difference and Rossiter was left seriously crippled. Pan took advantage of the situation and sent Rossiter off the table the next hand – the Aussie went all-in from the button with 10-9 and Pan called with A-Q. An ace came with the flop eliminating Rossiter in third place.
At the beginning of the heads-up play between Lew and Pan, the American had a slight chip lead which increased during the first couple of hands, however, Pan soon doubled up and took over the lead. Big chip stacks were pushed from one side to another for quite a while until the game went down to the last hand of 2011 APPT Macau.
Both players had a queen in their pockets for their last hand of the game, the only difference was that Lew's diamond queen was supported by a 10 whereas Pan had a King to accompany his queen of spades. Both players went all-in after the Q-10-8 flop which turned the game Lew's way. A five on the flop and jack on the river made changed nothing and Randy Lew celebrated his first victory in a major live tournament.
Lew went home with HKD$3,772,000 (or almost half a million US dollars) whereas Pan was rewarded with HKD$2,367,000 ($300K).
These are the final APPT Macau 2011 results:
| Place | Player | Prize (HKD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Randy Lew | HKD$3,772,000 |
| 2 | Jimmy Pan | HKD$2,367,000 |
| 3 | Jeff Rossier | HKD$1,306,000 |
| 4 | Fabian Spielmann | HKD$1,019,000 |
| 5 | Zuo Wang | HKD$809,000 |
| 6 | Kai Yat Fam | HKD$653,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Nordstrom | HKD$498,000 |
| 8 | Zheng Tai Tan | HKD$373,000 |
| 9 | David Steicke | HKD$263,300 |
*Image courtesy of PokerNetwork.com