Taiwan's Chia Yun Wu is the champion of the APT Kickoff Taipei 2023, winning the largest Asian Poker Tour opening event in the tour's fifteen-year history, triumphing over a 751-strong field to claim the lion's share of the TWD $7,005,130 (USD $220,600) prize pool.
Wu defeated fellow compatriot Yan Chen Jiang heads-up to take down the TWD $1,254,100 (~USD $40,770) top prize; The moment Wu won the final hand of the tournament, the rail went wild chanting his name and congratulations were on repeat.
The Taiwanese player is a local regular here at CTP Taiwan, and adds an APT title to his already impressive poker resume, claiming the first of the APT Taipei 2023's stunning New Era marquee event trophies in addition to the largest APT Kickoff top prize in history.
Final Table Results
A total of 106 players made the money and all prize pool and payout information can be found on the Official Results page.
Wu started the final table with 1,565,000 in chips, but his stack soared quickly through some of the battles he had with the big stacks on the table. Most noticeable were the blind vs blind battles between him and start-of-day chip leader Ravn Teo.
Teo was easily the most aggressive player in the entire field, holding the chip lead for most of Day 2 and on the final table. However, Wu showed no fear and won a few big pots against him to help build momentum to the finish line.
It was Thailand's Nithiwat Suphanit who became the first of the final table casualites, falling at the hands of Teo just a few hands into the action. Suphanit moved all-in pre-flop with pocket jacks but was unable to overcome the Singaporean's king-ten offsuit, with Teo spiking a king on the turn to send the Thai player to the rail in ninth for a TWD $94,900 (~USD $3,085) payday.
After a disasterous run that saw his aces cracked earlier on in the proceedings, China's Shang-Lun Yen hit the rail a level later, his pocket queens unable to hold against the queen-ten offsuit of Ireland's Gavin Flynn with the latter flopping trip tens to bring Yen's tournament to a close. Yen exited in eighth place for TWD $120,200 (~USD $3,900).
It was shortly after Yen's departure that Wu began his winning run and his climb to the top of the chip counts, winning a couple of decent sized hands from India's Nishant Sharma that saw the two swap places in the pecking order.
It took two levels of cagey play before the next elimination, with China's Kun Han Lee the man on the chopping block with Yan Chen Jiang wielding the executioner's axe.
Lee came in as the second chip leader carried himself all the way to the final table but couldn't manage to go any further after getting short and moving all-in for his last two big blinds. Both Teo and Jiang made the call, checking the action through to the river which saw Jiang claim the pot with jack-five offsuit after pairing his jack - which was enough to beat Lee's queen-ten suited queen-high. Lee exited in seventh for TWD $175,900 (~USD $5,720).
Lee would not get lonely on the rail, with Nishant Sharma unable to improve his fortunes and exiting in sixth place for a TWD $245,000 (~USD $7,965) pay day after his ace-jack suited was outpipped by Wu's ace-queen after the two got all the chips in the middle pre-flop.
It took a break and two more levels before five became four with Taiwan's Sun Chen Chou the next man out, his ace-king offsuit losing a crucial race against Flynn's pocket queens. Chou collected TWD $323,900 (~USD $10,330) for his fifth place finish.
However, the Irishman did not get to enjoy his newly won chips for long, falling at the hands of a rampant Wu just a few hands after Chou's exit. It was an innocuous limped pot that spelled the end for the Irishman, with Flynn flopping two pair holding seven-deuce and becoming embroiled in a raising war with Wu that saw all the chips go in. Unfortunately for Flynn, Wu had flopped a set of sevens and that was that. Flynn received TWD $408,900 (~USD $13,300) for his fourth place finish.
Pocket sevens also played a crucial role in cutting Teo's stack down, with the Singaporean – holding ace-king – losing a race to Jiang who held the pocket pair and flopped a set and turned quads to take a huge bite out of Teo's stack.
The former chip leader could not recover, and Jiang administered the coup de grace a few hands later, his pocket jacks easily overcoming Teo's king-eight offsuit. Teo was out in third for TWD $541,700 (~USD $17,600).
Ravn Teo and Chia Yun Wu fought multiple battles at the baize
When it got to heads-up between Wu and Yan Chen Jiang, Wu was simply unstoppable. Starting with only a slight chip lead, he chewed down on Jiang's stack little by little until there was nothing left. Although there were no love lost between the two, they shared a laugh and congratulated each other. No doubt we will be seeing these two again during this series.
Congratulation to all the players who made the money and shout out to the APT stuffs for an amazing event here in the CTP poker room in Taipei.
This live reporting blog was presented to you by lifeofpoker.com.
