After two long days of poker the APT Super High Roller - Sponsored by Natural8 has come to an end. Sam Lam from the United Kingdom was crowned victorious after beating Japan's Jun Obara after a short heads-up battle.
The Brit won TWD $3,997,400 (~$129,900) after Obara rejected his offer to make a deal heads-up. This final table was really the story of the underdog as Lam only started playing poker four months ago.
Lam beat a field of 117 entries, a Super High Roller record for the APT. At the beginning of Day 2 Lam started as second in chips behind Wing Po Liu. Six more players had to bust before the players made the money. The money was made very fast as the bubble only took one hand to burst.
On the way to the final table we lost Ian Modder (16th, TWD 249,500 -~$8,100), Ren Hsien Koh (13th, TWD $286,000 - $9,300), and Jimmy Pan (12th TWD $325,700 - $10,580).
The Final Table Line-up
It didn't took long before we lost our first two players in En Ning Chen (9th, TWD $397,200 - ~$12,900) and Vincent Rubianes (8th, TWD $532,300 - ~$17,300).
It was Adam Kharman that was made his mark on this final table winning pot after pot at the final seven. Kharman took the chip lead and looked to be in the drivers seat to take down this tournament. Sam Lam however, also enjoyed the rub of the green, illustrating that fact by taking out Boonnak Jitrada in 7th place (TWD $707,000 - ~$22,970) with 4 4 against Jitrada's A K .
Natalie Teh was the last woman still in the field, but was eliminated in 6th place when she ran her 6 6 into Kharman's 9 9 . Teh cashed for TWD $924,700 (~$30,050), while Kharman's confidence kept building.
The Aussies confidence however got a huge blow when he ran into Jun Obara's 9 9 . Kharman was holding A 7 , but no ace would save the Aussie from losing a chunk of chips.
Not much later Kharman was crippled by bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer when the Aussie crashed his 9 9 into the Indian's K K . Two hands later he would hit the rail in 5th place cashing TWD $1,172,600 - (~$38,100).
Only five hands later it would be the end for Yu-Chung Chang. The last Taiwanese standing lost with A J against Sam Lam's K K . Chang had to make his way to the cashier in 4th place (TWD $1,453,800 - ~$47,250).
The three handed battle between Obara, Iyer and Lam was a well fought one. In the end a bad beat would see one of India's best poker players get crippled and later bust in 3rd place.
Iyer got it in with A Q versus Obara's A 3 . The Japanese pro would flop a gutshot and the five on the turn meant a straight for Obara. Iyer made his way to the cashier picking up TWD $1,755,700 (~$57,050).
The heads-up between underdog Lam and the much more experienced Obara only lasted five hands. All the chips went into the middle preflop when Obara called Lam's all-in.
Lam showed A J against Obara's K Q . The board ran out T 6 4 6 9 . Lam turned around to his friend in the rail for an intense hug, but at the same time he still looked in disbelief winning this big event.
In his post-match interview following his impressive win Lam revealed: "I was hoping to finish in the top five and go from there, I very much wanted to make final table."
The winner of the spectacular newly rebranded APT trophy also stated, "I am very surprised, and my girlfriend was unsupportive of my poker play, but said she would consider changing her mind if I win something big."
Sounds like Lam's better half might be re-thinking her stance on poker...
The next big tournament on the APT Taipei schedule will be the Main Event, with the opening Flight A getting underway at 12:00pm local time on Monday, May 1.
This live reporting blog was presented to you by lifeofpoker.com.
Super High Roller Final Table Payouts