It’s all over folks! Tan Tai Zheng has just taken down the Main Event by eliminating Samad Razavi in just the second hand of the heads up round. Zheng pushed all in from the button and short-stacked Razavi instantly called with A♠ 7♦ but was hoping for his own miracle when Zheng opened up A♦ 8♦.
The board, however, would not comply as it ran 9♠ Q♦ 3♦ J♦ 6♣. Razavi collects PHP1,925,000 for 2nd and Zheng earns a whopping PHP3,623,000 and the APT Asian Series Cebu Main Event Championship Trophy.
That’s it from us. Congratulations to all the winners and the Asian Poker Tour for putting on such a well run tournament. See you next time!
Samad Razavi
Play has just resumed and the first hand was a train wreck.
It all began when Samad Razavi limp-called Tan Tai Zheng’s min raise preflop to 100K. The flop ran 8♣ 8♠ 9♣ with both players friendly enough to check it to the turn of 6♣. But the niceties didn’t last long with Zheng leading out 100K only to get raised to an additional 450K by Razavi. Without moving a muscle, Zheng announced he was all in and Razavi snap-called.
Zheng showed his 6♦ 4♦ and said “I have a 6″ but Razavi retorted, “I have a flush” and showed K♣ 3♣. Only another six or eight could keep the title from passing to Razavi.
Then boom! The river card of 8♦ smacked hard on the river and this time it was Zheng who exclaimed loudly for having hit a miracle. Zheng now has an insane chip lead over Razavi as the next hand is dealt…
We are now on a 15-minute break before we begin the heads up round between Singapore’s Tan Tai Zheng and England’s Samad Razavi. The official chip count has Razavi leading with 2,005,000 and Zheng not far behind on 1,760,000.
Miika Viholainen
The Finn is down! In two successive hands straight back from the dinner break, Miika Viholainen has crashed out of the tournament. The man doing most of the damage was Samad Razavi who shoved from the button with A♣ 4♣ and was looked up by Viholainen with K♦ J♥ in the small blind.
It was an ambitious call by the Finn and when the board ran 2♥ A♠ 5♦ 7♥ 4♦ Razavi was jubilant, running to the stage with his hands in the air. The excitement in the room was intensified as the mostly Filipino onlookers have taken Razavi under their wing. With no players from the Philippines making the final table, they have chosen Razavi as the man to cheer for and with a stack of now 2,065,000 it looks like they may have picked a winner.
Viholainen was left with just 60,000 after the loss and he shipped it in the very next hand. Both his opponents flatted and checked down a board of 10♥ 5♠ 6♣ 5♦ 4♠. When cards were shown, Zheng’s 6♠ 7♣ was good against Viholainen’s A♦ J♥ and Razavi’s A♣ 3♠.
Viholainen leaves with PHP 906,000 in prize money and we are down to heads up for the APT Asian Series Cebu title!
We are now at a dinner break. Having had a quick look at the stacks, Tan Tai Zheng leads with 1,885,000 followed by Miika Viholainen with 1,065,000, and Samad Razavi bringing up the rear with 815,000. We’ll be right back.
Bjoern Wiesler
Germany’s Bjoern Wiesler is our next busted player after what has been a furious two levels of action. The lull we experienced earlier was obviously just a ‘calm before the storm’ kind of situation.
In his departure hand, Wiesler shoved over the top of Tan Tai Zheng’s raise of 70,000 for a total of 385,000. Zheng called with A♦ 10♥ that was behind Wiesler’s Q♦ Q♥. However, the flop of A♠ A♣ J♠ had Wiesler drawing to just one of the two remaining queens in the deck, which didn’t arrive on the 6♥ turn or 4♦ river.
Wiesler takes home PHP 679,000 in prize money for his efforts as we go down to three-handed.
Tan Gay Peng
Tan Gay Peng held over a million chips not too long ago but, as quick as they came, his stack was decimated down to just 160K. Hoping to double up, he pushed it all in from the cutoff with Q♣ 9♦ and received a call from Tan Tai Zheng with a better A♠ 10♥.
The board came K♠ 5♠ 5♣ K♥ 10♦ and Peng bows out in 5th to collect PHP 566,000 in prize money as Zheng is once again the chip leader by a slight margin over Miika Viholainen.
