Michael Soyza Soars to Victory in the 2019 PokerStars APPT Korea Super High Roller (₩178,890,000/$157,423)
A champion has been crowned in the 2019 PokerStars APPT Korea ₩10,000,000 APPT Super High Roller ($8,767) and it was a very familiar face that ended up posing for the winner shots at the Paradise City Resort & Casino in Incheon, South Korea.
Malaysia's Michael Soyza, who scored back-to-back victories at this very venue one year ago, took home the lion's share of the ₩611,585,000 ($537,210) prize pool and claimed a payday of ₩178,890,000 ($157,423) after defeating China's Jiang Chen in a brief heads-up encounter to best a field of 65 entries.
Soyza doubled his shorter stack in the very last hand of Day 1 and entered the final day in the middle of the pack. On the last two tables, Soyza suffered a big setback when he ran with queens into aces, but from there on out it was all about the Malaysian. Even on the final table, Soyza was short just once and won a vital flip against Huahuan Feng before dispatching all four remaining opponents.
"What can I say, you run like God and you're gonna win - get it in bad and then just suck out."
For Soyza, it is yet another victory and his fourth title in South Korea after winning the APPT Korea Main Event and a Side Event the previous day in 2018, followed by a victory in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series HK$ 500,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Max Event a few weeks ago.
"There's no secret to it, I just run good in Korea i guess. You just need to play a lot, play tons and put the practice in and the results will come."
The Triton triumph in March 2019 added another $1.4 million to his poker resume and Soyza has now locked up his 14th live event victory, which includes six PokerStars Live tournaments for just shy of $5.2 million in cashes and 5th place in the Malaysian all-time money list according to his profile on The Hendon Mob.
"I don't have any goals, I'm not chasing any all-time money lists, or any rankings or whatever, I just hopefully keep on making some money, that's enough for me. It's all about the money, the trophies don't matter so much and I already have them."
While Soyza claimed the trophy, other big names just missed out on the money. PokerStars ambassador Celina Lin was eliminated two spots off the money and Randy Lew became the bubble boy. Start-of-the-day chip leader Jun Obara had to settle for 8th place and Irshat Shaykhov became a victim of the hot run of Soyza, the Russian had to settle for 4th place.
Final Result 2019 APPT Korea Super High Roller
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in KRW) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | ₩178,890,000 | $157,423 |
| 2 | Jiang Chen | China | ₩128,432,000 | $113,020 |
| 3 | Huahuan Feng | China | ₩83,480,000 | $73,462 |
| 4 | Irshat Shaykhov | Russia | ₩62,992,000 | $55,433 |
| 5 | Wayne Heung | Hong Kong | ₩48,925,000 | $43,054 |
| 6 | Yake Wu | China | ₩37,920,000 | $33,370 |
| 7 | Wai Wa Chan | Hong Kong | ₩29,970,000 | $26,374 |
| 8 | Jun Obara | Japan | ₩23,240,000 | $20,451 |
| 9 | Hideki Izutsu | Japan | ₩17,736,000 | $15,608 |
Action of the day
Yinsheng Yang ran out of chips right away and Dongsheng Peng saw his aces cracked by ace-jack. Calvin Lee and Lei Yu were among those who fell much earlier than they had hoped for and the final two tables only briefly featured Wai Kiat Lee and Sparrow Cheung. The latter ran with ace-nine suited into the ace-king of Christopher Park. However, there was no happy end for Park either, as he fell short of the money.
After an early double up, Wayne Zhang cruised among the big stacks, however, that all but changed when he ran into the pocket aces of Irshat Shaykhov twice in back-to-back hands. Dong Chen followed and a series of double ups for shorter stacks suddenly sent Celina Lin into the danger zone. The PokerStars ambassador couldn't get there with ace-four against pocket jacks and hit the rail in 11th place with nine spots paid. Randy Lew followed a few minutes later with fives versus queens and that let the bubble burst.
The final table started in dramatic fashion for the last two Japanese players in contention. Jun Obara and Hideki Izutsu lost most of their chips, the latter in a flip with king-queen against the pocket eights of Yake Wu. Obara then moved all in and Izutsu called for fewer than one big blind to bow out in 9th place. A few minutes later, Obara got it in with ace-jack against the ace-trey of Jiang Chen and flopped top pair, but running clubs gave Chen an unlikely four-card flush.
Michael Soyza took over the top spot when his straight and flush draw got there against the pair and gutshot of Wai Wa Chan, but he soon after lost a big portion of his stack when he jammed with queen-nine into the ace-queen of Huahuan Feng. Soyza doubled back into the lead against Feng with jack-ten versus sevens as he rivered a straight, and from there on out never surrendered the top spot anymore.
First Soyza jammed the button with king-jack and Wayne Heung called with queens only for a king to appear right in the window. Another Soyza jam was called by Irshat Shaykhov with king-six suited and Soyza flopped an eight with his queen-eight. The third casualty in a row for the Malaysian was Feng, who saw the pocket eights of Soyza hold up against his queen-jack.
Down to the final two, Soyza had an overwhelming lead against Jiang Chen. One double up brought short-lived hope, as the aggression of Soyza prevailed. Down to ten big blinds, Chen called a jam with eight-six suited and was even ahead of the six-trey suited of Soyza. Two clubs on the flop spelled trouble and another club on the turn sealed the victory.
That brings an end to the PokerNews updates for the Super High Roller here in Incheon, but Day 1a of the Main Event is already in full swing and the guaranteed prize pool of that has been surpassed in the fist six levels.