If we could all come from a place of gratitude, the world would be a better place. I struggle. Ego, pessimism and cynicism drilled into my cerebellum by parents who knew no better.
A recent trip to Asia reminded me of the power of gratitude. Killer mosquitoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons – I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of Dodge and dive into the cold wet and windy arms of Good Ole Blighty.
Rain.
Wind.
Stung by a wasp.
Hardly, catastrophic incidents.
The Balinese earthquakes shook me up in more ways than one. As the key rattled around in the hole, I felt a sudden sense of lilliputian like stature in the world.
But life goes on.
It always does.
Take Typhoon Mangkhut; the Category 5 Super Typhoon that ripped through Macau like a Marlin breaking the waves hooked on certain death.
Casinos shut down for 33-hours.
When they opened, people were waiting outside like Sunday morning pubgoers in the South Wales valleys; twitching fingers, tapping feet, lips smacking Pavlov style.
Amongst them were the poker-loving folk of the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel, who turned up to compete in a ten-day festival operated by the Poker King Club.
Three events stood out like a chicken’s eggs amongst quails.
One of which interests us here at Paul Phua Poker, The Home of High Stakes Poker.
The HKD 200,000 (USD 25,500) buy-in Poker King Cup Super High Roller attracted 21-entrants, pulling in an HKD 3,910,000 (USD 500,659) prize pool, and Kui Song Wu banked the HKD 1,720,000 (USD 220,239) first prize after beating the immensely talented James Chen, heads-up.
The victory was Wu’s first of his career, and the buy-in of USD 25,500, was more than his combined total live earnings before he entered the event. In contrast, Chen had earned close to $2.8m in live tournaments including a victory in the $12,775 buy-in High Roller at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in the City of Dreams, Macau for $512,411 earlier this year.
The final table bubbled with brilliance. Earlier in the year, Michael Addamo beat 1,637 entrants to win his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet and $653,581 first prize, besting a final table that included Bart Lybaert, Taylor Paur, Martin Jacobson, Anton Morgenstern, Cate Hall and Ihar Soika. Addamo finished fourth in this one.
And only Justin Bonomo has won more live tournament rubles than Mikita Badziakouski this term. The back-to-back Triton Poker Series winner finished just outside of the money in sixth.
Only four got paid.
Here they are:
ITM Finishes
1. Kui Song Wu – $220,124
2. James Chen – $130,155
3. Ye Wang – $90,097
4. Michael Addamo – $60,022
The other big winners in the Poker King Cup included Tokuho Yoshinaga, who defeated a field of 69 entrants to take the HKD 1,410,169 (USD 179,794) first prize in the HKD 80,000 (USD 10,200) High Roller. And Weiran Pu conquered a field of 518 entrants to take down the HKD 1,464,000 (USD 187,363) first prize in the HKD 16,500 (USD 2,100) buy-in Main Event.
Not the typical typhoons we report on here at PPP, but it makes for a nice bookend.
Dietrich Fast wins XL Eclipse High Roller
From a relatively unknown poker player winning a high roller to an extremely well-known high roller, that doesn’t want to be well-known, winning a tournament in the online realm.
Last week, 888Poker’s online poker series, XLEclipse, ended, and while the $2,600 buy-in High Roller wouldn’t normally interest us, the name of the winner does.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member, Dietrich “2pacnrw16” Fast, took down the $2,600 buy-in, $200,000 GTD High Roller, beating 83-entrants to capture the $72,635 first prize, beating competitors of the ilk of Chris Moorman and Martin Jacobson on his way to ascendency.
Fast is one of the few people who recently took advantage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws that are sweeping Europe by removing his name from The Hendon Mob.
From now on, Fast takes on the moniker of ‘Unknown Player’.
Let’s hope the interesting young man doesn’t move out of the media limelight entirely, as I love a good chow down with the Russian-born high roller carrying the typhoon tongue.
