Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew, 26-year-old member of PokerStars’ Team Online, earned his first major live title Sunday, winning the 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event and HKD $3,772,000 in prize money (approx. $480,000 USD).
Lew entered the final table as the short stack and with a little luck, a lot of patience and a sound strategy, he was able to grind out a victory.
“I got queens in against aces, which was kind of a cooler, but after that I was just able to grind my stack really well,” said Lew afterwards. “My heads-up opponent was a very competent player. I felt very confident though, in heads-up, because I play a lot of heads-up online against good players.”
On how it feels to win a live tournament vs. online, Lew said: “Winning online, it feels kind of virtual. It’s kind of like my training ground for these live tournaments. Live tournaments are kind of like your record, and now I have something to put in my record, and that feels so good.”
Jimmy Pan from Macau finished runner-up, pocketing a healthy HKD $2,367,000. Pan is a 24-year-old student who’s been playing poker for two years.
See below for complete final table results.
Phil Ivey returned to live tournaments this week, registering for the APPT Macau Main Event — a move that attracted global media attention; he hadn’t played a live tournament since May 2011 after releasing a statement saying he was going to boycott the WSOP. Ivey made Day 2 of the event but was eliminated from the tournament late Friday night.
FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS
Amounts listed in HKD
1st: Randy Lew – $3,772,000
2nd: Jimmy Pan – $2,367,000
3rd: Jeffrey Rossiter – $1,306,000
4th: Fabian Spielmann – $1,019,000
5th: Zuo Wang – $809,000
6th: Kai Yat Fam – $653,000
7th: Daniel Nordstrom – $498,000
8th: Tan Tai Zheng – $373,000
9th: David Steicke, PlayerStars Player – $263,300
