Huidong Gu Wins the 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Jeju Main Event for ₩183,695,000 ($159,000)
The 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Jeju Main Event draw a total of 362 entrants in Shinhwa World's Landing Casino. When Day 3 started there were only 11 hopefuls returning to the tables and it was the 76-year old businessman based in Shanghai Huidong Gu who won the Main Event trophy.
Huidong Gu was born in Macau and has had his fair share of history in the game of poker, with almost $400,000 in live cashes before this tournament. After his win in the Main Event he can be proud of having more than half a million dollars in total prizes, and also of surpassing his biggest live cash so far for more than $100,000. Huidong Gu was in the second place of Macau's all time money list and he will stay there, since the first place player has almost $1.5 million in career earnings.
Huidong Gu had to defeat a very good Chinese player during heads-up, as Yang Zhang is one of the most successful poker players in China with $1.7 million in total career live cashes. In fact, Gu started heads-up with a small disadvantage in chips but won a crucial pot to turn things around.
As he said with the help of the translator, the most important pot of the final day was the one versus Yang Zhang, where he had top pair with king-queen, while Yang Zhang was holding nine-five of hearts with a flush draw plus a gutshot in a queen-seven-eight-eight board with two hearts. The chips went in in the turn and Gu held to double up and take the lead for the first time during heads-up. “I think the hand that stands out the most was where I held king-queen for top pair and Yang Zhang had nine-five and moved all-in on the turn with a draw. After the hand I thought everything should go smoothly now as I had the chip lead.”
“I never thought that I would make it this far to the final table, I was going to just warm-up in Korea for the World Series Main event - I’ve already bought a ticket, I’m going to it. Basically I’m just lucky to win this title.”
For Gu, the most important thing was the trophy, and he proved it by offering to his opponent an even chop, if he was to give him the trophy, even though having at the moment an almost 3-to-1 advantage in chips. “The money is not important, me and Zhang don’t care about the money, both of us were playing for the trophy and the title. Even though at the time Zhang was short in chips, I still wanted to do a deal with him where I got the trophy and we split the cash.”
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in KRW) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huidong Gu | Macau | ₩183,695,000 | $159,000 |
| 2 | Yang Zhang | China | ₩116,535,000 | $101,000 |
| 3 | Ruihong Tao | China | ₩73,081,000 | $63,200 |
| 4 | Zhang Mengyin | China | ₩57,280,000 | $49,500 |
| 5 | Siyuan Wang | China | ₩41,478,000 | $36,000 |
| 6 | Duc Trung Vu | Vietnam | ₩33,578,000 | $29,000 |
| 7 | Tae Hoon Han | New Zealand | ₩26,467,000 | $23,000 |
| 8 | Kairan Jin | China | ₩22,517,000 | $19,500 |
| 9 | Jiageng Zhang | China | ₩18,567,000 | $16,000 |
Action of the day
It all started with eleven players and after the first hands, it was an almost simultaneous elimination on both tables. Guondong Tian busted in 11th place and Lijiang Liu fell with top pair versus Yang Zhang's two pair on the flop to send the remaining nine players to the final table.
It took almost one and a half level before the first elimination at the final table, and it was Jiageng Zhang who busted in 9th. He fell in Huidong Gu's trap, with the latter just calling Jiageng's preflop three-bet with aces. The chips went in the middle on the flop, and Jiageng's pocket tens couldn't find any help.
Half an hour into the next level, and it was when the next elimination took place. Kairan Jin ended his run in the final table when three-bet shoved with ace-seven after Yang Zhang's raise who called with ace-jack. The board ran pure for Yang and he sent the final table to the 7-handed play.
It was then that the most important hand of the day, up to that point, took place, with the elimination of the start-of-the-day chip leader. New Zealand's Tae Hoon Han seemed like he couldn't get anything as he wanted during the final table, by mostly losing small pots and all ins against short stacks, and then he three-barrel bluffed his stack against Yang Zhang. Yang's flopped top pair, rivered trips, was good enough to make him call Han's river shove and won a huge pot, while at the same time busted one of the most dangerous players in the final table.
After that elimination everything happened rather quickly. Into just half an hour of play, four more players were eliminated to send the Main Event to the heads-up stage.
The first to bust in this short time of period was Duc Trung Vu in 6th place, when he hero-called Huidong Gu's shove on the river with second pair, only to see his opponent holding top two pair.
The chip leader of Day 1c was the next player to leave, with Siyuan Wang shoving his short stack with ace-eight to get called by Yang Zhang's king-jack who spiked a jack on the river.
The only woman that started in Day 3, Zhang Mengyin, had a great performance, managing to ladder up in the payouts even though she was short stacked for the biggest part of the day. She had of course her fair share of luck during the day, tripling up in a spot with queen-six versus Gu's kings, when she hit runner-runner cards for a straight that kept her alive. In her last hand she had less than four blinds and shoved five-deuce to lose by Ruihong Tao's king-nine.
Three-handed play didn't last more than just three hands, with Ruihong Tao shoving with ace-eight only to get called by Yang Zhang's ace-ten that held until the river.
When heads-up started, Yang Zhang had slightly more chips than Huidong Gu, with almost a 6-to-5 difference between them. In the aforementioned hand, that Gu noted as the most important in the last day for him, he managed to turn things around, and it all ended in a sixes versus jack-ten hand, where the board brought two queens and two nines, for Gu's hand to prevail.
This wraps up the PokerNews coverage for the 2019 APPT Main Event here in Jeju, South Korea. Meanwhile, the festival is not over, as the last High Roller starts tomorrow and it will be the last event that the PokerNews team will bring you coverage from.