Friday, 29th March 2024 14:19
Home / Uncategorized / APPT Macau: Huynh, Gaw out; final table reached at ACOP Main Event

It took a while, but the final two eliminations of Day 4 have happened and the nine-handed final table of the 2012 Asia Championship of Poker has been determined. Tri Ba Huynh (Canada) fell in 11th right at the end of Level 19, while Andrew Gaw (Philippines) was knocked out in 10th with just a few minutes left in Level 20.

Here’s how those eliminations went down, as well as a bit of what went on in between.

Huynh big-blindsided by Zhou

With 11 left, Tri Ba Huynh found himself in a blind-vs.-blind confrontation versus his neighbor Xing Zhou. Huynh raised, Zhou called, and when the flop came 8♥ 5♣ 3♦ the pair traded bets to put Huynh all in.

Huynh had Q♥ Q♠ , but it was Zhou with the 5♦ 3♣ big blind special giving him the better hand with two pair. No help came for Huynh on the turn or river, and they were down to 10, Huynh earning $303,000 (HKD) for his finish.

Kanaan keeping on

The remaining group played on through the break and into Level 20 (5,000/10,000/1,000), with both Jacques Zaicik of France and Alan Sass of the U.S. earning double-ups to keep their tourney seats.

At that point Michael Kanaan remained in front with just over 1 million, with Tom Alner his closest competitor with about 800,000. Those two would maintain their big stacks going forward, although were passed momentarily by Tsugunari Toma of Japan who then fell back a bit as Kanaan pushed forward.

With about 10 minutes to go in the level, Kanaan had chipped up to around 1.3 million while Toma, Alner, and Hinrichsen all sat with around 800-850,000.

Meanwhile, among the others, Andrew Gaw had slipped down under 200,000 while the Frenchman Jacques Zaicik continued to nurse the shortest stack of the remaining 10 with about 110,000.

Gaw gone

After a long quiet period, we suddenly saw all-ins happening on both five-handed tables at once, with Gaw at risk on one and Zaicik potentially so on the other.

In Gaw’s case he had committed with A♣ J♣ versus the A♥ Q♣ of Xing Zhou, and when the board rolled out ten-high he was eliminated.

Meanwhile, Alan Sass was tanking as he decided how to respond to Zaicik’s bet, but ultimately the American let his hand go, thus ensuring Gaw had finished 10th for a $346,000 (HKD) payday.

ACOP2012ME_Day4_Gaw3.jpg

Andrew Gaw

The bagging has commenced, and it appears Kanaan will be the overnight chip leader. Back shortly to wrap up Day 4 and pass along bios for the nine remaining players.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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