After battling through a tough online field, Ho Chung Yi bested the five other Taiwanese players who made it through their country’s online event to the live final table that was streamed at APT Incheon. On top of the APT Incheon Main Event seat that each player has won, Chung-Yi took down the $1,000 first-place prize and his first APT Lion trophy. Let’s take a look at how he did it.
Early Final Table Action
Each player brought through their stack from the end of the online tournament, which meant that our chip leader going into the final table was Liu Yu-Chi with 559,468 chips, and our short stack was Lin Shin Lun with 250,820. Looking at the resumes of the final tablists, it was clear that Ho Chung Yi was the most experienced and had the best live tournament results. Given that his 488,776 chip stack wasn’t far behind the chip leader, many people were tipping him to do well in the event.
The tournament started in a relatively tight fashion, as the short stacks tried to pick their spots to accumulate chips, while the middling stacks did their best to avoid being pressured by ICM. However, given that each player had already locked up $150, and the first-place prize was $1000, you wouldn’t think ICM would be such a big factor. Lin Yih-Shih picked off a nice bluff with AK high against the K4 of Lin Chao Chiuan on a Q52QT board to pick up a six-figure pot early on, but aside from that, there was very little action.
First Elimination
That is until the action folded to Liu Yu-Chi in the small blind, who looked down at Q7o and tried to apply maximum pressure on the big blind’s 26bb stack by shoving all in. However, Lin Yih Shih wasn’t in the mood to be pushed around and decided to call off with 54s. The QJJ flop meant that Yih Shih was almost dead, and the 9 on the turn sealed his fate.
A few hands later we almost saw a three-way all-in, as we saw an open from AQo under the gun, a flat from 55 on the button, and a shove from JJ in the big blind for 16.5bb. The AQ managed to find a fold, which left the decision to Lin Shin Lun on the button with 55. After some deliberation, he made the call and saw the bad news. The A84 flop was a good one for Shu-Hsuan, and the Q and K on the river secured his double-up.
AA vs AK
Just as the table was starting to quieten back down, we saw the sickest of preflop hands, as the aces of Lin Yih Shih dominated the ace-king of Liu Yu-Chi. Yih-Shih raised to 2bb from UTG with his aces, and next to act Yu-Chi shoved for around 35bb. Yih-Shih made the snap call, and the two were suddenly playing a million chip pot.
The JT5 flop gave Yu-Chi some hope, as he could hit a queen to make a straight. However, Yih-Shih had the ace of hearts in his hand, so it couldn’t be the queen of hearts. Cruelly, that’s exactly what happened - the queen of hearts hit the turn and eliminated Liu Yu-Chi in 5th place for $250. That pot made Yih-Shih the overwhelming chip leader at the final table with nearly 3x the stack of second place.
Ho Chung Yi Makes A Comeback
Yih-Shih took a bit of a hit when he shoved his K9o into the 10bb stack of Ho Chung-Yi - the A74 board was little help for Yih-Shih, but the T on the turn gave him some flush outs. Luckily for Chung-Yi, the 8 hit the river, giving him a timely double-up.
Not long after receiving his double up, Ho Chung-Yi limped the small blind with K7 and found himself up against the 97 of Lin Chao-Chiuan. The pair saw a flop of AKQ, which was promptly checked through. The 7 on the turn was a spicy card, giving Chung-Yi two pair and Chao-Chiuan a pair and a flush draw.
Chung-Yi bet 40K into 100K, and Chao-Chiuan raised to 95K with just 160K behind. Rather than playing for it all, Chung-Yi decided to flat call, and the 9 hit the river, giving Chao-Chiuan a weaker two pair. After a check from Chung-Yi, Chao-Chiuan put the rest of his stack in the middle and was quickly snapped off by Chung-Yi who showed him the bad news.
Three-Handed Play
While the bottom two stacks were relatively even going into three-handed play, Ho Chung Yi managed to use his experience to grind down his opponents, and it wasn’t long before he was level with Lin Yih-Shih at the top of the chip counts, leaving Lin Shin-Lun as the shortest stack.
Realising that he needed to get something going, Lin Shin-Lun decided to call off his last 8bb with T8 against the shove from the aggressive Ho Chung-Yi. Chung-Yi had the better hand going into the flop with Q7, but the KQ7 flop put Chung-Yi firmly into the driving seat. The 2 on the turn meant that Shin-Lin was drawing dead and was soon off to the cashier’s desk to pick up his $500 for his 3rd place finish.
Heads Up
That pot left Ho Chung-Yi with a slight chip lead over Lin Yih-Shih, and given the performance that Chung-Yi had put on so far, it was hard to see Yih-Shih making a comeback. However, he was given a way back into the match when he found himself holding AA against the shove of Ho Chung-Yi with A8o. The board was no help to Chung-Yi, and suddenly the stacks were reversed, and Yih-Shih was the one with the big chip lead.
It looked as if the match would be over when Ho Chung Yi limp/raised AQo against the KK of Yih-Shih, but Yih-Shih flat called and the two saw a flop of JJ7. The two checked through and the A hit the turn, giving Chung-Yi the best hand. Yih-Shih decided to lead out for 160K into a 540K pot, and Chung-Yi decided to smooth call. The J on the turn gave both players a full house, but Yih-Shih managed to find the disciplined fold against the 250K bet of Chung-Yi.
That hand evened the stacks, but Chung-Yi was consistently winning pots against his opponent, slowly grinding down his chip stack. It wasn’t long before he had a 4:1 chip lead, and after winning another pot, he had nearly 90% of the chips in play.
With such a commanding chip lead, Chung-Yi started to turn the screws and had Yih-Shih all in for the win with K4 against his opponent’s 65. However, the flop of A65 gave Yih-Shih a lifeline and the double-up he needed to stay in the event.
Despite that double-up, it wasn’t long before Chung-Yi had whittled Yih-Shih back down to crumbs, and the two were all-in again - this time Yih-Shih holding 88 against the Q4 of Yi. The J32 flop gave Chung-Yi plenty of outs, but the T meant that he needed to find a queen or diamond on the river. However, the 5 on the river meant that Ho Chung Yi had sealed the win, collecting the beautiful lion trophy and the $1,000 first-place prize.
Image Source. The Asian Poker Tour (YouTube)
