NAM LE TAKES APPT HIGH ROLLERS EVENT

12 September 2008

$474 358 payday for American-Vietnamese poker pro

Nine survivors of a tough two day competition in the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour High Rollers tournament started an 11 hour final table battle for supremacy this week, seeking to unseat a dominant chip leader in David Steike

In two days of play, the 61 players who had paid an entry fee of $19 200 each had been whittled down to the final 9. Along the way, casualties included top players like former World Champion Joe Hachem, multiple bracelet winners John Juanda and Barry Greenstein, and Internet superstars Shaun Deeb, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Hevad "RainKhan" Khan. The 2007 winner of the event, Eric Assadourian had tried for a back-to-back and failed, whilst Emad Tahtouh, Liz Lieu and Terrence Chan had also entered.

The final table consisted of Canada's David Steicke in the lead, Quinn Do, Nam Le, Wei Will Ma, 10-time WSOP bracelet winner and World Champion Johnny Chan, Charles "Chuck Truck" Chua, Ivan Tan, Van Marcus and Andrew Scott.

After over an hour of play low-stacked Marcus was first to depart, eliminated by Andrew Scott. Ivan Tan was the next to fall, a victim of Charles Chua, and it was several hours before the next man headed for the rail when WSOP hero Johnny Chan was outplayed by Steicke and headed for the exit and a seventh placing cheque for $51 282. Chua was the victor again in the next elimination, when he took out Wei Will Ma shortly before the dinner break.

Nam Le came back from dinner all fired up to send Steicke home in fifth place for $89 743, but it was another two hours before the next exit occurred, when Chua fell to Nam Le and departed in fourth place, collecting his $115 384 paycheque on the way out. After that, the game moved into a very active phase which saw the elimination of Quinn Do in third place for $153 384 after a clash with Scott.

Heads up, it was Nam Le in the lead with a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Andrew Scott, but the match nevertheless went on for 90 minutes until Nam Le truimphed and saw Scott off to the cashier to collect a second placing cheque for $269 230. The honours and the winner's prize of $474 358 were Nam Le's.

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