Home / Poker News August 2009 / APT Macau Days 2-3: Steicke falls 4th, Allain wins
APT Macau Days 2-3: Steicke falls 4th, Allain wins
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-08-28 15:12
Day 2 of the APT’s Macau was all about a duel: the one between David Steicke and Inwook Choi. Steicke had pretty much dominated his Day 1A flight and he was definitely on a mission: he wasn’t about to let this tournament deny him the victory or at least one of the top money positions, and he was definitely not going to let anyone push him around.
He began Day 2 exactly where he’d left off on Day 1A: building his stack. He started the day with the 86,000 chips he’d picked up on the first Day 1A flight and he didn’t stop until the tower of chips in front of him grew to over 200,000 big. More interestingly, Steicke didn’t achieve the impressive progress through a single monster pot scored on a player, he did it through a combination of well picked spots and reading skills that once again offered an exhilarating show of poker prowess.
Inwook Choi on the other hand didn’t care much for showboating around. He scored about 300,000 chips on a single hand and took the chip lead immediately. Try as he might, Steicke just couldn’t catch up with the Korean afterwards. The two of them flew out to build a sizeable lead on the rest of the field, the player in third place barely the owner of half as many chips as Steicke.
The final day of the event featured a field which was set to produce plenty of early fireworks, mainly on account of the 5 short-stacks who were poised to make their do or die moves early.
Casey Kastle was one of these short-stacks, and sure enough, he became the first victim of the final day. He shoved all-in on a pair of Ks he’d picked up and got called by Adrien Allain with pocket 9s. The board didn’t give Allain a set, but it did give him a straight, sending Kastle straight to the rail, pocket Ks and all.
Wilfred Yu was the next victim, heading to the rail in 8th place. Yu was soon followed to the payout queue by Crister Hallbrook.
Adrien Allain began his final push at the expense of Michael Woo, whose Qd, 6d proved no match for the Frenchman’s pocket Ks.
Chris Chau was bounced in 5th place and the pressure began to pile up on “name” pros Steicke and J.C. Tran. Soon, Steicke became the short-stack, and unable to catch a breather, he was bounced in 4th place right after the break.
After Steicke’s departure, the pace of the action slowed to a crawl again, all three remaining players content to lurk around, waiting for someone else to commit all his chips.
Tran soon found himself the new short-stack, but he fought back and managed to stay in the game by doubling up against Allain. Eventually though, it was Allain who pushed him over the edge and out of the game.
As the two remaining players squared off heads-up, Allain had a stack twice as big as that of his opponent. He soon drove his edge home as his A,3 beat Choi’s A,Q against the odds in the final hand of the event. The win meant a $391,556 for the young Frenchman.
