The hot run continues for Alex Foxen – Takes down APPT Macau Super High Roller

The HK$400K Super High Roller took place at the luxurious City of Dreams, Macau.

The champ with the trophy

The event generated a total of 68 entries (including 19 re-entries), creating a total prize pool of HK$25,850,880. The world’s finest players gathered together to play some poker and even though, the friendly atmosphere, the outstanding environment was probably a great motivation too, but the HK$7,560,000 first place prize certainly had an effect on the registrations as well. Participants from all around the world attended the event, such as Patrik Antonius from Finland, Isaak Haxton from the USA or Germany’s Rainer Kempe. All of them made the 9-handed final table, just like 6 of their peers.

Alex Foxen, who won his seat into the tournament via a live satellite, had a great start, he quickly took the chip lead, managed to further the gap between himself and the rest of the field on the second day and take down the trophy on the final day.
 

"What makes it special to me is definitely the competition. I love poker, probably more than anyone. I love the battle with some of the other best players in the world." – said Foxen

Foxen started the final table with 40% of the chips in play. The first player leaving the final table was, Ike Haxton, who finished 9th for HK$750,000. He was eliminated with fellow American, Brian Rast. Haxton shoved his short stack from the button, holding ♠K♠2 and Rast called from the big blind with pocket sevens. The board bricked out and Ike was gone.

Ike out

The next player out was (one of the many) German high-roller specialist, Christopher Vogelsang. After a successful double up, he pushed all-in once again from the cutoff. Alex Foxen re-shoved from the button and the rest folded.

Vogelsang: :Ts :9s
Foxen:       :Ad :Qs

Board:        :9c :2h :7d :Ah :7s

Even though Christoph spiked a nine on the flop, the Ace on the turn sent him to the rail. He collected HK$981,880.

Brian Rast, who was cruising with a short stack for the entire day, called for all of his remaining chips with ♦K♦Q on the button against the UTG raise of Rainer Kempe’s, who held ♦J♦7. Despite being the favorite before the flop, Rast lost on the: ♦A♣9♠A♥7♥J board and said goodbye in 7th place worth HK$1,267,000.

Local businessman, Shan Huang probably had the most fun at the final table. On Level 22, 60,000/12,000/20,000 Rainer Kempe opened under the gun, which got called by Huang. Patrik Antonius then moved in from the button, which was followed by a re-shove by Kahle Burns from the big blind. Rainer quickly folded, but Shan wanted to play:

Shan:  :Js :Jh
Patrik: :Qc :Qh
Kahle: :As :Qs

"Yes" – shouted Huang on the flop of ♦J♣6♥T which was followed by a "Now I need a ten! Ten ten ten!" and a "Shit!" on the ♥K turn. However, his prayers were answered as the ♠K hit the river, giving the loud player a full house. "Yes! Yes! Yes! OK, let’s play some poker! I have chips now!" – Shan summarized the party, while Patrik and Burns were shaking hands and on their way out to collect HK$1,603,000 and HK$2,068,000 respectively.

Shan Huang having fun

The remaining four battled for a while, until Rainer Kempe eventually moved in from the button for 2,300,000 and got called by Sam Greenwood from the big blind.

Kempe:       :Qd :Jd
Greenwood: :Ad :5d

Board:         4c :4s :6c :Ah :6h

Sam took down the pot with aces up, meaning that Rainer was out in the 4th place which earned the German high-roller regular an HKD$2,663,000 cheque.

On Level 23 80K/160K/20K Greenwood opened the button with pocket kings and got called by a loud Shan from the big blind, "I take a chance, I call," he said. "My hand not strong but I take a chance." On the flop of ♥T♣Q♠7 Shan check called the continuation bet from Sam. On the ♣3 turn, Sam fired another barrel and Huang moved in. Sam snap-called.

Shan: :Qd :7h
Sam:   :Ks :Kh

The river was a brick, so Huang picked up a huge pot against the Canadian pro, who got crippled, with only 2 remaining big blinds. Sam managed to double up the next hand, but the hand after was the end of his tournament. Sam got 3rd for HK$3.529 million.

Thanks to some luck, Shan Huang was starting the heads-up with a sizeable lead over Alex Foxen. He had 10.04 million at the start, while Alex only 6.96. The friendly heads-up play saw Foxen reclaiming the chip lead by winning a number of small to medium sized pots. However, Shan was not afraid of the huge stakes and managed to close the gap every time, Alex was building a bigger lead.

But Alex eventually was able to finish Shan off. He moved in from the small blind with ♠A♠6 and Huang called with ♠K♣Q. Even though the latter turned an open ender to go with his two live cards, he wasn’t able to catch any of his outs on the river. Alex Foxen took down the event and the HK$7.56 million coming with it, while Shan Huang got a nice HK$5.429 million consolation prize for finishing as the runner-up in a star-studded field.

Final results