The City of Dreams Casino in Macau has been hosting the APPT Macau. A pair of high roller events went down over the weekend. Canadian pro Kristen Bicknell won the $80K HKD High Roller for a score worth $2.1M HKD or $279K USD. Meanwhile, Alex Foxen just shipped the $400K HKD Super High Roller title for $7.5M HKD, or a shade under $1M USD.
While most of the world celebrated St. Patrick's Day and the gambling/sporting world was focused on March Madness college basketball tournament, there was a major poker event going on in Asia. The City of Dreams Casino in Macau hosted the latest stop on the re-booted Asia Pacific Poker Tour. The two-week long APPT Macau poker festival has been attracting players from all over the planet. A couple of familiar faces won high roller affairs including Kristen Bicknell and Alex Foxen.
Canadian pro Kristen Bicknell secured a major sponsorship when she signed with Team partypoker. The signing was a definite profile boost for Bicknell, who was well-known in poker circles, but might have been far enough on the fringe to escape the focus of mainstream poker.
The high roller victory in Macau padded Bicknell's already impressive stats. She added nearly $280K USD to her career winnings. In total, Bicknell won $1.5 million and she currently holds down the 20th spot on All Time Women Money Winners.
The Macau High Roller victory was only Bicknell's second-highest score to date. At the 2016 World Series of Poker, Bicknell won $290K for shipping a $1,500 NL Bounty event.
Bicknell faded a field of 117 hopefuls in the $80,00 HKD buy-in high Roller. The final table featured a handful of familiar faces including David Peters. If it wasn't for Fedor Holz, probably David Peters would have been Player of the Year in 2016. But Peters' efforts were overlooked by the insane run that Holz unleashed. Now that Holz is on the sidelines after "retiring", Peters has a chance to show off his mad high roller skills.
David Peters lost a heads-up battle against Bicknell and settled on a runner-up finish. Peters shopped $1.4M HKD, which was worth approximately $189K USD.
A couple of players from China repped the final table. Hong Zhu finished in fifth place for a 643K score, while Yong Wang secured a seventh-place cash for $388K HKD.
Felix Schulze was the lone German at the final table. A couple other Germans took a shot, like Rainer Kempe, but they all fell short of the final table.
"Women are crushing this year!" remarked Bicknell.
APPT Macau - $80K High Roller
Buy-in: $80,000 HKD
Entrants: 117
Prize Pool: $8,714,160 HKD
Payouts: 17
Final Table Results:
1. Kristen Bicknell (Canada) $2,192,000 HKD
2. David Peters(USA) $1,480,160 HKD
3. Klaus Pautrot (France) $963,000 HKD
4. Felix Daniel Schulze (Germany) $797,000 HKD
5. Hong Zhu (China) $643,000 HKD
6. Matthew Moss (U.K.) $507,000 HKD
7. Yong Wang (China) $388,000 HKD
8. Allan Bedwick (USA) $292,000 HKD
Can anyone stop Alex Foxen? That was the headline over at PokerStars Blog for their wrap-up of the $400K HKD Super High Roller at the APPT Macau.
The 2018 APPT Macau Super High Roller at the City of Dreams Casino featured 68 entries with 19 players firing additional bullets. Lots of dreamers, but only one winner in this event that had a prize pool in excess of $25 million Hong Kong Dollars.
The $400,000 HKD price tag is the equivalent of $50,000 USD. Ah ha! For any of your math-challenged folks, the SHR in Macau was essentially a $50K USD Super High Roller. And it was won by an American for a cool million in greenbacks.
American pro Alex Foxen has been on a sick rush since December. Shortly before Christmas, Foxen took second at the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond Classic Main Event. His runner-up score was worth $1.1 million after he lost a heads-up battle against eventual champ Ryan Tosoc.
Last month in Los Angeles, Foxen shipped the $25K High Roller at The Bike for a $424K score. Prior to his victory in Macau, Foxen had won $2.6M USD in tournaments. With a haul worth nearly $1 million USD, Foxen's career winnings are now in excess of $3.6M USD. Not too shabby, eh?
At the City of Dreams, Foxen outlasted a difficult final table that also included blast from the past Patrik Antonius. Sam Greenwood took third, while Rainer Kempe's run finished in fifth place. China's Shan Huang lost a heads-up battle against Foxen and had to settle on a second-place finish. Foxen won $7.5M HKD, which is the equivalent of $1 million USD.
The final table also included Brian Rast, Christoph Vogelsang, and Kahle Burns.
APPT Macau - Super High Roller
Buy-in: $400,000 HKD
Entrants: 68
Prize Pool: $25,850,880
Payouts: 9
Final Table Results:
1. Alex Foxen (USA) $7,560,000 HKD
2. Shan Huang (China) $5,429,000 HKD
3. Sam Greenwood (Canada) $3,529,000 HKD
4. Rainer Kempe (Germany) $2,663,000 HKD
5. Kahle Burns (Australia) $2,068,000 HKD
6. Patrik Antonius (Finland) $1,603,000 HKD
7. Brian Rast (USA) $1,267,000 HKD
8. Christoph Vogelsang (Germany) $981,880 HKD
