The conclusion of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau championship event was certainly star-studded.

After two days of fireworks, the final table was set and eight and a half hours later so was the winner when Vietnamese poker player Dinh Le and his pocket eights captured the last hand of play.

Winning the title was no easy feat for Le as he faced a final table that included a former WSOP Main Event Champion, one of the most recognizable female poker players in the world, two gamers-turned-online poker players.

2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem was the short stack of the final nine but managed to outlast Simon Randall, who was the first to go home, but then Hachem’s lack of chips caught up with him sending him home in eighth.

Female poker pro Liz Lieu followed Hachem to the rail shortly thereafter when Guillaume Patry dropped the “hammer” (7-2 offsuit) on her by rivering trip sevens. The two former gamers, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospelier and Patry, as well as being fellow final tablists, also happened to be roommates in Korea where they played the strategy video game StarCraft professionally. They remained close to each other by going out on back to back hands in fifth and fourth place, respectively.

Less than ten hands into heads-up play, the first ever APPT Macau champion was crowned, as Le held on to eliminate Tan in a classic coin flip for the title. Le raised pre-flop, finding a re-raise from Tan. Le pushed all in and Tan called quickly with (A-Spades)(10-Clubs). Le tabled (8-Diamonds)(8-Spades), and they were off to the races. The flop of (6-Spades)(5-Spades)(Q-Diamonds) helped neither player, and when the turn and river came down (2-Hearts)(J-Diamonds), Tan was eliminated in second place ($129,536) and Dinh Le was crowned the APPT Macau champion. Le picked up $222,640 for the history-making win.

Here are the full final table results and payouts:

1. Dinh Le - $ 222,640
2. Ivan Tan - $ 129,536
3. Sangkyoun Kim - $ 72,864
4. Guillaume Patry - $ 56,672
5. Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier - $ 48,576
6. William Tam - $ 40,480
7. Liz Lieu - $ 32,384
8. Joe Hachem - $ 24,288
9. Simon Randall - $ 16,192

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Online Poker, Poker Events, Poker Players, Poker Tournaments, Poker Winners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.