The 2018 APT Macau Championships kicked off Thursday, April 25, at the Babylon Casino in Macau attracting hundreds of poker players from Asia and the rest of world with its HK$2 Million GTD Main Event. Along with it, however, the Asian Poker Tour runs many other events, one of which has already crowned its winner and this is Australia’s Michael O’Grady who won the Super High Rollers grabbing the HK$1,164,000 winner-take-all pot.
The Australian player was one of the very few poker pros who managed to enter the Super High Rollers No-Limit Hold’em special event, which had a hefty HK$200,000 buy-in. The small, but strong line-up of 6 live tournament players included O’Grady, Malaysia’s Christopher Michael Soyza, WSOP bracelet winner Samuel Higgs from Australia, Xin Fan from China, and Chin Wei Lim and Adimus Putra Bin Muhamad, both from Malaysia. Muhamad was the first player to leave the table after facing Soyza, who followed soon. He was eliminated by O’Grady and left the table with only four opponents to fight for the pot.
Higgs and Fan both finished empty-handed and in the final heads-up round, O’Grady stood against Lim in a winner-take-all battle. After gruelling 86 heads-up hands, the final hand arrived with O’Grady’s Ad-Js and Lim who held a pair of Kings. The board ran 10-2-3-8-King, all spades except for the 3, which gave O’Grady a winning flush. After the chip count, the Aussie’s stack was bigger than Lim’s, even though by a tiny margin, but enough to win the pot.
After 7 hours of play, O’Grady banked a nice prize of HK$1,164,000, or approximately US$148,330. This is his largest career score and certainly the most notable one he has got for a while. In the past, he won AU$60,656 ($56,415) for his fourth place at the 2010 ANZPT Main Event in Sydney. In July 2016, Michael O’Grady cashed in $42,285 at the WSOP Championship Main Event in Las Vegas.
APT Macau Championships 2018
The 2018 Macau Championships is the third big festival for Asian Poker Tour this year and it runs through May 6 at the Macau Billionaire Poker club in Macau’s Babylon Casino. Over the course of 12 days, players from all around the world can take part in 18 events, as well as several special tournaments. The games come in various formats, ranging from No-Limit Hold’em, Turbo events, NLH One Day events, Head Hunter, Monster Stack, and more. The buy-ins for side events are in the HK$1,200-HK$43,000 range. The two most prestigious tournaments during the festival, however, are the HK$2 Million GTD Main Event, which runs from April 28 through May 6 and has an entry fee of HK$11,000. The other big tournament is the HK$22,000 Buy-in APT Championships Event, starting May 2.
Along with the Super High Rollers, another interesting event was held on the opening day, Ante Up for Charity, which drew a field of 25 entrants. The HK$1,500 NLH event collected HK$12,500 for the Holy House of Mercy charitable organization. It was won by Malaysia’s Michael Soyza, who entered the tournament immediately after leaving the Super High Rollers event. Soyza took the trophy and the first place prize of HK$11,000.
