Korea trashed all other competition in the ninth side event of the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau, the JBET Battle of the Nations. All three members of the team, Brandon Wong and Poker Pack pros David “Chino” Rheem and Steve Sung, made it to the final table of the HK$48,000 buy-in event, and basically had it won before they even got there with a whopping 106 points.
David ‘Chino’ Rheem said, “We’re all delighted that the Korean team picked up first place and that our win was so comprehensive. Halfway through I really thought it was going to be our day. It is always fantastic to win any poker tournament but it gives you something extra when national pride is at stake too!”
The team earned HK$406,060 for their massive triumph, with the Vietnamese team coming in second with 89 points. The prize pool was divided up with 70 percent of it going to the winning team and the rest to the top three players. Vietnamese players took the top two spots; Allan Le picked up HK$95,700 for first, and his brother Nam Le earned HK$52,200 for second. Rheem took the third spot for HK$26,100.
Other teams that took part included Australia which had 2009 Aussia Millions main event champ Stewart Scott; Hong Kong with David Steicke and Johnny Chan; India led by Vivek Rajkumar; plus USA, China, Japan, Belarus, and Canada.
There are plenty more events to come at this year’s Asian Poker Tour Macau. Day 1A of the main event begins today, and tomorrow, filming commences of Poker King, the first ever Chinese language poker movie.
The festival finishes on Aug. 23.
