Jinlong Hu was the top finisher in the Asian Poker Tour main event hosted at the Casino Corona Resort in Phu Quoc on an island off the coast of Vietnam on Nov. 16. The Chinese poker player grabbed a top prize worth $185,430 to take his career earnings up close to $600,000. This was his largest recorded score yet, topping the $122,587 he earned as the champion of the $100 Flip & Go event during last year’s World Series of Poker Online International Series.
“I think, firstly, the Golden Lion trophy is one of the best-looking trophies I’ve ever seen, second only to the WSOP gold bracelet. Secondly, because APT is the Asia Poker Tour, it represents the highest level of poker competition in Asia, so it holds a very special meaning for me,” Hu told reporters through a translator after the win. “I think I will first take my trophy home, and then participate in other tournaments. Because the prize money is just a bonus for me, so everything will go on as usual. I want to thank everyone who has supported me, not just one person. They believed that I could win, and in the end, I did.”
The VND 36,000,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event attracted a field of 795 entries. The top 120 players all took home at least $1,114 in prize money. Notables with a good amount of career earnings that made a deep run in the tournament included Kyosuke Nagami (11th), Hyunsick Jang (13th), Motoyoshi Okamura (14th), Tien Thanh Dinh (15th), and Si Ng Pun (18th).
Ngoc Pham fell just five hands into the final table at the hands in ninth place, and then Chuhao Zhang doubled up twice before busting in eighth place. Deepankur Gupta was the next player to score a couple double ups to avoid elimination, but he eventually fell in seventh place and Hu had collected two knockouts among the first three.
Hao Wang was out next in sixth place, and then Hu kept his momentum rolling by busting David Erquiaga in fifth. Hu was on a roll, and he could not be stopped when eliminating Thang Truong in fourth place as well. Third place was decided by Hu yet again, as he sent Do Vu packing in third place to take an (unsurprisingly) large chip lead into the final heads-up showdown for the title.
The chip advantage for Hu was nearly 5:1 over Oh when cards got into the air. Oh doubled up once, but not even that gave him enough chips to make a strong challenge. The final hand saw Oh get in with 8
6, and that was behind the K
7 of Hu. The final board bricked out, and that gave Hu the tournament win. Oh was awarded $112,795 for his deep run that ended in second place, which almost doubled his total career earnings.
Hu also earned 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win, enough to move him inside the top 400 in this year’s POY race standings presented by Global Poker.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY |
| 1 | Jinlong Hu | $185,430 | 912 |
| 2 | Jun Seok Oh | $112,795 | 760 |
| 3 | Do Vu | $79,725 | 608 |
| 4 | Thang Truong | $60,040 | 456 |
| 5 | David Erquiaga | $47,340 | 380 |
| 6 | Hao Wang | $35,530 | 304 |
| 7 | Deepankur Gupta | $25,295 | 228 |
| 8 | Chuhao Zhang | $17,520 | 152 |
| 9 | Ngoc Pham | $13,860 | 76 |
Photo Credit: Asian Poker Tour