APPT 5 Macau: nanonoko Stands Victorious
Randy "nanonoko" Lew has just won over HKD $3.7 million for his first place finish in the APPT 5 Macau main event. To do so, nanonoko had to overcome a stellar field which included the likes of Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Alex Kravchenko, Nacho Barbero and others.
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| APPT Macau 5 Winner nanonoko |
Starting this year with his biggest live cash win by finishing 10th in the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$100k, Randy "nanonoko" Lew is now closing 2011 with an even bigger win of $3,772,000 for taking down the APPT 5 Macau main event.
The main event generated a field of 575 players which included the likes of multiple WSOP bracelet winners Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan. Starting his way to the top, nanonoko joined the field on Day 1B alongside Team PokerStars Pros Nacho Barbero, Celina Lin, Bryan Huang, Maxim Lykov and others.
Steady road to victory for nanonoko
By the end of Day 1, 260 players have already been sent to rails, including two casualties on Team PokerStars, Lin and Lykov. nanonoko entered the second play day with a stack of little over 50,000 in chips compared to over 150,000 and more held by players in the upper echelon of the remaining field.
With a starting stack similar to nanonoko's, Phil Ivey couldn't get anything going, eventually becoming one of the 200 players who wouldn't be making their return on the following day. Meanwhile, nanonoko nurtured his stack to end Day 2 with 145,000 in chips, once again finding himself behind the biggest stacks who now hovered above the 300,000 mark, with Nathaniel Seet holding the chip lead with 774,500 in chips.
Day 3 saw just 15 players making it through, not finding themselves among those were Johnny Chan, Andrew Scott, Grant Levy and many more. One player who did once again secure his seat to the next play day was nanonoko. Finding himself in the 10th place with a stack of 845,000 in chips, whereas the chip leader Sangeeth Mohan held a little over 2.4 million in chips.
The final play day saw nanonoko make his 14-hour long rise to the very top of the leaderboard. With the eliminations following one after another, it was the overnight chip leader Mohan who was the last player to hit the rails before everything was set for the final table. Despite being the shortest stack at the table, nanonoko soon worked his way up at the cost of David Steicke. With all the chips in before the flop, nanonoko showed pocket queens and his opponent revealed pocket aces. A queen on the flop gave nanonoko a double up and a devastating blow to Steicke's stack which shrunk to just 170,000.
From that point on, nanonoko's stack steadily increased until he eventually claimed the chip lead with just four players left at the table. With Fabian Spielmann and Jeff Rossiter falling out in 4th and 3rd place respectively, question of the new APPT Macau champ's name came down to nanonoko and Jimmy Pan. After some back and forth battle for the chip lead between the two, the final hand came to play. On the 
flop nanonoko's two pair with 
went up against Pan's top pair with 
. The turn came 
, followed by 
on the river which earned nanonoko the APPT 5 Macau title and his largest live cash win to date, the HKD $3,772,000 first place prize.
Below are the final table results:
| APPT 5 Macau Final Table Payouts |
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| Place | Name | Prize (HKD) |
| 1 | Randy "nanonoko" Lew | $3,772,000 |
| 2 | Jimmy Pan | $2,367,000 |
| 3 | Jeff Rossiter | $1,306,000 |
| 4 | Fabian Spielmann | $1,019,000 |
| 5 | Zuo Wang | $809,000 |
| 6 | Kai Yat Fam | $653,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Nordstrom | $498,000 |
| 8 | Tan Zai Zheng | $373,000 |
| 9 | David Steicke | $263,300 |
Here is a video and some pictures from APPT 5 Macau:
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| Randy "nanonoko" Lew |
Johnny Chan |
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| Jimmy Pan |
Celina Lin |
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| Jeff Rossiter |
David Steicke |
