Stephen Pang Wins APT Incheon Main Event After False Finish
Shoumin Zhang was briefly left with one big blind, then fought back before Pang finally sealed the Golden Lion
Stephen Pang won the APT Incheon Main Event after a false finish that briefly had him celebrating before tournament staff corrected the table and made him keep playing. He eventually claimed the 24K Gold Lion Trophy and about KRW 411 million, with the title coming after a three-way ICM deal.
As covered in our report on Danny Tang’s sweep the day before, APT Incheon had already been producing headline results before Pang’s marathon finish.
Poker.org reported that Pang thought he had won after a river hand and began celebrating with friends and a winner’s interview. Once staff counted the stacks, tournament director Tyler Willse apologized and told the table that Shoumin Zhang still had one big blind left, or about 700,000 chips on the livestream graphics.
The correction turned the final into a real comeback test. The same report said Zhang was down 78-to-1 and would have needed six double-ups to retake the lead, but he survived multiple doubles and climbed back to 14 million chips while Pang had 42 million.
The duel kept swinging. After Zhang shoved 11 million and Pang called, Zhang came close to a fifth double-up before a ten on the river rescued Pang and turned the hand into a chop-potential spot, and play continued for 16 more hands before a 15-minute break with Zhang down to nine big blinds.
When the players returned at 500K/1M blinds on hand 149 of the day, Zhang pushed his last 8.7 million and Pang called. Pang won the flip, and the Golden Lion was finally his.
The Asian Poker Tour said the record-breaking 1,393-entry Main Event generated about KRW 3.01 billion in prize money, while SoMuchPoker said the field came from 807 unique players and called it the largest and richest international poker tournament ever held in mainland South Korea, as well as the third-largest APT Main Event staged anywhere in the country.
Pang said he had prepared for more than a year by playing online against the best players he could find. He also said he played conservatively early, then started attacking once there were five players left, and the APT site said his run was built on post-flop check-raises, well-timed bluffs and a streak of pocket queens, including a huge Day 4 pot against Nozomi Ota and queens holding against Tempei Kotani’s ace-king to move him into the lead.
Zhang finished runner-up on KRW 366.5 million and Yifu He took KRW 257 million for third, and the top three also earned a $10,000 seat to the APT Championship in Taipei.
