Mike Takayama went wire-to-wire in winning the inaugural Superstar Invitational in Hanoi, Vietnam last 5 February, giving the Filipino professional his 16th Asia Poker Tour championship including two main event titles and six high-roller events.
The victory at the Vietnam Series of Poker event was worth $62,654, increasing his career tournament winnings to over $2.48 million.
According to asianpokertour.com, just eight of the initial 46-strong field returned to action for the second and final day. Takayama came in with a chip lead he would not relinquish after all eight finalists opted for a bubble-saver deal, meaning seven of them made the money.
That left Vietnam’s Duc Anh Nguyen the only remaining finalist to depart empty-handed, but he would not get lonely on the rail.
Takayama was an unstoppable force at the final table, gunning down six out of his seven remaining opponents in quick succession to give Nguyen some company, with the tournament wrapped up after four 40-minute levels.
While Takayama’s heads-up opponent — Vietnam’s Julien Tran — put up a valiant effort, the Filipino players’ mountainous 3-to-1 chip lead proved too steep of an obstacle to surmount.
Tran took home P998,570,000 ($42,938) for his runner-up finish, with seven players in total cashing for a share of the P4,462,000,000 ($191,866) prize pool, with the final table paying out as follows:
