A tournament with a name like the Superstar Championship — the event which finished on Monday at the Asian Poker Tour Championship in Taipei — raises an interesting question: what exactly is a ‘superstar’?
It’s a difficult question to answer, and inevitably leads to the use of such specifically non-specific terms as ‘the X factor’, or ‘je ne sais quoi’.
But for our use, we can assume it means the type of poker player willing to put up $50,000 against many of the best in the game. They may not have their own line of sneakers, but if you follow professional poker, you may well have heard of them.
The other question raised by the Superstar Championship — what is a champion? — is easier to answer: We simply look at who’s left holding the trophy.
Today, that man is Calvin Lee of the USA. The trophy is the rose gold Lion, and the prize in this, the highest buy-in event of the series, is TWD 18,726,502 — almost $600,000.
Lee dominates on Day 1
Sunday’s Day 1 saw 39 entries register at TWD 1.5M (almost $50K) each, building a total prizepool of some TWD 57M, or $1.8M. A raft of international stars joined the action, including the likes of Steve O’Dwyer, Samuel Mullur, Daniel Smiljkovic and, fresh from his victory in the Super High Roller, Roman Hrabec.
18 would make it through the day, led by some distance by Lee. It was just a few months back that he won the Superstar Challenge in Korea, at APT Incheon, and with a stack larger than the next two players combined, the omens were looking good for a repeat performance.
Lee maintained his advantage as the field thinned down to the final seven who would finish in the money: O’Dwyer, Lee, Alex Wice, Malaysia’s Chin Wei Lim, American Dylan Linde, Vincent Huang of New Zealand and Daniel Neilson of Australia.
Alex Wice was hoping to improve on Sunday’s runner-up finish in the Super High Roller, but ended up shoving his short stack with 
into the 
of Neilson. The dominating hand sealed the deal when an ace came on the turn, and Wice was out in 7th for TWD 2,732,700 (~$87K).
Next out was the jet-setting high roller Steve O’Dwyer, who confided to us that his travel plans had been disrupted due to a cancelled flight, and that he was suffering the effects of jetlag. What part that played in his exit hand is debatable, though.
With a short stack and a pocket pair — black sevens — O’Dwyer was not unreasonable in taking a stand and found a caller in Lee, who had big tickets with but would have to hit for them to pay out.
Hit he did, as the board ran out 
to send O’Dwyer out in 6th, approximately $108K better off and able to grab a decent night’s sleep ahead of, we assume, an assault on the Main Event on Tuesday’s Day 2.
Chin Wei Lim of Malaysia was next out, when he understandably called off his last chips holding 
on a flop of 
. His opponent, Vincent Huang, had pocket aces, and Lim’s open-ended straight draw remained unfilled, sending him to the rail in 5th for TWD 4,545,000, or around $144K.
Neilson flips the script
Four-handed, Lee still had the lead in the chip counts, using his advantage to apply pressure and pick up plenty of uncontested pots.
It wouldn’t be long before another standard button-raise from Lee was met with some resistance, as Huang fired back with a 3-bet. His timing couldn’t have been worse, as Lee snapped off his all-in shove holding a dominating hand.
Huang had 
but Lee had him outpipped with the 
. Neither player improved and Lee’s ace-high was good enough to see off Huang in 4th for TWD 6,472,300 (~$206K).
With Lee still dominating, Daniel Neilson and Dylan Linde were jockeying to see who could make a move, and in the end it would be Neilson to break through, slowplaying a pair of aces beautifully to get a full double-up from Lee and taking the chip lead for himself.
It was then the Australian’s turn to apply the pressure, and soon Linde found a hand with which to fight back. Facing an open-shove from Neilson on the button, Linde put his remaining stack in the middle with 
. Neilson had 
and the race was on.
Then the flop came 
, and the race came to a crashing halt. The 
on the turn confirmed what we expected, and Linde hit the rail in 3rd with a payout of TWD 8,629,700 (~$274K).
The superstar's third act comeback
As the pair started heads-up play, Lee found himself behind by a margin of around 2:1, having led for much of the final table, not to mention the tournament itself.
While the atmosphere was nothing but good-natured, Lee and Neilson seemed poles apart in terms of their approach. Neilson — bearded, in a loud shirt and slouched over his chips. Lee — clean-shaven, straight-backed… and sober.
Neilson pushed ahead, only for Lee to reel him back in, hand by hand, until a big confrontation occurred with Neilson just marginally ahead.
With blinds at 60K/120K, Neilson limped from the button and Lee opted for a free flop, which came 
. Both players checked it through, as they did on the turn. The river, the 
, brought about yet another check from Lee, following which Neilson bet 280K. Lee check-raised to 1.4M, and Neilson shoved for the rest of Lee’s chips, around 5M.
Lee tanked, then made the call. He had 
for a turned two-pair. Neilson had 
, an audacious bluff gone wrong.
That put the match firmly in Lee’s control, and it wouldn’t be long before he mopped up the remainder of Neilson’s stack, adding a huge TWD 18,726,502 (~$595K) to his impressive resume. For his runner-up finish, Neilson picked up TWD 13,030,900 (~$414K).
“This one’s got a little more meaning behind it,” the new Superstar Champion told PokerOrg as he waited to collect his shiny new rose gold trophy. “I registered on time for level one, I was in for one bullet, and there were a lot of ups and downs.
“I was running pretty hot all through the final table, then we got 3-handed and I doubled up Dan. He's an interesting guy, he's a good player. I don't know him well, but he's always drinking.
“So I started heads up 2 to 1 down. It's kind of corny and cliched to say, but… no chop, no second bullet, everything... the trophy, the glory… I feel like, yeah, this is one I'll remember for a little bit…”
Main Event quickly covers $5M guarantee
One other perk of winning a Championship event such as this is the addition of a free seat in the APT Championship Main Event. However, as the winner of the Superstar Challenge at APT Incheon in August, Lee has already banked one free entry.
“Maybe he can play the Main today, and if he busts he can re-enter tomorrow?” joked a nearby tournament director, with a wink.
The wink was because we all know that won’t be possible: the $5M GTD Main Event is being run as a freezeout.
With such a big guarantee and no possibility of re-entries, APT organizers knew they were taking a risk. Happily for them, it’s one that’s paid off; it was announced to the room that the guarantee had been fully covered by 6pm on Day 1.
To be honest, to those who have seen the full tables and steady stream of players coming into Red Space in Taiwan, it comes as little surprise. A satellite to the Main Event on Sunday drew an incredible 399 entries and created a prizepool of over $585K — larger than the prizepools you’d find in many other main events proper.
Entry will remain open for two levels on Tuesday’s Day 2, at which point we’ll know just how huge this tournament will be. There’s just something about this series in Taipei this week, but it’s hard to pin it down.
Let’s just say it definitely has ‘the X factor’.
TWD 1.5M (~$48K) APT Superstar Championship — final results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calvin Lee | TWD 18,726,502 (~$595K) |
| 2 | Daniel Neilson | TWD 13,030,900 (~$414K) |
| 3 | Dylan Linde | TWD 8,629,700 (~$274K) |
| 4 | Vincent Huang |
TWD 6,472,300 (~$206K) |
| 5 | Chin Wei Lim |
TWD 4,545,000 (~$144K) |
| 6 | Steve O'Dwyer |
TWD 3,394,400 (~$108K) |
| 7 | Alex Wice |
TWD 2,732,700 (~$87K) |
Images courtesy of APT/Enzo Arceo.
