Xing Zhou Wins APPT Macau For $455k

China’s Xing Zhou has won the PokerStars APPT Asia Championship of Poker, after defeating a field of 184 players over five days to lift the trophy, and collect the US$454,808 first place prize (after a deal was agreed).
The 29-year-old businessman got off to a great start at the final table after doubling-up and taking the chip lead holding 8-8 on a 9-8-5 flop against Michael Kanaan (9-7), with the turn and river producing an ace and jack.
Xing Zhou (A-5) then proceeded to river a straight to eliminate a short-stacked Tom Alner (A-K) in 8th for $77,692. Next, Andrew Hinrichsen (9-9) followed suit against Zhou (J-10), after the board rolled out K-6-3-J-4 to dispatch him to the rail in 7th for $99,872.
Continuing his steamroll of the final table, Xing Zhou (A-K) won the pre-flop race against USA’s Alan Sass (Q-Q), who picked-up $144,231 for his 5th place finish, while 4th ($177,436) place went to France’s Jacques Zaicik, whose A-K failed to improve against Zhou’s pocket nines.
Three-handed play then looked liked it would finally break Zhou’s spell on the tournament after his K-K was second best against Australia’s Michael Kanaan’s  pocket eights, on an 8-9-5 flop. A king on the river, however, saw Kanaan exit in 3rd ($221,923) and Zhou go heads-up against Ying Kit Chan from Hong Kong.
At this stage, Zhou held an almost 8 to 1 chip advantage over his opponent, but the game did not end quick and 6 hours into the heads-up affair the players decided to chop the prize money. Soon after they were both all-in pre-flop in the dark with Zhou’s 10-6 eventually defeating Chan’s 7-5 on a 9-8-3-5-7 board, to lift the title.
Commenting later on his remarkable victory, Xing Zhou said: “In the end it’s still all about luck. After six hours of heads up, my body couldn’t take it anymore. I feel the skill level was almost the same, so if we continued it was going to be very tiring and wouldn’t make a lot of difference.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Xing Zhou $454,808
2 Ying Kit Chan    $454,808
3 Michael Kanaan $221,923
4 Jacques Zaicik $177,436
5 Alan Sass    $144,231
6 Tsugunari Toma $122,051
7 Andrew Hinrichsen $99,872
8 Tom Alner     $77,692
9 Henry Wang     $55,474