Ziv Bachar(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
When the Poker Stars’ Asia Pacific Poker Tour rolled into South Korea late last week, no one had heard of 25 year old real estate specialist Ziv Bachar. The young Israeli – he hails from Tel Aviv – was better known to the poker world by his online moniker, ziviland. However, no one really expected the soft-spoken and somewhat shy young man to take the title.
185 other people were there to compete for the crown including Poker Stars pros Joe Hachem, the 2005 WSOP Main Event champ, Vanessa Rousso, Isabelle Mercier, Lee Nelson, the 2006 Aussie Millions Main Event champ, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Early on Rousso and Hachem were eliminated by the same player, Jacques Zaicik. Nelson’s tournament life came to end when his pocket queens were cracked by a player holding pocket jacks.
At the end of Day One, only 48 players, including Mercier and the chip leader, Dan Schreiber, survived. It took eight hours and 32 KOs to get down to the money. Only the top sixteen made bank in the event. Isabelle Mercier was one of those. Her sixteenth place finish was good for $4,371.
Ulf Martensson was the last player to be eliminated on Day Two. His tenth place finish paved the way for the final table.
Going into Day Three, Ziv Bachar held the chip lead. Michel St-Pierre started the action by doubling up through Paul Adams on the very first hand. Adams was eliminated soon thereafter by James Honeybone. Schreiber, the former chip leader, followed Adams out the door in eighth place. He picked up $13,113 for his effort.
At this point, the remaining players tightened up. Several hours passed before the next elimination. Roger Spets, who was on a seriously short stack, went all-in – he was in the big blind - and was called by both Jozef Berec and Ziv Bachar. Bachar won the hand with a K,7. However, it’s important to note that Spets, who made the APPT Manila final table, is the first player to sit at two final tables in Asia Pacific Poker Tour history.
With the blinds going up rapidly, the action picked up again. Sid Kim crushes Seval Hægeland by making an improbable straight on the river. Hægeland moves all-in with his remaining 19k. St-Pierre and Bachar both call him. They check the board all the way down to the river. St-Pierre eliminates the Norwegian, who won his way into the event for just $1 in a PokerStars’ qualifier, with a set of tens.
James Honeybone was the next to go. He hit a ten on the flop with his A,10 in the hole to go ahead of Jozef Berec in the hand. However, Berec caught one of the two outs he needed to win on the river. Honeybone won $28,412 for his fifth-place finish.
Michael St-Pierre, who had a short stack at the beginning of the day, saw his tournament life end at the hands of Shinhan “Sid” Kim. The KO gave Kim the lead going into three-handed play. Unfortunately for Kim, the dinner break happened. Upon the players’ return, Berec and Bachar took turns chipping away at Kim’s stack. Bachar got the best of it, eliminating Kim and building up an impressive lead going into heads-up play.
In fact, Bachar was a 10-to-1 overdog over Berec as heads-up play got underway. Berec couldn’t overcome the chip deficit and Bachar won the day with kings and queens and a higher kicker over the 48 year old Australian.
Here are the final results:
1) Ziv Bachar - $139,872
2) Jozef Berec - $87,420
3) Shinhan Sid Kim - $48,081
4) Michel St-Pierre - $34,968
5) James Honeybone - $28,412
6) Seval Hægeland - $21,855
7) Roger Spets - $17,484
8) Dan Schreiber - $13,113
9) Paul Adams $8,740