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Home / Uncategorized / 2014 ACOP Main Event: Final table player profiles

Seat 1: Zuo ‘ST’ Wang, 31 years old – China – 504,000 in chips

Zhu Wang, also known as “ST”, is the only players from China at the final table, which is rare for an event in Macau. Wang is 31 years old and has been a full time poker player for five years/ Wan usually plays HK$1,000/$2,000 cash games, but he has also had plenty of success in tournaments, including finishing fifth in the 2011 APPT Macau Main Event for HK$809,000.

Outside of poker, Wang loves to play video games.

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Zuo Wang

Seat 2: Konstantin Pogodin, 50 years old – Russia – 1,165,000 in chips

Konstantin Pogodin is a 50-year old businessman from Russia who enjoys poker as a hobby. He first got into poker after coming out to Macau with a friend some six years back and in that time has recorded a couple of handy results on the APPT and in the Macau Poker Cup. None of his previous results, howver, were as big as this ACOP final table.

Pogodin says that his key moment in the ACOP Main Event came late on Day 3 when he was all in with pocket queens against Michael Tureniec’s ace-king. Pogodin doubled up to end the day second in chips and he never looked back as he’ll start the final table well-placed in third chip position.

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Konstantin Pogodin

Seat 3: Ami Barer, 23 years old – Canada – 1,766,000 in chips

Ami Barer claims that his occupation is “Philanthropy” and while we don’t doubt that the 23-year old is an altruistic person, it’s more likely he is a poker player considering his immense resume which includes more than US$2.5 million in live tournament results and more than US$6 million in online results.

Barer has had a massive year which started back in February when he won the APPT Aussie Millions Main Event for AU$1.6 million. When Barer made the Aussie Millions final table he claimed that meeting Australian pro Daniel Neilson was the biggest highlight of his career and that is still the case nine months later. Maybe if Barer wins the ACOP Main Event that will become a new highlight.

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Ami Barer

Seat 4: Raiden Kan, 30 years old – Hong Kong – 488,000 in chips

Raiden Kan is no stranger to PokerStars LIVE Macau. In 2011, Kan won the now defunct Macau Poker Cup Championship for a six-figure score and that stands as the largest result of his career. Kan can top that score if he finishes fifth-place or better in the ACOP, which will be a great effort considering he comes in the final table with second smallest stack.

Kan says that he has not had a single all in throughout the tournament and that the thing he has enjoyed most about the ACOP Main Event is the blind structure. He also sights PokerStars LIVE Macau’s Fred Leung as the biggest influence on his poker game.

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Raiden Kan

Seat 5: Sunny Jung, 40 years old – Korea – 1,810,000 in chips

The chip leader of the final table is the man of the moment, Sunny Jung. Twelve months ago Jung was at this very final table and would go on to win the 2013 ACOP Main Event for a massive HK$4,352,000 (~US$560,000). There were 203 players in that event and so Jung has already outlasted far more than that in 2014. With so many chips and the experience of the big stage, Jung will be certainly be hard to beat.

Jung has been a professional poker player for 10 years and outside of poker loves to travel and enjoys walking and going to the movies.

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Sunny Jung

Seat 6: Vladimir Troyanovskiy, 41 years old – Russia – 576,000 in chips

One of two Russians at the ACOP final table, Vladimir Troyanovskiy is a 41-year old professional poker player who plays “big cash games”. Troyanovskiy also plays tournaments though, posting almost US$3 million in results, most of which came in high roller events around the world. Troyanovskiy’s largest result came when he finished third in the PCA High Roller in 2013.

Troyanovskiy loves to play backgammon, billiards, chess and computer games.

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Vladimir Troyanovskiy

Seat 7: Tore Lukashaugen – 44 years old – Norway – 369,000 in chips

Tore Lukashaugen is a 44-year old Norwegian poker player with nine years’ experience in the game. Lukashaugen has a couple of strong results to his credit including a 13th place in this very event last year. He also has two six-figure scores to his name including a final table in the 2013 GuangDong Asia Millions Warm Up Event and a fifth place in the $5,000 6-Handed Event at the 2011 WSOP.

Lukashaugen has had to contend with the aggressive Joseph Cheong on his left for the best part of two days, but he’s managed to sneak through to the final table as the short stack. Away from the tables, Lukashaugen enjoys getting outdoors with some golf, diving, kite surfing and snowboarding.

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Tore Lukashaugen

Seat 8: Gabriel Le Jossec – 25 years old – Canada – 1,025,000 in chips

Gabriel Le Jossec is a 25-year old businessman from Montreal in Canada with seven years of experience in the game. He credits Jason Mo as his biggest influence and one of his highlights in poker was beating Mo in a heads-up session.

Le Jossec’s tournament record is modest with two previous results on the APPT. One was a cash in the 2012 APPT Seoul Main Event, while he also has a side event win in the Heads-Up Event at the 2010 APPT Macau. Away from poker Le Jossec enjoys videos games and he says that he enjoys coming to Macau for the food.

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Gabriel Le Jossec

Seat 9: Joseph Cheong – 28 years old – USA – 1,027,000 in chips

Joseph Cheong rose to poker fame and fortune in 2010 when he finished third in the biggest poker event on the planet – the WSOP Main Event. That score was worth in excess of US$4 million, but such is his talent, Cheong has won even more than that since.

With results all around the world, Cheong clearly enjoys Asia and Macau, with a previous High Roller win in Manila and a pair of final table finishes at the 2012 ACOP. He also finished fifth in the HK$500,000 MBP Super High Roller Event just a few days ago for over US$500,000 in prize money, to boost his career winnings to in excess of US$10 million.

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Joseph Cheong

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