Pete Chen Wins Asia Player of the Year Award

In poker, it is often stated that persistence is the key to constant success as a professional on the felt. This is something Taiwan’s Pete Chen has proven in 2014 as he has beautifully played his way to being named this year’s Asia Player of the Year (APOY).

The award, which is calculated using a points-based system, was in the bag for Chen a while ago as he took a huge lead in the APOY rankings.

All told, the 26-year-old finished the year with 5,691 points, which put him head and shoulders above all other players on the leaderboard. The APOY runner-up, Hong Kong’s Ka Cheong Wong, finished with 3,977 points, more than 1,700 points behind the winner.

While Chen took out the award decisively, he did so by only winning one live poker tournament in the whole 2014, an 81-player Deepstack event at the Macau Poker Cup 21 in which he won just HK$47,780 (around US$6,165).

Despite only recording the one victory, it was Chen’s constant strong play at every event he played in that made him stand out over all other players in Asia. Along with his Deepstack victory, Chen also made it to seven final tables over the course of the year.

That run included the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Main Event in May, in which he ended up finishing in fifth spot.

He also made it to the final table in the Macau Poker Cup Main Event, better known as the Red Dragon, in August, where Chen finished in fourth place.

If Chen puts on a similar performance in 2015, he will be very likely to break into the top 10 all-time APOY winners, which is currently headed by Celina Lin with 12,434 points overall.

Canada’s Gabriel Le Jossec came in third on the 2014 APOY rankings, having finished the year with 3,607 points. All of those points came after he took out the 2014 APPT Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Main Event last month in Macau, taking home US$812,361 for his stellar play.

He was closely followed by China’s Zhenru Xie, who ended up with 3,600 points, while Australia’s Mathew Ryan rounded out the top five with a total score of 3,448.

The battle for the 2015 APOY will get underway later this month when the Beijing Cup takes place in China’s capital.