China's Jian Yang Wins Asia Player of the Year

Posted at 08:49 2013-11-07 by Tim Duckworth

Following the completion of the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP), the Asia poker year has now concluded with Chian’s Jian Yang winning the 2013 Asia Player of the Year (APOY) award!

Since 2009, the Asia Player of the Year has been awarded to some of the best poker players on the Asian poker circuit. Kitty Kuo, Bryan Huang, Hung-Sheng Lin and Yosuke Sekiya were all previous winners and all formidable players whenever they took a seat at the poker table. Jian Yang now joins them as one of the elusive winners of the most coveted title in Asia.

Previous Asia Player of the Year Winners

Year	Player	Country	Final Tables	Wins	Winnings
2009	Kitty Kuo	Chinese Taipei	3	1	HK$601,045
2010	Bryan Huang	Singapore	6	1	HK$594,050
2011	Hung-Sheng Lin	Chinese Taipei	10	1	HK$1,272,690
2012	Yosuke Sekiya	Japan	6	1	HK$1,002,600

Unlike previous winners that picked up a multitude of results on their way to capturing the APOY, Yang only registered three results during the calendar year, but he made them all count with 3 final tables and two wins. Yang managed a 4th placing in a Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon side event for HK$133,500 (approximately $18,077) before winning the ACOP Platinum Series Main Event for HK$206,600 (approximately $27,975). However Yang would launch to the top of the leaderboard just two weeks ago when he topped a 338-player field to win the ACOP Warm-Up for HK$1,700,000 (approximately $230,178).

Jian Yang’s 2013 Results

Date	Event	Place	Prize
January	MPC: Red Dragon HK$20,000 No Limit Hold’em	4th	HK$133,500
September	ACOP Platinum Series HK$5,500 Main Event	1st	HK$206,600
October	ACOP HK$25,000 Warm-Up	1st	HK$1,700,000

Although Yang may have held the top spot approaching the second half of the ACOP schedule, he would still have to sweat some results once the ACOP Main Event approached the final table. Terry Fan’s bust in equal 10th saw him fall two spots shy of topping Yang while Yoshitaka Okawa finished in 5th to also be two spots shy of taking the top spot. Once Yifan Zheng finished in 3rd – needing a win to take top spot – and no other major results occurred in the High Rollers or final No Limit Hold’em event of the series, the APOY title was all Yang’s.

2013 Asia Player of the Year Leaderboard

Rank	Player	Country	Points	Final Tables	Wins	Winnings
1st	Jian Yang	China	3,922	3	2	HK$2,040,100
2nd	Yoshitaka Okawa	Japan	3,704	2	1	HK$2,311,000
3rd	Terry Fan	Chinese Taipei	3,607	2	1	HK$2,345,090
4th	Tetsuya Tsuchikawa	Japan	3,515	7	3	HK$425,552
5th	Ryan Nan Yu	China	3,460	4	1	HK$608,600
6th	Neo Li Han Chen	Chinese Taipei	3,375	5	0	HK$965,900
7th	Alvin Yifan Zheng	China	3,332	2	1	HK$2,703,000
8th	Alexandre Chieng	China	3,292	3	1	HK$2,407,600
9th	Sparrow Cheung	Hong Kong	3,265	7	1	HK$524,525
10th	Gie Reyes	Philippines	3,120	2	1	HK$1,325,200

With Yang defining the statement of making it count, he will not only see his name engraved on the stunning Asia Player of the Year trophy, but also receive a 1-year sponsorship with PokerStars Macau for all championship events in Asia for 2014 including the Macau Poker, Asia Pacific Poker Tour and ACOP. Congratulations to Jian Yang for becoming the fifth Asia Player of the Year winner following an outstanding 2013 on the Asian poker circuit.

Stay up-to-date with all the latest PokerNetwork news and updates through our social media outlets by liking our Facebook page and following us on Twitter. PokerNetwork … the home of poker in Australia and New Zealand!