The historical Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) 2016 Main Event is nearing its end when game play ended with the final 6 players.
The ACOP Main Event which guarantees HKD$15,000,000 (approx. USD$2Million) for a buy in of HKD$100,000 (approx. USD$13,000) is the last of the flagship tournament of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) as all live tournaments of PokerStars will be absorbed either in the PokerStars Festival or PokerStars Championship.
There were 302 players who entered the 2016 edition creating the biggest Main Event field in ACOP history with a prize pool of HK$28,116,200 (USD $3,628,000).
The champion of this event will definitely be marked in the books and fittingly, the Final 6 is turning out to be a battle of poker stars in the Asian circuit.
Vladimir Geshkenbein from Russia (2,958,000 Chips)
Vladimir Geshkenbein is the chip leader of the ACOP Final 6. Geshkenbein has a lot to fight for in this event apart from the coveted first prize cash of HKD$6,684,000 (approx. USD$850,000).
He had his very first live earning in the 2009 APPT Macau High Roller Event winning over USD$200,000. It would be nice if he won the very last APPT event in history. But what would be nicer is, if he triumphs over all in this event, he would go down in history as the ONLY player in the world who would ever have won both a European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event championship and an APPT Main Event Championship.
Kahle Burns from Australia (2,211,000 Chips)
Kahle Burns is a prominent Australian poker player who has been consistently cashing in the events Down Under. His Asian tournament experience has been limited to 3 ACOP events, including this one. But 2016 has been very nice to Burns. He has already 2 Main Event Championships on his hat for this year, namely the 2016 Sydney Championships and the Western Classic Poker Champions 2016 where he won USD$226,295 and USD$ 55,674 respectively. Winning the ACOP Main Event will surely be a nice ending for his year.
Jimmy Zhou from China (1,642,000 Chips)
Jimmy Zhou is the ACOP 2015 Main Event Champion. Although Zhou doesn’t have much tournament titles to his name, he is the defending champion and there are only very few who have been able to defend their titles in a poker live event. To be able to do so on the last APPT will definitely put his name in the history books.
Shinobu Tanaka from Japan (1,200,000 Chips)
Shinobu Tanaka has no championship that he can claim as his own but he is a familiar face on the final tables of Asian poker events. He has made final tables in the APPT and the Asian Poker Tour (APT) and he is considered one of Japan’s prominent players.
Bryan Huang from Singapore (595,000 Chips)
Bryan Huang is the only sponsored player on the final table of the last APPT event. Being part of team PokerStars and having numerous trophies on his wall, everybody knows that Huang is a formidable opponent on the felt. But he has not grabbed a Main Event trophy as of yet, always falling one step behind on 2nd place. Will he finally make that one step up and be the champion of the final APPT Event in history?
Neel Murphy from USA (449,000 Chips)
Neel Murphy is the least experienced of the 6 players. But based on his performance yesterday, he’s got a good head on his shoulders knowing when and where to choose his spots.
Here are the others who made it to the final table
7 – Jian Zhong Song HKD$981,000
8 – Yunsheng Sun HKD$826,000
9 – Jordan Westmorland HKD$672,750
10 – Sergio Aido HKD$546,000
Article by Garielle Barredo
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
Follow Me:
