The initial edition of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) series hosted on Natural8 GGNetwork met a real success similar to recent major events in the online poker scene. The APT 2020 Online Series beginning April 29th running until May 10th reached a high turnout attracting not only the usual online players but also regulars of their live games. Several notable players of the live circuit have now successfully claimed a few of their own famous APT trophies from the latest tournaments.
Running a total of 57 events throughout the 12-day period, the festival is more than halfway through the schedule with familiar names making impressive record winnings as shown below.
Featured: Main Event – Alex Lee “DblBarrel” – $ 91,353.53
The Main Event just concluded last night with Alex Lee under username DblBarrel claiming victory and a strapping $91,353.53 in top prize. The champion is a regular of worldwide live circuits with numerous extensive scores and three APT event titles under his belt. His recent win however, is his largest recorded tournament cash and first APT featured event conquest. Aside from collecting an awaited APT Guardian Trophy, Lee has also jumped up the APT Player of the Series leaderboard to second in ranking giving him a fighting chance for another coveted APT trophy.
With five flights running across the 3-day event, the Main Event garnered a total of 1,217 entries pushing the initial guarantee of $200,000 to an enormous $578,075. Yet another smashing tournament for the APT Online Series, only 320 players qualified for the final day with 170 places getting a minimum payout of $1,117.53. The final day took nearly five and a half hours to crown its winner with many falling short of grabbing a five-figure payout.
The final table began with DblBarrel running third in chips and Olekonjole in the chip lead. The pro quickly rose in chips sending SkupyZid and DdeviL to the rail and later on, busting huisean’s Ad-8s button shove with a better Ah-10s on the big blind. Kryptonite8899 followed soon after failing to beat DblBarrel’s flopped two pair which held on by the river. Having a 3.5:1 chip advantage against heads up rival Olekonjole, the battle lasted only a little over ten minutes of play. DblBarrel ended the major tournament with Ks-Qh out drawing his opponent’s Ad-3s flopping top two pair with the turn and river of no help to Olekonjole.
Final Table Payouts:
1st DblBarrel – $ 91,353.53
2nd Olekonjole – $ 66,294.72
3rd Kryptonite8899 – $ 48,110.11
4th huisean – $ 34,913.47
5th urawapoy – $ 25,336.73
6th Yacht – $ 18,386.88
7th LEN1234980 – $ 13,343.35
8th DdeviL – $ 9,683.2
9th SkupyZid – $ 7,027.19
Mini Main Event: Pete Chen “TurboPete” – $ 40,058.92
The Mini Main Event’s smash hit serves as a great introduction to the current Main Event of the series. The 3-day event posting an affordable buy-in of $200 brought about an astounding total of 1,299 entries pushing the $75k guarantee to more than three times in value. With 416 qualifiers making it into the final day, the $257,499 prize pool was set to be shared among 188 players.
Taiwanese pro Pete Chen playing under the username TurboPete emerged victorious after four hours of final day competition, locking down a whopping $40,058.92 payout. The Natural8 ambassador joined the final table ranking 5th in chips roughly 14 big blinds in effect against chip leader pekarinu’s 43 big blind chip count. Down to 8 players left, Philippine pro Lester Edoc with username mon$terDad dominated the final table sending half of the players to the rail. Holding a sizable chip advantage in the heads up battle against TurboPete, the tables were turned when the latter caught a lucky river card to score a full double up. After a couple more plays, the final hand arrived with TurboPete luckily cracking mon$terDad’s pocket rockets. Mon$terDad shoved on a flop of 8c-Kc-3d with TurboPete calling with 9c-7c for a flush draw. A river of 10c completed TurboPete’s winning flush earning him the champion title and a proud owner of an APT Guardian trophy.
Final Table Payouts:
1st Turbo Pete – Taiwan – $ 40,058.92
2nd mon$terDad – Hong Kong – $ 29,070.04
3rd pekarinu – Japan – $ 21,096.12
4th HorseAlmighty – Brazil – $ 15,309.47
5th benbenbigalo – Israel – $ 11,110.05
6th JustFishing – India – $ 8,062.57
7th LongBTC – Hong Kong – $ 5,850.99
8th nine songs – China – $ 4,246.08
Event #2: High Rollers – Michael Soyza – $ 18,288.30
Another Natural8 ambassador tops a significant event of the series claiming another APT champion title for the team. Malaysian pro Michael Soyza took down the first High Roller event of the online festival bagging an $18,288.30 paycheck. Attracting a total of 70 players, the $1,000 buy-in tournament’s initial guarantee of $30k doubled to a combined $66,500.
With a smaller field, the event only took five and a half hours to crown its winner. Playing under his real name, Michael Soyza entered the final table ranking 3rd in chips while heads up rival TT928 started with the least. TT928 however, aggressively ran up his stack to a spot in the final battle with Soyza at a 6:1 chip advantage. The fellow Malaysian almost busted Soyza with pocket Kings against the pro’s A4o. Soyza luckily landed the nut flush on the river giving him another chance for the title. The dramatic heads up battle almost evened out when Soyza again won a flip with pocket Jacks against TT928’s AKo. Another hour of play lasted until the final hand ensued for another flip with Soyza holding KJo against rival TT928’s pocket sixes. The flop instantly landed a King with the turn and river of no help to TT928’s holdings giving the Malaysian pro the first APT Online Series High Rollers title.
Final Table Results:
1st Michael Soyza – Malaysia – $ 18,288.30
2nd TT928 – Malaysia – $ 12,223.19
3rd MeGustaMucho – Ukraine – $ 9,557.08
4th C.Darwin900 – UK – $ 7,472.50
5th BIG CHI – Canada – $ 5,842.61
6th Chainsaw – UK – $ 4,568.22
7th readytoship – Macau – $ 3,571,80
8th PrinzOfDTO – Austria – $ 2,792.72
9th Igutu – India – $ 2,183.58
Event #29: High Roller Turbo – Ho Bao Qiang “Yummers” – $ 10,356.51
Ho Bao Qiang, relatively well-known in the live circuit, joined this week’s online action and claimed his first APT Online Series win. Playing under the username “Yummers”, Qiang outlasted 91 other entrants to take home a nice $10,356.51 and another High Roller title to match his last year’s APT High Roller trophy. With a buy-in of $500, the tournament again smashed its initial guarantee of $15k to roughly $43,700.
Running on a turbo format, the action for this tournament moved at a faster pace busting one player to the next. Yummers brought the chip lead upon entering the final table but was left to stand aside with laiibhari running hot and busting three other players to unbelievably amass two thirds of the total chips in play. Yummers finally picked up Aces to bust out TheGreatDanton and followed after was second runner-up ObellaCiao who lost his stack to laiibhari. The heads up battle did not last long after a big pot brewed with both players flopping top pair on a 10 high board. Yummers’ 8d kicker however, outpipped laiibhari’s 7h crippling his opponent’s stack down to five big blinds. Qiang was not long after, victorious ending the tournament with pocket Jacks holding up against laiibhari’s king-five.
Final Table Payouts:
1st Yummers – $ 10,356.51
2nd laiibhari – $ 7,843.22
3rd ObellaCiao – $ 5,939.88
4th TheGreatDanton – $ 4,498.42
5th IceLeekakaTayfun – $ 3,406.77
6th Daddy Cool – $ 2,580.04
7th mommyfinger -$ 1,953.93
8th shin-b – $ 1,479.76
9th Roti Canai – $ 1,271.47
More Winners: Dicky Tsang “Floatingworld”; Quang Ngoc “anh961” Simon Burns “Fireburns”
Other recorded winners include APT Korea Incheon 2019 Main Event winner Dicky Tsang “Floatingworld” who dominated the series’ fourth event collecting the largest bounty reward of the tournament. The Progressive Bounty event with a buy-in of $200 welcomed a total of 170 entries generating a $31,790 prize pool. Tsang claimed the winning title along with $3,158.41 for first place and an additional $3,046.10 in bounties to make a combined $6,231.51 profit.
Event #6 No Limit Hold’Em Turbo, with an affordable buy-in of only $50 was concluded in a quick three hours landing Quang Ngoc username anh961 a record win. The Vietnamese player beat a bigger field of 497 entrants holding a $23,234.75 prize pool to take home a cool $4,135.77 in winnings.
With the $50 NLH Turbo event consistently drawing the largest field of the day, Simon Burns username Fireburns likewise overcame a field of 406 players to take home a total of $3,417.40. The UK player landed a full double up on the first hand of their heads up battle against rival KOBS. His aggressive approach eventually paid off and sent his opponent to settle for second place cashing a decent $2,504.66.
Falling short of sealing the deal for the Mini Main Event, Philippines’ Lester Edoc playing under the username mon$terDad had another chance at an APT title and the APT Guardian Trophy. The notable pro once again placed second in Event #32: High Rollers losing his stack with top pair on the flop as all the money went in and being outdrawn on the river. Despite the unfortunate outcomes, Edoc has made massive profits for the series with more chances of fighting for a title in the next few days to come.
Series Still Ongoing
The inaugural APT Online Series set to finish on the 10th is already past its halfway mark completing over 30 events as scheduled. A cumulative prize pool of $1,938,000 was recorded with every event smashing its guarantee and pushing its value to over double or even triple for some tournaments.
The Mini Main Event showed tremendous success recording the largest prize pool ($257,499) and the largest field as well garnering 1,299 entries. The largest field for a single day event on the other hand, was Event #23: Monster Stack attracting 531 players in participation.
Additionally, PetitFoxx bagged the single largest prize money awarded so far, taking home a whopping $53,383.12 in winnings and the Super High Rollers title.
More events are left to run in the next couple of days to conclude the first APT Online Series in poker history. The final APT Championships event is highly anticipated with a huge guarantee of $250,000 and a more expensive buy-in of $800. The last Super High Rollers event with a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000 and a buy-in of $5,000 is also set to run this coming Thursday.
