Tetsuya Tsuchikawa on fire at the APT Macau 2017, wins APT Player of the Series
While Las Vegas sizzles with the WSOP back in town, on the other side of the globe its Asian counterpart also experienced a little fire of its own with the Asian Poker Tour back in the Las Vegas of the East for the APT Macau 2017. This latest festival ran a course of nine days, from June 14th– June 22nd, at the Macau Billionaire Poker room in Babylon Casino with several pros and new faces earning their moment in the spotlight. The biggest star however was Japanese pro Tetsuya Tsuchikawa. His multiple deep finishes earned him the highest recognition of all, the APT Player of Series.
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa capitalizes on five events
Taking a detailed look at Tetsuya Tsuchikawa’s performance at the APT Macau 2017, he pooled in a total of five cashes, two of which were title berths. For starters, he hit the ground running at the Opening Event placing 6thout of 139 entries, then he jumped right into the Ante Up for Charity event. By the end of the night, he was receiving his first trophy of the series standing happily on the podium beside India’s Zurvan Tumboli who topped the opener.
Two days later, Tsuchikawa landed his third final table, this time at the Head Hunter event. He finished 8thout of 59 players, with Indian player Manoj Penatakota earning the throne. A short acknowledgment on the winner, Pentakota may be a fairly newcomer to the APT but he is no stranger to winning. This year alone, Pentakota has already championed two events from the Deltin Poker Tour.
All loosened up, Tsuchikawa took a stab at the highlight tournament, the APT Main Event, however his run ended in Day 2, just before the final two tables. No sweat, he dove back into the action once again and nearly secured a second title at the No Limit Hold’em 2 event. He was stopped short in 2ndplace by Jason Pek Loy Kwan. On the last day of the festival, it was all smiles for the Japanese pro who reigned at the 6 Handed Turbo event, dusting a field of 23 entries.
In total, Tsuchikawa earned HKD 84,800 (US$10,873) for his impressive performance and became the newest APT Player of the Series champion.
Other big winners at the APT Macau 2017
We mentioned earlier, Zurvan Tumboli, the winner of the Opening Event. Tumboli blew through a field of 139 entries, the largest showing at the series. He earned HKD 74,300 (US$ 9,527.53).
| Rank | Name | Prize |
| 1 | ZurvanTumboli | 74,300.00 |
| 2 | RyotaHisayama | 43,500.00 |
| 3 | YuanhangZhong | 30,100.00 |
| 4 | FatCheongWong | 22,000.00 |
| 5 | WeiTso | 18,200.00 |
| 6 | TetsuyaTsuchikawa | 15,000.00 |
| 7 | KengLonCheong | 12,400.00 |
| 8 | SangjunLee | 10,300.00 |
| 9 | RyoNishihara | 8,900.00 |
Apart from the largest attendance, the player who shipped in the largest payout was the Main Event champion, Choong Kian Weng from Malaysia. His utter domination at the final heads up round earned him the title and the HKD 521,000 (US$66,808) first place purse.
| Rank | Name | Prize |
| 1 | ChoongKianWeng | 521,000.00 |
| 2 | HienVanDang | 304,800.00 |
| 3 | ShravanChhabria | 211,000.00 |
| 4 | OliverFortea | 153,900.00 |
| 5 | IwakuraHajime | 127,400.00 |
| 6 | PengfeiLiu | 105,000.00 |
| 7 | XinhaoXu | 86,700.00 |
| 8 | KilianLoffler | 72,400.00 |
| 9 | HenrikTollefsen | 62,200.00 |
Japanese pro Kosei Ichinose went head-to-head against Vietnamese pro Linh Tran for the High Rollers title and just before he claimed it, he told Tran, “I can’t lose”. He then proceeded to control the felt and capture the HKD 248,000 (US$31,800) first prize. Ichinose also placed 3rd at the Monster Stack event to bring his earnings over HKD 300K.
| Rank | Name | Prize |
| 1 | KoseiIchinose | 248,000.00 |
| 2 | LinhTran | 178,000.00 |
| 3 | ZhangWeiyi | 156,000.00 |
Article by Triccia David
More: APT Macau 2017 – Official Results
