Top stories of the APT Noumea 2017; Andre Moracchini reigns

Off the South Pacific, poker festivals in the pristine islands of New Caledonia may only come by a couple of times a year however this tiny French territory does see some action. Last year, the Asian Poker Tour held its first event in Noumea, the capital city of the country, and as expected many locals jumped at this rare occasion.

Last week, from October 20 -29, 2017, the APT returned to New Caledonia for its second visit and once again, it was a strong showing of locals burning up the felt. That’s not to say that APT regulars were nowhere to be found. A loyal following of Japanese players did trek over to the island to participate.

Below are the highlights of the recently concluded APT Noumea 2017.

Andre Moracchini wins the Main Event and Player of the Series

Last year, New Caledonia’s #2 ranked player Andre Moracchini got on the board with two deep side event runs but with others performing better, the spotlight didn’t shine much on his achievements. This year, all that changed. Moracchini demolished the competition winning multiple events including the prestigious Main Event for XPF 2,154,500 (~USD21,000), the single largest payout of the festival.

Briefly touching upon the XPF 110,000 Main Event, Moracchini was well in charge, entering the Final 8 table out of 85 entries with the largest stack. By the time it reached the heads up round, his lead grew even larger to easily finish off Jean Pierre Gauvan in 2nd place.

Prior to closing out the festival with this huge victory, Moracchini first took command of the earlier games. He returned to the Head Hunter scene and improved on last year’s 3rd place finish. He defeated Olivia Andre at the heads up round to deny her a back-to-back title.

At the Monster Stack event, Moracchini defended his 2016 title by impressively overcoming the 59-entry field. Days later, he nearly picked up a third side event title but was stopped in 2nd place by USA’s Jymmie Briggs Jr at the No Limit Hold’em Two-Day event.

For his incredible performance, Moracchini was awarded the ultimate title of the event, the APT Player of the Series champion. In total, he earned XPF 4,022,900 (~USD39,200).

Main Event Payouts

1^stAndre Moracchini (New Caledonia) – XPF 154,500
2^ndJean Pierre Gauvan (New Caledonia) – XPF 1,315,500
3^rdTeva Tevita (New Caledonia) – XPF 951,400
4^thPierre Aignelot (New Caledonia) – XPF 729,800
5^thRobert Saggio (New Caledonia) – XPF 626,900
6^thEric Perron (New Caledonia) – XPF 541,400
7^thEnrick Fandoux (New Caledonia) – XPF 470,200
8^thLaurent Madrias (New Caledonia – XPF 413,200
9^thJymmie Briggs Jr. (USA) – XPF 374,000
10^thOlivier Bonnace (New Caledonia) – XPF 338,700

Roger Pomarede and Jymmie Briggs Jr take 2nd and 3rd of the APT POS

The other two players taking home APT Player of the Series trophies were New Caledonia’s Roger Pomarede in 2nd place and USA’s Jymmie Briggs Jr. in 3rd place.

Pomarede placed 2nd at the Monster Stack, 2nd at the Pot Limit Omaha 1, 4th at the Pot Limit Omaha 2, and 5th at the Welcome Event.

As for Briggs, he got off to a late start, winning the No Limit Hold’em Two-Day event, a 3rd place berth at the No Limit Hold’em Turbo, and a 9th place finish at the Main Event.

Mario Yuen Kwong Lau wins the Welcome Event

The festival kicked off with the XPF 44,000 Welcome Event. With 89 entries in total this turned out to be the largest field of the series. Local player Mario Lau topped the competition and earned the lion’s share of XPF 930,300 (~USD9,000) out of the XPF3.5M prize pool.

Tetsuya Tsuchikawa continues to lead 2017 APT POY race

Japanese pro Tetsuya Tsuchikawa walked away with two cashes at the APT Noumea 2017 finishing 2nd at the WeLoveSport.com Deepstack Turbo and 3rd at the PLO 2 event. With these two deep runs, he protected his lead in the APT POY race and has a total of 1,212.75 points. Tsuchikawa is 329.61 points ahead of second position Yoichi Uesugi who sits with 883.14 points.

Article by Triccia David