Wrapping up a great start to the year are Asia Pacific’s biggest winners this month of January, having bested the toughest contenders and top tier fields of the season. Thai pro Punnat Punsri gained global recognition as he jump started his 2022 career with not one, but two high roller tournament wins in Las Vegas. Australian phenom Michael Addamo on the other hand, captured his record fifth Super MILLION$ title while India’s Sriharsha Doddapaneni clutched his first World Series of Poker ring from the recent Winter Online Circuit both at Natural8 – GGNetwork. Aside from these impressive wins, high stakes regular Paul Phua similarly claimed a hefty score after taking down CoinPoker’s biggest $100,000 buy-in event just a few days ago.
Punnat Punsri takes down back-to-back high roller events at the Venetian
The first week of the year proved to be highly rewarding for poker player Punnat Punsri as he shipped back-to-back tournaments at the Venetian’s PokerGO Tour while scooping up two six-figure scores. The first event of the Venetian High Roller, $10,000 NLH event attracted 34 entries where Punsri emerged as the champion following a heads up deal with nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
| Rank | Player | Payout (USD) |
| 1 | Punnat Punsri | $118,037* |
| 2 | Erik Seidel | $106,363* |
| 3 | Barry Hutter | $54,400 |
| 4 | Alex Foxen | $37,400 |
| 5 | Jake Schindler | $23,800 |
With $118,037 in winnings in the bag, Punsri carried on the next day to also take down the second $10,000 NLH event of the series, this time for a slightly bigger payout. The 37-entry field tournament awarded Punsri his best live cash of $133,200 after beating American pro Chris Brewer in heads up play. A dazzling way to pump up his fresh entrance into the US high roller tournament scene, Punsri raked in a total of $251,237 in earnings to boost his career live cashes to $584,145 according to The Hendon Mob. With a long way to go for 2022, poker fans can expect to see more of Thailand’s bet in major live international events especially with a healthier bankroll in possession.
| Rank | Player | Payout (USD) |
| 1 | Punnat Punsri | $133,200 |
| 2 | Chris Brewer | $88,800 |
| 3 | Masashi Oya | $59,200 |
| 4 | Andrew Lichtenberger | $40,700 |
| 5 | John Flynt | $29,600 |
| 6 | Barry Hutter | $18,500 |
Michael Addamo bags career fifth Super MILLION$ title
Considered one of the best MTT players in the world today, Australia’s Michael Addamo once again lived up to the title having captured his record career fifth Super MILLION$ victory on the GGNetwork. The unstoppable pro not only took home $518,640 for his outstanding effort but also broke the network’s best standing tie with the series’ four-time champion Niklas Astedt. Boosting his profits from this weekly tournament alone, Addamo’s recent victory puts his cashes at over $3.5 million to date.
Season 2 Episode 26 of the Super MILLION$ franchise saw Addamo at full speed from start to finish, chip lead in hand as he entered the final table. Already favored to win, Addamo successfully racked up an even bigger stack early on as he eliminated second in chips Tyler “TheRayGuy” Cornell with flopped set Tens against Cornell’s overpair Aces. It didn’t take long for players to head for the exit one after the other with both Addamo and Silva responsible for most of those eliminations. After roughly 90 minutes of play, the duo faced each other for the half a million dollar payout with Addamo holding a narrow lead over the Brazilian. In the end, the final hand saw Silva’s stack in the middle with pocket Jacks against the Aussie’s Ace-King. With an ace showing on the turn, Addamo clutched the win leaving Silva to settle for runner-up finish and a $399,926 payday.
GGPoker Super MILLION$ Final Table
| Rank | Player | Country | Payout (USD) |
| 1 | Michael Addamo | Canada | $518,640 |
| 2 | Pablo Silva | Brazil | $399,926 |
| 3 | Mario Mosboeck | Austria | $308,385 |
| 4 | spaise411 | Russia | $237,797 |
| 5 | JukeZonYou | Austria | $183,367 |
| 6 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Austria | $141,395 |
| 7 | Wenjie Huang | China | $109,030 |
| 8 | Jeff “DollarVig” Berwick | Canada | $84,074 |
| 9 | Tyler “TheRayGuy” Cornell | Mexico | $64,830 |
Sriharsha Doddapaneni captures first WSOPC ring
Indian pro Sriharsha Doddapaneni locked up his career first World Series of Poker Circuit ring after winning the $1,050 GGMasters HR Freezeout NLH for a notable score of $219,808. The online beast additionally claimed an exclusive LiveX Sponsorship which includes a $10,000 Las Vegas Package ($2,500 Travel Expense + $7,500 buy-ins) and membership for six months to LiveX Crew for his sweet run. Doddapaneni’s total network winnings reached well above $1.7 million with his largest recorded win to be a third place finish at the 2021 WSOP Online [International] Double Stack NLH for $ 357,409.
The two-day Ring event saw 1,716 players gunning for the coveted prize with only 287 seeing a piece of the US$ 1,716,000 prize pool. By the final day, 47 players were left in contention, with Bulgaria’s Lachezar “Psychedelica” Petkov leading the pack. However, the end game saw Doddapaneni emerge triumphant over Petkov for India’s second WSOPC Ring for the series.
Ring #17: GGMasters HR Freezeout Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Payout (USD) |
| 1 | Sriharsha “Upswinger” Doddapaneni | India | $219,808 |
| 2 | Lachezar “Psychedelica” Petkov | Bulgaria | $164,832 |
| 3 | Gheorghe Butuc | Moldova | $123,606 |
| 4 | Aleksandr “gipotenuza” Ovechkin | Russia | $92,692 |
| 5 | “Gottcha” | UK | $69,509 |
| 6 | “TUTUTUTUTUTUTU” | China | $52,124 |
| 7 | Damir “Shershnyaga” Gabdullin | Russia | $39,087 |
| 8 | “PUYA” | Canada | $29,311 |
| 9 | “gogyimogyi” | Hungary | $21,980 |
Paul Phua wins $100K buy-in CoinPoker tournament
A revolutionary blockchain technology-based platform, CoinPoker has been gaining the poker community’s full attention as it not only broke the record for the biggest online poker pot in history a few weeks ago, but has also concluded its biggest $100,000 buy-in NLH event last Friday. The High Roller $100K Special garnered 14 entries and 4 re-buys for a total prize pool of $1.728 million. With such a small field, only three fortunate winners made the money and Malaysian regular Paul Phua bagging the $864,000 top prize.
Following the win, CoinPoker quickly posted on its official social media page saying “We’re not done yet. More coming up soon. Keep following and playing #pokeronline with CoinPoker”. With that said, players can look forward to an exciting weekend MTT schedule geared for the site’s cryptocurrency user-base.
https://twitter.com/CoinPoker_OFF/status/1487127081938927617
