Monday was a landmark day in the poker world as the first-ever World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) bracelet was awarded at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. It was perhaps fitting, too, that the inaugural WSOP APAC bracelet was in a tournament format that was also making its initial run: the Accumulator Event. Taking the title was American Bryan Piccioli, who won AU $211,575 (approximately USD $220,419) just a couple days shy of his 24th birthday.
Piccioli has made his name in the poker world as a top online pro, having earned over $5 million in online tournament cashes in his young career under the screen name “theczar19” (and now “enterthewu19” on Full Tilt Poker). He has begun building his live tournament resume more and more lately, cashing five times in the 2012 World Series of Poker, including a final table appearance in one of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em events. In all, he had eight WSOP cashes before his WSOP APAC win, three European Poker Tour (EPT) cashes, and one World Poker Tour (WPT) cash. With his latest win, the New Yorker has eclipsed $600,000 in live tournament earnings.
In the Accumulator event, players were allowed to enter any of the three starting flights. The difference between this and other multiple day one events or even re-entry events was that players could play in as many of the starting flights as they wanted, regardless of whether or not they had previously busted and they got to keep all of the chips they earned across all starting days when beginning Day 2. In Piccioli’s case, it was fortunate that this was an Accumulator event. He was unable to take advantage of the chance to add chips from more than one starting flight, but just the opportunity to re-enter was important for him, as he failed to make it through both Day 1A and Day 1B.
Piccioli went into the final table as the chip leader with 790,000 chips, giving him a healthy lead over 2010 WSOP Main Event Champ Jonathan Duhamel, who had 537,000. Lurking in fourth place with 447,000 was another man familiar with WSOP pressure, Jeremy Ausmus, who placed fifth in the 2012 WSOP Main Event. While Piccioli didn’t go wire-to-wire at the final table, he was always at or near the top of the chip ranks and made it to heads-up play against Jonathan Karamalikis fairly easily, holding a 2.022 million to 1.249 million chip lead.
The crowd was decidedly pro-Karamalikis, as he represented the host country, and anyone who remembers Joe Hachem’s run at the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event knows how loud Aussies can be at final tables. The home favorite made a surge early to pull closer in chips, but he soon fell back again and Piccioli’s win became inevitable. On the final hand, the two got into a pre-flop raising war before Piccioli moved all-in with A-8. Karamalikis made the call with pocket Tens and after the first four community cards were 9-4-3-5, it looked like he was going to double-up, but the 2 on the river gave Piccioli the wheel and his first WSOP bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific Event #1: $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator – Final Table Results
1. Bryan Piccioli – $211,575
2. Jonathan Karamalikis – $130,743
3. Jay Loo – $96,305
4. Jonathan Duhamel – $71,870
5. Jeremy Ausmus – $54,337
6. Graeme Putt – $41,610
7. Iori Yogo – $32,268
8. Peter Kleugden – $25,335
9. Ryan Otto – $20,138
