The Asian Poker Tour just wrapped up its tournament in Macau, which is just outside of Hong Kong. The winner, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, took home USD $500,000 and the top 40 spots paid out. The televised final table featured an unorthodox eight members: Timoshenko was fourth in chips entering it with 318,000, trailing Casey Kastle’s first place stack of 456,000 chips. It marked one of the largest live tournaments ever held in Asia and was one of four events that make up this year’s edition of the Asian Poker Tour.
When the smoke cleared, here were the standings for the APT Macau:
- 1st Place: Yevgeniy Timoshenko, $500,000
- 2nd Place: Joon Hee Yea, $250,000
- 3rd Place: Rober Karian, $126,000
- 4th Place: Casey Kastle, $90,000
- 5th Place: Julio Diaz. $67,500
- 6th Place: Quang Nguyen, $52,500
- 7th Place: Chong Wing Cheong, $37,500
- 8th Place: Michael Pedley, $26,250
Despite the invitation, United States Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was not in attendance at the tournament. However, a wealth of brand name players turned out for the APT Macau, including Doyle Brunson and Todd Brunson. Doyle is the owner of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets and was the Main Event Champion in 1976 and 1977. His son, Todd, is one of the faces on Brunson’s website, Doyle’s Room, and won his first (and only) WSOP bracelet in a $2,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Eight or Better event in 2005. He first cashed in the WSOP all the way back in 1992.
Play started around Noon local time on August 28th. By 4:15pm, both Brunsons were headed towards the exit. Johnny Chan, who is also the owner of 10 WSOP bracelets, was busted on Day 1A by Carter Gill. Chan’s online poker room, Chan Poker, recently closed its doors. With the elimination of Brunson and Chan, 20 WSOP bracelets were sent packing from the APT Macau.
Nam Le was ousted from the tournament on Day 1A. He’s accrued nearly $800,000 from 15 WSOP cashes. Also hitting the rails were WSOP November Nine member David “Chino” Rheem, 2006 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker winner J.C. Tran, and APT Philippines Champion David Saab. Every one of APT Macau’s “featured players” was eliminated on Day 1A.
On Day 1B, Huck Seed was eliminated from the Macau event. Seed was the 1996 Main Event Champion and holds four WSOP bracelets. He’s pocketed well over $2.4 million from WSOP play. John Juanda and Kenny Tran also hit the rails on Day 1B. Better fortunes were in store for Mel Judah and J.J. Liu, both of whom made Day 2. The APT Macau also featured a HK $1 million (US $130,000) high-stakes cash game. Todd Brunson, Juanda, Le, and Tran all partook in the festivities. The blinds were HK $3,000/$6,000.
On the very last hand of the APT Macau, Hee Yea’s K-Q was defeated by Timoshenko’s pocket queens. Next up for the Asian Poker Tour is the APT Seoul event, the dates for which have still not been announced. Following that will be APT Singapore. Those two events will be hard-pressed to beat the star-studded lineup in Macau, where Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion gave the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” command. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the APT.
