HomeAnd the Asian Poker Tour Player of the Year 2015 title goes to the immortal SAM RAZAVI! Truly impressive! Once again, Razavi has dominated the APT POY leader board, winning 7 titles and cashing in 27 point-generating events this year. That’s nearly double the numbers he posted last year. Despite not having an APT Main Event title under his belt, Razavi has swept the rankings, tallied 2905.10 points, to capture his fourth consecutive APT POY title.
Sam Razavi receives the 2015 APT POY Trophy and Plaque of Recognition from APT Tournament Director Lloyd Fontillas
We tracked down this jovial and amazing Englishman for a chat about his incredible achievement at the APT 2015.
APT: Congratulations Sam! We gotta know, what does it take to win the APT POY title four years in a row?
Sam: It takes dedication and commitment. Like all good things, like a relationship, I suppose. You have to take the rough with the smooth. If you want to win something like this, you have to be committed to every stop whether you like it or not. As for myself, there were a lot of people congratulating me at the start of the week and also when I was ahead 700 points after Cebu, but the one thing about me is I never count it as over. I knew coming into today I was 390 points clear and Iori still had a chance, but until it is mathematically impossible, it doesn’t count. You just have to never give up and never get complacent. Even after you have the lead like I did in Cebu, you just can’t sit back. For me, even if I were 10,000 points clear, I would keep going. After Cebu, I felt more confident because the start of the year was rough with Lester just destroying it, it made me feel kinda insecure especially knowing that a lot of stops were in the Philippines and he could get more points. But after Cebu, despite having 700 points clear, and this is a testament to how good Iori is coz he wins the opening event in Manila and a few other events points and suddenly, he is right there back at me. Having that 700 point lead at that stage of the year is really hard to catch against any player so it only goes to show how tough Iori is in competition, how good he is coz in just one stop, I am back in life support.
APT: Would you say then that he was your most feared player this year?
Sam: Well yeah but there are also a couple of regulars like Kai. He is always there. I think is probably the most unlucky player with regards to the race. I mean, I have been on many tables where I’ve seen and have administered some suck outs against him. Even this week there were some key hands that could have gotten him the third spot. So definitely Kai, Jojo, Lester, but I know that Lester is tied up in some good cash games so that gave me a breather. I think Iori was the toughest because out of everyone, he was the one who really wanted it. At the first stop in Prague, it was funny coz I was playing a side event and there were three of us left, and I must have had 95 percent of the chips in play and it was top two paid. I was literally just waiting and Iori doubled up twice against me and then suddenly I busted and he went on to win it. I remembered walking and wondered to myself if the difference of this race would be those points. If he ran better this week, it would have been. Thankfully I just ran better than him. He really fought the most and had the best chance. He was really pressing hard so he definitely was the one I feared the most.
APT: For someone who multi-tables a lot, we noticed you did not attend the Main Event, why was that?
Sam: It was purely strategic on my part. Again this is a testament to how good Iori is because no one has ever dictated the tournaments I play, but it was my decision purely going into the series that I was going to miss the main event. I was surprised that Iori didn’t do the same but he plays more sensibly so he plays where the payout is higher. If he went fifth, he probably would have won the race. But to really try and lock up the race, I had to focus purely on the side events. If I played the Main Event, I would have missed 7-8 side events. I think it was a good shot by me coz I picked up points along the way, cashed in several tournaments. If I played the Main Event, and missed those points, I would have had a massive sweat.
APT: How does it feel to win your fourth consecutive APT POY title?
Sam: It feels amazing. I’ve kinda been handcuffed to the APT, maybe it’s my OCD, but I feel like I have to keep going until I lose the race. We’ve been discussing whether to move to England or move somewhere but at the moment it kinda ties around the APT. I feel like I’ve done it, I feel like I want to keep beating that record until I can’t anymore. And then I can slow down a bit. It feels really good. Every year I set a new target and this year it was 3,000 points but I fell a hundred shy I think, a bit sad, but I tried. (He laughs)
APT: One more question, will you shoot for a fifth?
Sam: A hundred percent for sure. The first year it was good. The second year I thought come what may but then I won that too, and then I thought, there’s always a triple crown so I have to go for that. And then we go into the fourth year and it’s like come what may again, but then I get a fourth. So coming into the fifth year, I’m thinking five, that’s a round number, that’s half a decade, so that’s another milestone so I think I really have to go for it (laughs).
APT: Thank you Sam and congratulations again!
A big congratulatory shout out… Congratulations Sam! He takes home these great APT prizes:
- 2015 APT Player of the Year Trophy
- US$ 10,000 worth of Asian Poker Tour Main Event buy ins at an event of his choice
- Customized APT jacket
- Worldwide recognition as 2015 APT Player of the Year through APT Marketing
- Featured in Asian Poker Tour 2016 Player booklets
APT POY 3rd placer John Tech, APT POY 2nd placer Iori Yogo, APT TD Lloyd Fontillas and APT Quadruple POY Sam Razavi
Ending the year in 2nd place was Japan’s Iori Yogo. He accumulated 2,584 points with 6 titles and 22 ITM’s. Yogo wins one Main Event seat valued up to $2,700.
Coming in third was Filipino poker pro John Tech with 3 titles (one of which was the APT Asian Poker Series Cebu Main Event), and 9 ITM’s. He accumulated 1,838.07 points. He wins one Asian Poker Tour Main Event seat valued up to $1,100.
Congratulations to the top three players in the leader board and especially to Sam Razavi for surpassing his previous stats and claiming his fourth consecutive APT POY title!