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It has been a fantastic nine days of poker festivities at the Asian Poker Tour Kickoff 2016 with over 330 poker players in attendance, representing 23 countries from around the world. Throughout the entire festival, there were a total of 1,313 entries in the books and close to P20M in cash prizes awarded.
A newcomer to the APT scene, Thailand’s Thong Botho, bagged the Main Event title. He was awarded P1,660,000, the largest cash prize won at the festival. He also took home the Main Event trophy and the first-ever APT Championship Ring.
The APT Kickoff 2016 also saw a lot of trophies go to highly recognized players and regulars in the APT circuit. Korea’s Soo Jo Kim won three events, namely, the Head Hunter, Greed NLH, and the High Rollers. He also cashed in the Battle of the Nations event. Incidentally, at the Main Event, Kim was the unfortunate bubble boy but since he availed of the first-ever introduced Main Event Bubble Protection (one of APT’s newest incentive), he was awarded a free entry to the next APT Main Event of the same buy-in.
Another player who captured multiple trophies was Vietnam’s Julien Tran. He won the WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo and the Monster Stack.
Quadruple crown APT Player of the Year 2012-2015 champion Samad Razavi also had a great run at the festival. He profited in a total of 5 events, one of which was a first place finish at the 6 Handed Turbo.
Out of all the players, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa had the most number of ITM’s, cashing in an impressive 6 events. At the Main Event, Tsuchikawa finished in a respectable 3rd place. Although he didn’t claim a trophy at the festival, Tsuchikawa accumulated 654.20 points, making him the current leader in APT POY 2016 standings.
Other side event winners crowned tonight were Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan for the NLH Freezeout event and Filipino player Daryl Lee for the Deep Stack Hyper Turbo event.
That wraps up the APT Kickoff 2016! Thank you to everyone who came out to support our event and we hope to see you all in February at the Okinawa Poker Cup (APT accredited event) and at the APT Cebu!