HomeThe Asian Poker Tour’s battle of attrition has started. Aside from the poker skills, patience and perseverance are two necessities here at the Level 2 Premier Club of Resorts World Manila for the APT-RWM Iron Man Poker Challenge.
Starting with a deep stack of 100,000 in chips and with a complete and concise structure, the participants in the event which aims to break the Guinness World Records “Longest Continuous Poker Tournament” have every bit of chance—and time—to consider and reconsider how far they would want to go in this one-of-a-kind tournament.
Local and international stars alike came down to play with high hopes that it is their name that is etched into the record books.
The list includes 2012 APT Player of the Year Samad Razavi, who is well on his way to back-to-back APT Player of the Year awards with a near insurmountable lead in the 2013 race. Other top players in the APT POY race are also playing in the Iron Man event like Carmen Esdaile, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Kristian Faering who rank second to fourth, respectively in the 2013 rankings thus far.
Notables who have signed up for the US $700 buy-in tournament include recently crowned APT Asian Series Manila Champion Czardy Rivera, Norbert Koh, Liam Anderson, SJ Kim, Jose Drilon, Ben Abrahams, Iori Yogo, Lester Edoc, Han Wook Kim, Jav Medina and Ian Marcos among many others.
APT Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mann was happy with the turnout, which was at 115 entries and was proud that APT has once again become the front-runner in trying out non-traditional tournament formats.
RWM Chief Gaming Operations Officer Hakan Dagtas with APT CEO Jeff Mann to kick off the APT-RWM Iron Man Poker Challenge Main Event
“I think APT always had a reputation for introducing new things to the tournament, trying to make it more interesting. We thought that (the Iron Man event) was a very interesting idea and something that players could have fun (with) plus we want to break the record,” said Mann, who also promised similar APT events in the near future. “As APT I think is known for; we’re the first to try out these things.”
Before the end of registration, here are some of the estimated chip counts of some of the players with the leading stacks:
Lim Shyh Chyn – 190K
Sam Razavi – 145K
Isabel Bernal – 170K
Kristian Faering – 140K
Manuel Regis – 155K
Tan Chong Meng – 180K
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – 145K
Nominel Maturan – 145K
Ian Marcos – 200K
The champion of this event will receive the lion’s share $18,240 from the total prize pool of $71,400. 18 players will make the money.
To satisfy the Guinness World Records’ requirement and to assure the integrity of the event, cameras were installed around the tournament areas with the event being recorded 24/7. Officials from the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and independent auditors were also invited to be “witnesses” for the duration of the event.
The target and current record is at 36 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds which was established in Delaware, USA in 2012. This means that the runners playing today will have to keep grinding out until Sunday, December 15th at 8:34:41 a.m. to break the feat.
Others who have missed out on registering for the record-breaking attempt can still join two side events over the weekend. The High Rollers Event is scheduled at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and the No Limit Hold’em event is at 1:00 p.m. Sunday. For full details, visit APT-RWM Iron Man Poker Challenge Event Page.