HomeClosing day of APT Korea Seoul 2019 was very exciting with the Final 8 players of the CHAMPIONSHIPS EVENT back at Grand Walkerhill Paradise Casino for the ultimate race to the prestigious title. This was the first time the tour brought the Championships Event to Seoul. Rising to victory was Thailand’s Punnat Punsri to bag the title, the APT Golden Lion Trophy, the APT Championship Ring, and a hefty KRW 60,430,000 (~USD 51,000) in cold hard cash.
Punnat Punsri
Final 8 rundown
Punnat Punsri began his day in a very strong third position, he was just a few chips away from the million marker. Ahead of him were Japanese players Shoma Ishikawa and Masaki Fujitani. Ishikawa was chip leader, a position he also held at the start of Day 3, while Fujitani was looking to surpass his 5th place result at last year’s featured APT Korea Seoul Main Event.
Tumbling first was Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Avbakikov in 8th place. He entered as one of the shortest stacks and couldn’t bring it up any further. Avbakikov had a great run at the series cashing in three events, two of which were victories.
Falling next was USA pro Daniel H. Lee in 7th place. The day’s entering chip leaders followed. First was Fujitani in 6th place then the red hot Ishikawa was stopped in his tracks in 5th place.
Impressively bringing his stack up from the shortest of 8 bbs was China’s Peng Meng Dian. He bowed out in 4th place. USA’s Andrew An was bumped out in 3rd place in a sick bad beat against Punsri. An’s pocket aces were crushed by K-5 when it flopped and turned a five for trips to Punsri.
This brought about the heads up round between Punsri and Kaixiang Ye. Punsri prevailed and became the first-ever APT Championships Event winner in Seoul.
Final 8 payouts
1st Punnat Punsri – Thailand – KRW 60,430,000
2nd Kaixiang Ye – China – KRW 40,268,000
3rd Andrew An – USA – KRW 28,006,000
4th Peng Meng Dian – China – KRW 20,228,000
5th Shoma Ishikawa – Japan – KRW 15,128,000
6th Masaki Fujitani – Japan KRW 11,675,000
7th Daniel Lee – USA – KRW 9,271,000
8th Daniyar Avbakikov – Kazakhstan – KRW 7,554,000
The first-ever APT Korea Seoul 2019 – CHAMPIONSHIPS EVENT ran from June 5 to 9. Over the course of registration, 124 signed up with each one contributing a buy-in of KRW 1,980,000. This produced a guarantee smashing prize pool of KRW 216,486,000 (~US$ 183,000) of which 18 players earned a cut.
Full APT Korea Seoul 2019 results