HomeThe APT Vietnam completed its inaugural day at the Ho Tram Resort Casino with a very successful turnout of players for the first two events of the 8-day poker festival. During the opening ceremony, the President of the Ho Tram Resort Casino, Shaun McCamley, expressed in his welcome speech,
“…the numbers have been fantastic. It has exceeded our expectations… we certainly are very honored and privileged the Asian Poker Tour has chosen Ho Tram Resort Casino as its first destination in Vietnam…”
In the photo L-R: Lloyd Fontillas – Tournament Director of APT, Andrew Scott – CEO of WPE, Michael Mariakis – COO of WPE, Shaun McCamley – President of Ho Tram Resort Casino, Enrico Dovadola – Director of Gaming Operations of Ho Tram Resort Casino, George Lazenby – Casino Manager of Ho Tram Resort Casino and Jeff Mann – CEO of APT
The day began with 71 entrants for the Welcome to APT Vietnam No Limit Holdem (Event 1). Due to the crossover in schedule, the event was cut short to 8 levels with 38 players resuming tomorrow at 1pm. Among those were some very active players in the APT circuit such as Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, Lester Edoc, Azusa Maeda, Yuri Ishida, Ben Abrahams, and APT Player of the Year from 2012-2014, Samad Razavi, to mention a few.
An interesting bit of news, well-known poker pro, Phong Nguyen aka Turbo, was also in the field, returning to Vietnam to compete for the first time right here in his hometown of Ho Tram. Turbo will be returning tomorrow to try to capture the first event of the festival.
In the photo L-R: Operation Smile Representative, Ante Up for Charity Champion Rob Kiss, WPE CEO Andrew Scott and APT CEO Jeff Mann
The Ante Up for Charity Hyper-Turbo (Event 2), a benefit for Operation Smile Vietnam, turned up an applaudable 47 entrants, setting a new record for this event. A total of $2,350 was generated for the charity organization, which was rounded off to $3,000 by APT, and then matched dollar-for-dollar by World Players Entertainment (WPE) for a total of $6,000 raised for Operation Smile Vietnam.
We would like to thank all the players and staff who joined us in making the inaugural day a great success! We would also like to congratulate Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss for winning the Ante-Up for Charity Hyper-Turbo event.
See you all tomorrow at the Ho Tram Resort Casino for more APT Vietnam festivities.
Payouts for the Ante Up for Charity:
1st – Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss (USA) – $1,870
2nd – Yuri Ishida (Japan) – $1,180
3rd – Ben Abrahams (Australia) – $710
4th – Hendrik Johannes Appel (South Africa) – $520
5th – Justin Quinton Lowe (South Africa) – $420