HomeAfter a stellar performance at the final table, the Asian Poker Tour Kickoff 2016 Main Event championship title went to Thailand’s Thong Botho! This is Botho’s first appearance at the APT, and what a first experience it was. He won the P1,660,000 first place purse, the Main Event championship trophy, and the first-ever APT Championship Ring.
APT Kick Off 2016 Main Event Champion, Thong Botho
On a quick chat with the champion, we asked Botho about his experience at the APT and he expressed,
“Oh, this is great! I had so much fun. At the table, I noticed that there were a lot of players from different countries and different ages, I really enjoyed playing with such a great variety.”
Botho entered the final 8 with the largest stack and continued to amass more when he railed Filipino player Terry Gonzaga in 7th place. He then followed it up with a big pot takedown against Korea’s Seung Soo Jeon on a board of 10♣ 3♣ 7♥ 9♠ 6♦. The biggest change up in the game however happened at four-handed with Germany’s Julius Malzanini momentarily taking the chip lead after railing Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim in 5th place. Malzanini also won several big pots after that against Jeon. Botho reclaimed the chip lead in one of the most crucial hands he had against Malzanini. Botho commented,
“Julius was a really tough player. When he had the chip lead, it changed the game but when I won against him with a queen-high board, I had so many chips. It changed from there because he lost a pot to Jeon after that too. ”
Botho tanked Malzanini on two big pots, the first one was on a board of 7♦ 6♥ Q♣ J♦ K♦, the other was on a board of Q♠ 3♥ 10♦ J♣ 2♥. After that, Botho had over half of the chips in play.
When Malzanini was eliminated in 4th place, Botho had a dominating lead against Jeon and Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa. With his stack, he shoved repeatedly making it very diffiucult for Jeon and Tsuchikawa to earn more chips. He eventually eliminated Tsuchikawa in 3rd place to face Jeon at heads up with an 11:1 chip advantage. His thoughts on Jeon,
“Jeon was one of the toughest to play. I played against him yesterday and he is unpredictable so it was difficult playing him.”
Jeon was able to double up once with his ace-ten against Botho’s queen-four, but no further. Botho eliminated Jeon with his pocket nines and bagged the APT Kickoff 2016 Main Event championship.
Main Event Champion Thong Botho with the Runner-Up Jeon Seung Soo
Botho will be out celebrating with friends tonight but he told us he was looking forward to playing the APT again, not just in Manila, but also at the different locations all over Asia.
Congratulations to Thong Botho for his victory at the APT Kickoff 2016 Main Event!
Final 8 Payouts:
1st Thong Botho – Thailand – P1,660,000
2nd Jeon Seung Soo – Korea – P972,000
3rd Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – Japan – P673,000
4th Julius Malzanini – Germany – P491,000
5th Dong Hyun Kim – Korea – P406,000
6th Byeongcheol Kim – Korea – P335,000
7th Terry Gonzaga – Philippines – P276,000
8th Jim Bonanno – Guam – P231,000
Live updates on all the action at the final table can be found in the Live Reporting section of the website.