Macau – China – 31st August 2008 – 20-year-old Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a highly rated player from the United States of Ukrainian descent tonight made history by winning the APT Macau, Asia’s largest guaranteed tournament at the glamourous Galaxy StarWorld. 257 players from over 40 countries lined-up for a GUARANTEED prize pool of US$1.5 million and GUARANTEED first prize of US$500,000 – a landmark for the development of poker in Asia.
Timoshenko was first for $500,00 and Joon Hee Yea from South Korea finished second and won $250,000. In third place was Rober Karian from Thailand, who won $126,000 and Casey Kastle from the United States finished fourth. In fifth was Julio Diaz from Spain, sixth was Quang Nguyen from Vietnam, who won US$52,000 and seventh Chong Wing Cheong from Hong Kong who won US$37,500. Eighth place went to Michael Pedley of Australia. These players trimphed in a field which featured some of the greatest names in the game including the legendary Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Liz Lieu, J.C Tran, Kenny Tran, John Juanda, Nam Le, Quinn Do, Steve Sung, David ‘Chino’ Rheems and APT Manila champion David Saab. The event, which run from the 27th – 31st May was opened by legendary host of the 1970 World Series of Poker ® Jack Binion. Coverage of the event will be seen on television around the world.
Chris Parker, CEO of the Asian Poker Tour congratulated the ecstatic winner Timoshenko at a wildly colourful closing ceremony. He then made a draw that gave away one free seat to the next event for one lucky player who had pre-registered for the tournament on official website http://www.asianpt.com/
One massive spin-off of hosting the landmark event is record numbers in the APT sponsored poker room at the Galaxy StarWorld. The stampede of players to Macau has resulted in the addition of eight more tables. Six new state of the art shuffling machines have been added to cope with the demand and the players have raved about eight air purifying units that pump through the packed poker room. The room was officially opened on Tuesday.
Tom Hall, CEO of AsianLogic said: “Adding eight tables to the APT poker room may not sound like a big move to the well established western poker community but you have to remember that this is Macau where baccarat is king. Poker is in its infancy – this is a significant step forward and further evidence of the growth and potential in this market.”
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