The largest ever amount guaranteed for a poker competition in Asia could see one player return home $500,000 richer
Thursday 5th June 2008
Following the success of its Manila event last month, the Asian Poker Tour(APT) has announced a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million for its next competition in Macao.
The largest ever amount to be guaranteed for a poker competition in Asia, the APT Macao event will be held from August 26 to 31 at the StarWorld Hotel And Casino with the eventual winner possibly walking away with as much as $500,000.
Chris Parker, Chief Executive Officer for the APT, revealed that buy-ins for the event in the former Portuguese colony would start at $5,300 as he applauded the success of the six-day Filipino tournament, which featured several of the game’s biggest names including Huck Seed, Mansour Matloubi, Nam Le, Quinn Do, Evelyn Ng and Steve Sung.
The Manila event saw a total of 316 players, a new record for an international poker tournament in The Philippines, and ended when David Saab of Australia beat Korea’s Chris Roh in a heads-up final to take home the $280,000 top prize. Roh won $150,000 for second place while Japan’s Satoru Ishii finished third for $100,000. The highest placed European was Italy’s Michele Ferrari who took home $55,000 for finishing in fifth spot while Korea’s Kwang Soo Lee walked away with $73,000 for his fourth placed finish followed by countryman Man Jin Yun in sixth with $45,000. Two Filipinos, Don Carmona and Terry Gonzaga, finished in seventh and eighth places to take home $35,000 and $25,000 respectively followed by Sweden’s Gerasimons Deres in ninth for $20,000.
