Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Season 1

GRANT LEVY TAKES DOWN INAUGURAL APPT GRAND FINAL

Australian player Grant Levy beat a field of 561 to win the Grand Final of APPT Season 1. The event was held in Sydney and those playing included Team PokerStars Pro member Greg Raymer. Full reports on all Season 1 events can be found on the PokerStars blog.
Levy had already proved himself on the domestic circuit after besting 428 players to finish third at the PokerNews Cup in Melbourne. But this was nothing compared to the AUD$1,000,000 he took home for his Sydney Scorcher victory. The 28-year old father of two will no doubt be back for Season 2 in 2008.

He wasn’t the only one who found success in Sydney though. Team PokerStars Pro member and 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem won the first ever APPT Tournament of Champions. His opponents included not only the winners of each APPT event, but also Scotty Nguyen and Joe’s fellow Team PokerStars Pro members Greg Raymer, Isabelle Mercier and Chris Moneymaker. Joe won $50,000 for his efforts, which he donated to the Shane Warne Foundation.

APPT Season 1: The full story

In just one season, the APPT has become one of the world’s richest poker tours and also marks the first time that major poker tournaments have ever been held in South Korea, Macau and the Philippines.

The first event took place in Manila and was won by Brett Parise, a 22-year old political science student from Indiana. Parsie beat Ira Blumenthal heads up when his pocket 10’s held against his opponents J-5. The victory was good for a first prize of $179,775.

The APPT event in Seoul was won by Israeli Ziv Bachar, who took away $139,872. The 25-year old started the final table as chip leader and managed to use his big stack to great effect. There were a few tense moments for Bachar however, like when his top two pair managed to dodge third place finisher Sid Kim’s flush draw.

APPT Macau was the first time a poker tournament had ever been held in China and was won by 27-year old London-based player Dinh Le. He was awarded $222,640 after beating a field of 352 players that included Team PokerStars Pro members Joe Hachem and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier.

Macau also provided the location for the High Roller event and was won by Australian Eric Assadourian after he beat Sweden’s Bo Sehlstedt heads up, for a prize of $368,640.