Welcome to the 2015 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul Main Event!
It's Spring time in the South-Korean capital and that means it's time for cherry blossoms, soju shots, bbq dinners and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour stop!
PokerNews would like to welcome you to the coverage of the ninth season of the APPT, as we look to see if last year's winner Chane Kampanatsanyakorn can pull off another magical run. Besides winning last year, everyone of course remembers that Thailand's all-time money list leader took the event down in Season 8 after having finished runner-up in Season 7 to none other than Aaron Lim.
There is another great similarity between the last two editions of the Main Event in Seoul, and that is that women have been known to perform very well. Last year it was United States' Sam Cohen who finished third for third for KRW130,000,000 ($141,719) while Xuan Liu (4th - KRW44,600,000 - $40,711) and Sixiao Li (5th - KRW37,100,000 - $33,865) made the final table the year prior.
Besides the KRW3,000,000 (US $2,750) Main Event there was also a Warm-Up event (KRW700,000 - US $640) that finished lat night, and there will be many more side events. Here's a look at what's still to come.
| Start date | Start time | Type | Buy in KRW | Buy in USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 9-10 | 12:00 p.m. | NLHE Main Event | ₩3,000,000 | $2,700 |
| April 9 | 9:00 p.m. | NLHE Satellite | ₩660,000 | $660 |
| April 10 | 9:00 p.m. | NLHE Teams Event | ₩1,000,000 | $913 |
| April 11 | 4:00 p.m. | NLHE Flipout re-entry | ₩100,000 | $91 |
| April 11 | 9:00 p.m. | NLHE High Roller | ₩6,000,000 | $5,485 |
| April 12 | 12:30 p.m. | NLHE Turbo Bounty flight 1 | ₩500,000 | $456 |
| April 12 | 16:00 p.m. | NLHE Turbo Bounty flight 2 | ₩500,000 | $456 |
Something to look at as well during this year's APPT event in Seoul is the Asia Player of the Year race, which is currently lead by Yuguang Li from China with 4,200 points. The top four are all from China, and in the top 10 we've also spotted Steve O'Dwyer (6th) and Russell Thomas (8th). The current leader, Li, jumped into first after winning the Macau Poker Cup Red dragon Main Event and High Roller on back-to-back days and therefor his lead is 1,200 points over current second place Yunye Lu. Here's the current Top 10, and for the entire ranking you can click on this link.
2015 Asia Player of the Year Rankings
| Place | Name | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuguang Li | China | 4,200 |
| 2 | Yunye Lu | China | 3,000 |
| 3 | Yifan Zhang | China | 2,880 |
| 4 | Yang Zhang | China | 2,542 |
| 5 | Yi Won Lee | Korea | 1,940 |
| 6 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 1,877 |
| 7 | Yonggang Wang | China | 1,668 |
| 8 | Russell Thomas | USA | 1,565 |
| 9 | Sam Nee | Malaysia | 1,508 |
| 10 | Takuya Yamashita | Japan | 1,500 |
For a point of reference, here are the winners of the APOY leader boards in previous years dating back to the first one, which was won by Kitty Kuo in 2009. When looking at the rankings it becomes clear that Li has a ton of points already this year, as his total would've been enough to win in both 2012 and 2010, but the race is far from over yet.
| Year | Player | Country | Points | Winnings (HKD) | Final Tables | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Pete Chen | Chinese Taipei | 5,691 | $1,383,511 | 7 | 1 |
| 2013 | Jian Yang | China | 3,922 | $2,040,100 | 3 | 2 |
| 2012 | Yosuke Sekiya | Japan | 4,191 | $1,002,600 | 6 | 1 |
| 2011 | Hung-Sheng "Shaq" Lin | Chinese Taipei | 6,278 | $1,272,690 | 10 | 1 |
| 2010 | Bryan Huang | Singapore | 3,166 | $594,050 | 6 | 1 |
| 2009 | Kitty Kuo | Chinese Taipei | 4,752 | $601,045 | 3 | 1 |
There are lots of events left to be played, including this huge one in Seoul, and we will keep you up to date with the POY race throughout this event.
The Main Event in Seoul kicks off at 12:00 p.m. noon local time (5:00 a.m. CET/11:00 p.m. ET) and has two starting flights. Day 2 will be on Saturday and the big final will take place on Sunday, so stay tuned to PokerNews.com as we will bring you all the live updates of this event!