APT Taipei 2023: Thailand’s Top-Ranked Punnat Punsri Wins Record-Breaking Main Event For Largest Payout in Taiwanese History

APT Taipei 2023: Thailand's Top-Ranked Punnat Punsri Wins Record-Breaking Main Event
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  • Namita Ghosh May 7, 2023
  • 5 Minutes Read

The APT Taiwan 2023 has seen a whirlwind of shattered records and high-quality gameplay, and it all ends tonight. While several tall benchmarks were set at the soon-to-end series, the one that stood out was the massive 1,434-strong field in the Main Event, making it the richest poker tournament in Taiwan to date.

And the Main Event found a deserving champion on Saturday. The former Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Cyprus Main Event winner, Punnat Punsri, ranked #1 on Thailand’s all-time money list, bagged the gorgeous gold-plated APT trophy and TWD $11,210,400 in prize money, his best live tournament score in Asia and third-best overall.

Punnat Punsri
Punnat Punsri

 

Punsri was chip leading the 17 finalists on Day 4 and dominated the action on his way to the final table, dispatching players to the rail, including his eventual heads-up rival, South Korea’s Soo Bum Kim, to collect the biggest paycheque awarded in a poker tournament in Taiwan.

PokerGuru host Saumya Paithankar is on the ground recording daily recaps and exclusive player bytes from APT Taipei 2023. Take a look at the Day 9 highlights:

 

Soo Bum Kim didn`t give up without a fight, overcoming a 13:1 chip disadvantage to momentarily snatch the lead and almost cause an upset. However, Punnat Punsri reclaimed the lead and ultimately secured the title. After the intense battle, Punsri and Kim exchanged a sportsmanlike handshake. Kim pocketed a well-deserved TWD $6,375,500 in second place.

“I got lucky – I qualified online so I could come in at the start of Day 3,” a modest Punsri said in his post-match interview.

“I ran super good in the right spots, and I had big hands hold in very big pots twice yesterday to survive. Then today, everything went my way; I coolered many people many, many times, and then heads-up wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be considering the stack discrepancy, but yeah… What a journey!” he added to describe his road to victory.

“I’ve always wanted to have a deep run in a big field Main Event regardless of what it is, and the APT I actually hold a lot of sentiment for, especially because it was my first big event that I won in Korea [APT Seoul 2019 Championships Event] so be able to win the old Championship and then this feels amazing!” Punsri continued before posing for the winner pictures with his rail.

The massive TWD $62,594,100 prize pool collected in the Main Event was distributed among the top 200 players – which went up to 203 total payouts due to three simultaneous bustouts on the money bubble. Two Indians featured on the payouts list, Gamezy Poker Team Pro Nishant Sharma (62nd for TWD $148,400) and Abhinav Iyer (106th for TWD $110,000), both hitting the rail on Day 3.

Nishant Sharma
Nishant Sharma

 

Saturday marked Day 4 of the Main Event, and it took four hours of gameplay to reach the nine-handed final table.

Among those aiming to make APT history was two-time APT Main Event champion Lester Edoc. However, his attempt at the feat ended in sixth place, with the eventual champion Punsri delivering the fatal blow, fetching the Filipino pro TWD $1,982,700.

Natural8 Ambassador Kitty Kuo was another notable in the running, chasing her second APT Taipei title. Kuo exited 16th, earning TWD $487,200.

You can read the APT Main Event Day 4 live coverage on the Asian Poker Tour website.

The Main Event final table was live-streamed (on a 30-minute delay), and you can watch the replay below.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Punnat Punsri – 16,850,000
  2. Lester Edoc – 12,925,000
  3. Teng-Kuei Hsu – 6,000,000
  4. Chih Wei Fan – 5,375,000
  5. Ben Loo – 3,975,000
  6. Joshua Tan – 3,550,000
  7. Soo Bum Kim – 3,050,000
  8. Long Lam Kim – 2,975,000
  9. Tung Wing Wong – 2,075,000

 

Final Table Recap

Malaysia’s Joshua Tan was the first casualty on the final table, leaving in ninth place. Tung Wing Wong shoved preflop with ace-queen, and Tan called, putting the last of his chip in with pocket jacks. The flop of kept Tan ahead, but the turn card was , giving Wong a flush draw. The on the river gave both players a flush, but Wong’s hand was superior, ending Tan’s tournament run.

Not long after that, Chih Wei Fan opened to 500,000 from the middle position, and Ben Loo jammed 2.5 Million. Fan quickly called with ace-king to Loo’s ace-queen. Fan flopped two-pair on the board, eliminating Loo, who had qualified online through Natural8 via a $200 satellite, in eighth place.

Despite the knockout, Chih Wei Fan couldn’t survive much longer, and he faced off with Punsri in a hand where he shipped his entire stack, evoking a snap-call from Punsri. Fan tabled to Punsri’s . The flop of was no good to Fan, and he didn`t improve on the last two streets , collecting the seventh place paycheque.

Punsri ran amok on the final table, building up on his lead further.

The player went on an hour-long dinner break, and when they returned, Punsri dispatched two-time APT Main Event champion Lester Edoc in sixth place, with Edoc’s pocket jacks losing to Punsri’s pocket queens.

Teng-Kuei Tsu was sent packing in fifth place after his queen-ten lost to Tung Wing Wong’s pocket eights.

Punsri was quite the slayer as he claimed his third final table victim in King Long Lam, booting the latter out in fourth place, with his pocket queens besting Lam’s king-jack.

Three-handed play continued for nearly an hour before Tung Wing Wong open-shoved with and Punsri called with . The flop of kept Wong ahead, and he was safe through the turn. But the on the river changed the dynamics, with Punsri pairing his king. Wong was eliminated in third place, setting the stage for the heads-up.

Punsri, who had qualified online via Natural8, began the heads-up against Soo Bum Kim with a staggering 13-to-1 chip advantage, holding 53,00,000 to Kim’s 4,500,000. While it looked like Punsri would be celebrating with the trophy soon, Kim proved a tough contender and fought hard. The heads-up lasted 93 hands played over four levels.

Kim got to work immediately, doubling up twice, and then scooped a monster pot with a turned two-pair besting Punsri’s rivered top-pair to take the chip lead. But Punsri continued to apply pressure and soon reclaimed the advantage.

In the final hand of the tournament, Punsri and Kim had their stacks in the middle after the flop, with Punsri holding and Kim showing . The turn card was the bringing Punsri a winning flush, rendering the on the river meaningless.

Both players embraced before Punsri celebrated his success as the champion of the richest APT Main Event hosted in Taiwan!

Final Table Results (TWD)

  1. Punnat Punsri – TWD $11,210,400
  2. Soo Bum Kim – TWD $6,375,500
  3. Tung Wing Wong – TWD $4,503,000
  4. Long Lam Kim – TWD $3,311,900
  5. Teng-Kuei Hsu – TWD $2,595,400
  6. Lester Edoc – TWD $1,982,700
  7. Chih Wei Fan – TWD $1,517,100
  8. Ben Loo – TWD $1,074,500
  9. Joshua Tan – TWD $823,500

 

The APT organizers had other records to cherish as well. Running along the sidelines of the Main Event, the TWD $100K buy-in and TWD $4.50 Million GTD APT High Roller – 8 Max saw record-breaking participation, attracting 302 entries and surpassing the previous 204 player record set at APT Hanoi VSOP 2023 in February. As registration closed at the end of level 12, the prize pool reached a whopping TWD $26,364,600 (~$860,930), making it the second-largest in the series behind the Main Event.

At the end of fifteen 40-minute levels, only 84 players remained. Norway’s Peter Da (1,096,000) emerged as the only player advancing with over 1 Million in chips. Australia’s Adam Kharman (999,000) and Hong Kong’s Timothy Yim (870,000) rounded out the top three day-end counts.

Peter Da
Peter Da

 

The Day 2 field includes two Indians. Spartan Poker Team Pro Zarvan Tumboli (813,000) had a super run, accumulating the fourth-largest stack in play. The 2022 WPT Prime Vietnam Main Event champion, Tumboli, who has two cashes here in the APT Kickoff (45th for TWD $23,900) and Super NLH Super Holdem (3 Hole cards) (14th for TWD $11,900), is chasing his third APT title.

Zarvan Tumboli
Zarvan Tumboli

 

The 2019 APT Vietnam Main Event champion Abhinav Iyer (371,000) is another Indian pro in contention. The WSOP bracelet winner is on track for his third score in the series after his splendid FT finish in APT Super High Roller 8 Max (3rd for TWD $1,755,700) and another deep run in the Main Event (106th for TWD $110,000).

Abhinav Iyer
Abhinav Iyer

 

The lucky winner is set to win a massive TWD $5,286,500, with 39 players cashing in. Other notables in contention include Natural8 Ambassador Phachara Wongwichit (206,000), high-stakes pro James Chen (567,000), and Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (201,000).

Top 10 Chip Counts at the End of Day 1 (APT High Roller – 8 Max)

  1. Peter Da – 1,096,000
  2. Adam Samir Kharman – 999,000
  3. Timothy Yim – 870,000
  4. Zarvan Tumboli – 813,000
  5. Napat Chokejindachai – 751,000
  6. Chung Chuen Co – 727,000
  7. Wooram Cho – 708,000
  8. Julien Rouxel – 703,000
  9. Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss – 669,000

 

Day 2 of the record-setting TWD $2 Million GTD Event #37: Double Stack kicked off at 12:15 PM (local time) yesterday, featuring 55 contenders from an initial field of 390 entries (326 unique). Hong Kong’s Ho Yi Chau championed the tournament to win TWD $991,350, edging past Dhanesh Chainani in the heads-up showdown. The Indo-Singaporean Chinani missed out on his third APT title but earned a substantial TWD $628,200 in second place.

Ho Yi Chau
Ho Yi Chau

 

Taiwan’s Inkuei Tan rounded out the podium with a third-place prize of TWD $454,000 (~$14,825). Other notable finishes included France’s Romain Morvan (13th for TWD $70,000) and the start-of-day chip leader Toshio Kataoka (24th for TWD $40,300).

The TWD $5,000 Event #40 Turbo took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, attracting 188 participants (160 unique entries) and generating a TWD $820,620 prize pool. After thirty-one 15-minute levels, Taiwan’s Yuan Hao Chang emerged victorious. In the final moments, Chang, Shao-Ting Jian, and China’s Cheng-Feng Tsai agreed on an ICM-based deal, with Chang getting the trophy and TWD $120,120 in prize money.

Jian took home TWD $146,000 in second place, while Tsai landed TWD $123,000 as the third-place finisher.

Yuan Hao Chang
Yuan Hao Chang

 

Thailand’s Napat Chokejindachai emerged as the champion of the TWD $15,000 Event #41 Turbo – 8 Max, outplaying a field of 189 competitors (157 unique entries). Chokejindachai defeated Singapore’s Nicholas Heng heads-up to secure the TWD $548,655 top prize and his maiden APT title. The event generated a TWD $2,474,955 (~$80,820) prize pool.

Napat Chokejindachai
Napat Chokejindachai

 

Content & Images Courtesy: Asian Poker Tour

Keep following PokerGuru for more updates from the APT Taipei 2023!

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