The third instalment of the Asian Poker Tour Online (APTO) festival has come to a close with the final three events playing down to thrilling conclusions, crowning the last three champions of the series and awarding the festival’s final two of three marquee tournament trophies on offer.
The last weekend of the 22-day online festival proved to be the most exciting so far, with both the APT Super High Roller and the APT Main Event setting new field size, prize pool and first place prize records; Slovenia’s “A Karmatckii” claiming the coveted Pewter Lion APT Online Super High Roller Trophy and the largest first-place prize this tournament has ever awarded, and Austria’s “M Joelsson” overcoming the largest APTO Main Event field ever, taming the exclusive Black Lion APT Online Main Event Trophy and claiming the richest-ever APTO top prize!
You can catch up on the rest of the series action with the below links:
APT Online 2024 Recap: Events #1 & #2 – APT Online Bounty Kickoff & Superstar Challenge
APT Online 2024 Recap: Event’s #3-#5 – Thailand National Cup, Double Stack & Vietnam National Cup [Bounty]
APT Online 2024 Recap: Events #6-#8 – Sunday Super Stack, Mini Main Event, APT Online Invitational $10K Added
APT Online 2024 Recap: Event #9 - #11 – Philippines National Cup [Deepstack Bounty], King of the Jungle Bounty 6-Max, Korea National Cup
APT Online 2024 Recap: Events #12 - #14 – APT High Roller 8-Max [2-Day Event], Mystery Bounty Hunter - $100K Top Bounty, Deepstack Turbo Blaze
APT Online Recap: Events #15 - #17 – Taiwan Poker Classic, Omaholic Bounty Masters, China Zodiac Classic [Bounty]
“A Karmatckii” Wins Largest & Richest Event #18: APTO Super High Roller (2-Day Event)
Playing out from Sunday, December 1st to Monday, December 2nd, the two-day USD 3,000 APT Super High Roller proved to be a record-breaker, drawing its largest-ever field of 395 entries, and generating the tournament’s richest prize pool of the three APTO online festivals so far, with players battling over 26 hours and 10 minutes of game time to earn a share of the USD 1,125,750 prize pool. The top 55 players were paid, with a min-cash coming in at USD 5,398.49.
As well as representing a 23 percent increase in player numbers and just over a 26 percent increase in prize pool size from the previous November 2023 APTO offering the tournament also awarded its largest-ever top prize. It was Slovenia’s “A Karmatckii” who earned the plaudits, claiming the coveted Pewter Lion APTO Super High Roller Trophy and a sizable USD 191,041.30 first-place prize after cutting an ICM deal with heads-up opponent, New Zealand’s “Moist”, who received USD 187,386.47 for their runner-up finish.
Natural8’s “m3d1t8” of Canada rounded out the top three paying positions, collecting USD 121,610.41 for their bronze podium finish. APT tour regular “Wei Zhao” of China followed up their three cashes in Event #7: Mini Main Event, Event #15: Taiwan Poker Classic and Event #17: China Zodiac Classic [Bounty] by making their APTO final table debut, banking their largest career APTO score of USD 91,195.02 for fourth.
Luxembourg’s “Pedro Neves” made their second career APTO final table, having finished fourth in the November APTO 2023 Event #5: Sunday Super Stack, and claimed eighth place, earning their largest-ever APTO score of USD 28,838.38 for their first final table showing of the 2024 series.
APT SUPER HIGH ROLLER FINAL TABLE RESULTS
| Rank | Player | Country | Result (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Karmatckii | Slovenia | 191,041.30 |
| 2 | Moist | New Zealand | 187,386.47 |
| 3 | m3d1t8 | Canada | 121,610.41 |
| 4 | Wei Zhao | China | 91,195.02 |
| 5 | Eduardo Pires | Brazil | 68,386.59 |
| 6 | Jiang Zemin | China | 51,282.70 |
| 7 | Felipe Ketzer | Brazil | 38,456.56 |
| 8 | Pedro Neves | Luxembourg | 28,838.38 |
| 9 | A Tkatschew | Austria | 21,625.72 |
Other notables to cash included Ausria’s “Vlad Darie” (17th for USD 8,852.07), Natural8 Ambassador “Nevan Chang” (31st for USD 6,579.29), Spain’s “Sergi Reixach” (36th for USD 5,959.74), Australia’s “Michael Addamo” (44th for USD 5,398.49), Event #2: Superstar Challenge champion “ALEU” (48th for USD 5,398.49), and Russia’s Anatoliy "A Zlotnikov" (53rd for USD 5,398.49).
“M Joelsson” Wins Record-Breaking Event #19: APTO Main Event $3M GTD
The well-established Asian-based live poker tour’s third official online foray with Natural8 proved popular with poker players from across the globe, crushing the USD 3 million guarantee and breaking the APTO record for richest tournament of all time. The tournament also drew the largest-ever APTO Main Event field, with 4,969 entries competing over the twenty-six Day 1 flights and 27 hours and 38 minutes of game time for a massive USD 3,776,440 prize pool!
This is an impressive 23 percent increase in both player numbers and prize pool from the previous record-breaking November 2023 APTO Main Event; Just 503 of these players were left in contention at the start of the tournament’s second and final day, all guaranteed a payout of USD 1,615.85, but all would be gunning for a spot on the official nine-handed final table and focused on claiming the lion’s share of the prize pool.
It was Austria’s “M Joelsson” who showcased their lion-taming skills to the best effect, overcoming Macau’s “Leong Man Sin” heads-up to claim the largest APT Main Event first place ever awarded both in the live and online arenas in the tour’s 18-year history, earning a massive USD 534,698.10 top prize pay-out and the coveted bespoke Black Lion APT Online Main Event trophy.
Natural8’s “Leong Man Sin” earned a hefty USD 412,310.11 pay-out for their runner-up finish, following up on his deep run in September’s live APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event where he finished in 73rd place.
March 2023 APTO Event #2: Superstar Challenge champion and Swedish poker professional “Niklas Astedt” made his second career APTO final table, banking USD 317,959.77 for his third-place podium finish.
Other Natural8 players to make a final table appearance included Lithuania’s “A Mazurkevicius” (5th for USD 189,104.82), and New Zealand’s “izlattbape” (8th for USD 86,764.94) with the top nine pay-outs as follows:
APT MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE RESULTS
| Rank | Player | Country | Result (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M Joelsson | Austria | 534,698.10 |
| 2 | Leong Man Sin | Macau | 412,310.11 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 317,959.77 |
| 4 | yxdqwsa | Vietnam | 245,205.89 |
| 5 | A Mazurkevicius | Lithuania | 189,104.82 |
| 6 | Y0urN1ghtm4re | Poland | 145,845.36 |
| 7 | Chris Rudolph | Austria | 112,487.40 |
| 8 | izlattbape | New Zealand | 86,764.94 |
| 9 | V Nikulin | Russia | 66,930.14 |
Other notables to make the paying positions included: Philippines #1 ranked live tournament player “Marc Rivera” (95th for USD 3,779.80), Spain’s “Sergi Reixach” (97th for USD 3,779.80), China’s “Wei Zhao” (108th for 3,779.80), Event #2: Superstar Challenge champion “ALEU” of Vietnam (118th for 3,779.80), the UK’s “Tom Middleton” (179th for USD 2,836.90), Natural8 Ambassador “Nevan Chang” (203rd for USD 2,836.90), Event #16: Omaholic Bounty Masters champion "Max Neugebauer" (206th for 2,836.90), Austria’s Daniel “D Smiljkovic” (256th for USD 2,136.27), Czech Republic’s “Roman Hrabec” (326th USD 2,136.27), Event #15: Taiwan Poker Cup finalist “SpicyTaco” (337th for USD 2,136.27), APT Incheon 2023 High Roller champion Thanisorn Saelor (362nd for 1,615.85), APT regular and former Superstar Challenge champion “Joshua McCully” (433rd for USD 1,615.85), Natural8 Ambassador “Kannapong Tent" Thanarattrakul (460th for USD 1,615.85), computational wizard “Dominik Nitsche” for (461st for USD 1,615.85), and APT Incheon 2023 Super High Roller champion “Milos Petakovic” (473rd for USD 1,615.85).
Event #20: APT Online Bounty Closer (Turbo)
The final scheduled tournament of the festival, the USD 215 Event #20: APT Online Bounty Closer (Turbo], played out on Sunday, December 1st, and saw a field of 1,589 entries duke it out over five hours and 49 minutes of game time for a share of the USD 314,304.20 prize pool.
A total of 180 players made the paying positions, with a min-cash good for USD 222.10, although players were able to pad this out further by earning a progressive bounty of at least $50 for each player eliminated.
It was China’s “Biao Guo” claiming the accolades and the USD 16,832.36 top prize, earning an additional USD 21,618.07 in bounties after overcoming Kazakhstan’s “Gtnprpllr” heads-up, with the latter taking USD 16,831.69 for their runner-up finish and taking a further USD 4,160.15 in bounties.
Croatia’s “Philca1ne” completed the winner’s triumvirate, taking USD 13,374.42 for their third-place podium finish, plus a further USD 3,048.44 in bounties. Natural8’s “Sativa97” of Taiwan earned USD 10,627.28 for fourth place and topped this up with USD 2,729.67 in bounties, with the final table paying out as follows:
APT ONLINE BOUNTY CLOSER FINAL TABLE RESULTS
| Rank | Player | Country | Bounty (USD) | Result (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biao Guo | China | 21,618.07 | 16,832.36 + 21,618.07 |
| 2 | Gtnprpllr | Kazakhstan | 4,160.15 | 16,831.69 + 4,160.15 |
| 3 | Philca1ne | Croatia | 3,048.44 | 13,374.42 + 3,048.44 |
| 4 | Sativa97 | Taiwan | 2,729.67 | 10,627.28 + 2,729.67 |
| 5 | DopieOpie | Mexico | 1,701.56 | 8,444.40 + 1,701.56 |
| 6 | kriausiniene | Singapore | 3,114.05 | 6,709.90 + 3,114.05 |
| 7 | 3k-Yang | China | 1,981.24 | 5,331.66 + 1,981.24 |
| 8 | LeonsDad | Poland | 1,821.88 | 4,236.52 + 1,821.88 |
| 9 | Modnuds | Austria | 3,075 | 3,366.34 + 3,075 |
Other notables to cash but come up short of the final table included APT Incheon 2023 Super High Roller champion “Milos Petakovic” (14th for USD 1,176.85 + USD 1,118.75 in bounties), Austria’s “D Smiljkovic” (21st for USD 891.30 + USD 1,499.99 in bounties), Australia's "Michael Addemo" (148th for USD 222.10 + USD 450 in bounties).
