2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau Final Table Lineup Set

Macau – 23rd August 2009 – The final table is set for the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival http://www.asianpt.com/ and is underway!

Seat 1: Casey Kastle (130,000) Slovenia
Seat 2: Winfred Yu (61,000) Hong Kong
Seat 3: David Steicke (876,000) Hong Kong
Seat 4: J.C. Tran (444,000) USA
Seat 5: Adrien Allain (482,000) France
Seat 6: Michael Woo (64,000) Hong Kong
Seat 7: Inwook Choi (934,000) Korea
Seat 8: Chris Chau (143,000) Hong Kong
Seat 9: Christer Hallberg (132,000) Sweden

Live reporting can be found at: http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2009-apt-macau/

Tournament Director Matt Savage confirmed that there were a total of 326 runners, 133 on Day 1A and 193 on Day 1B. The total prize pool is HK$10,919,040 with first place due to scoop HK$3,035,000. The buy-in for the Main Event was set at HK$34,400. Last year’s event attracted 257 runners.

‘The Poker Pack,’ the Asian Poker Tour’s ambassadors, have been in awesome form throughout the whole festival and leading light JC Tran heads on to the final table as favourite, despite being fourth in chips. JC is in form after recently taking down ‘The Poker Pack’ headhunter side event #10. Sixteen players failed to take the bounty of the star player as he crushed all opposition in front of him to scoop HK$76,000 plus HK$10,500 in bounties.

Casey Kastle has made Asian Poker Tour history by becoming the first player to notch up three consecutive final tables. He started day two 84th out of 88 but managed to nurse his short stack to the final table.

Hong Kong’s David Steicke also makes the final table and his all action play has been a major feature of the past few days. Steicke, winner of the High Rollers event at the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival, and at the last Aussie Millions, is a big contender and is second in chips. The chip leader is Korea’s Inwook Choi, who motored to his dominating position in the latter stages of day two.

Day 1B marked the start of filming of ‘Poker King,’ the first Chinese language poker film. Many predict the movie could have the ‘Rounders’ effect on the growth of poker in Asia. Five of the crew entered the Main Event and Hong Kong’s Winfred Yu makes the final table!

As well as a large regional contingent there were plenty of well know names at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino including ‘The Poker Pack,’John Juanda, Liz Lieu, James Akenhead of the WSOP Main Event November Nine, the in-form Stewart Scott, David Chiu, Ian Frazer, Praz Bansi, JP Kelly, Young Phan, Amnon Filippi, Casey Kastle, Steve Yea, David Steicke, Cecilia Nordenstam, Liv Boeree, Mel Judah and Kim Wooka.

The Asian Poker Tour Macau hosts over 20 events with 15 official side events. Amongst the online networks which sent players were The Ongame Network, the iPoker Network and PartyPoker.com. In addition, online rooms BWin, PKR, Dafa Poker, JBET Poker, Betfriends, 888.com, Titan Poker, RedKings, 32Red, ChiliPoker, Winamax, BetSafe, PafPoker and PokerLoco are in on the action which guaranteed the significant online qualifier contingent. Sponsors of the side events and collaterals include the Hong Kong Game Club, DafaPoker, Dafa888, The Poker King Movie, JBet, PartyPoker.com, BWin, Zipang Casino, 777babycasino and PKR.

Full details can be found at http://www.asianpt.com/

Videos capturing the action and atmosphere at the festival can be found at: http://www.asianpt.com/videos