November 26 2011, Josh Bell

Day 3 has come to an end at the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event and what an eventful day it was. When the day began, 96 players were in contention, but by the end of the day, only 15 remained. Of those players, India’s Sangeeth Mohan will start Day 4 with the chip lead.

Coming into Day 3, Nathaniel Seet had the most chips, holding a staggering lead over Dan Park who was second in chips. Seet and Park did not hold on to their chips all day however, and were eliminated in 38th and 28th respectively.

Seet and Park may have been lucky enough to finish in the money, but it wasn’t the same story for Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero. The demise of Barbero came after several brutal hands, which left him with only 5,000 in chips. Barbero’s last chips were sent into the middle holding against an opponent’s . No help came for Barbero and he was sent to the rail.

Some prominent players who did manage to make the money, but failed to make an elusive deep finish, were Julian Powell (69th), Andrew Scott (61st), Johnny Chan (60th), Terrence Chan (56th) and Grant Levy (25th).

Of course, what everyone wants to know is who is still in contention for the title. Mohan will return on Day 4 with the chip lead, bagging up a huge 2,425,000. Mohan is on a bit of hot streak at the moment, having taken down an Asian Poker Tour event in Goa, India, just a few weeks ago.

Also returning for Day 4 is Team PokerStars Online’s Randy Lew. The player well known as online super-grinder “nanonoko” will start the final day of play with 845,000 in chips.

Also taking the felt on Lew’s table will be David Steicke, who had somewhat of a roller coaster day, seeing his stack ebb and flow from being the chip leader several times, to at one point having a short stack. In the end Steicke bagged up a healthy 886,000.

On the one other remaining table will be prominent Australian players Jeff Rossiter and Josh Barrett. Rossiter and Barrett will both return with seven-figure stacks and are in contention to take an APPT title to the shores of Australia.

See below for the full final day table draw:

The 15 remaining players are guaranteed at least HKD$124,000, however it is the HKD$3,772,000 that all the players are gunning for. The prize equates to almost US$500,000 and the top five players will be set to earn at least six-figures. Below is a list of the final table payouts, with the approximate equivalent in USD.

Be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team at 1200 CST Monday (Sunday, 2000 PDT) as they bring all the action on the way to crowning the newest APPT champion in Macau!

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August 28 2011, Josh Bell

The 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Queenstown Main Event has finally come to its gripping conclusion, with Marcel Schreiner becoming the newest Asia Pacific Poker Tour champion.

This event marked the first time an APPT event was held in Queenstown. The field created the largest prize pool ever recorded in the city. While taking in any share of the NZD$342,900 prize pool would be an impressive feat, it was the NZD$94,300 first-place prize that all the returning players were vying for.

After almost 12 hours of tough play at the final table, including almost four of grueling heads-up play, it was Germany’s Marcel Schreiner and New Zealand local Matt Yates who went toe-to-toe for the title.

Schreiner managed to hold a chip lead at the end of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, and at the final table he produced a dominating display to become the eventual champion.

The final table began with some of the finest players from the region taking to the felt. This included the likes of Jonathan Karamalikis, Hugh Cohen and Tom Grigg. By the time all those players had hit the rail in ninth place, eighth place and sixth place respectively, we were already several hours into the final table.

When heads-up play commenced, the two players had similar sized stacks but after a couple of hours, Schreiner showed his domination in the match, and managed to take down a huge majority of the pots to sit with a nice chip lead.

The two players went on to fight it out for over 180 hands and for the majority of them, Schreiner held the chip lead. The exception to this was when the biggest hand of the night occurred. Schreiner and Yates got all of their chips in the middle on a board showing . Yates held against Schreiner’s . The higher kicker for Yates made all the difference since the river bricked out and a big chip lead was finally in the hands of Yates.

The lead didn’t last long though, because Schreiner managed to chip away at Yates and slowly work his way back to a lead before managing to have Yates all-in holding against his own . When the flop hit the felt, Schreiner’s full house had Yates drawing dead and sent him home in second place.

Final Table Results

With Schreiner crowned the first ever APPT Queenstown champion, the sentiment around the event is that it may be set to become one of the most popular on the tour, with not only a great poker event on offer, but with the beautiful city of Queenstown something to marvel at while away from the felt.

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