(From L-R: APT Event Manager Monique De Jesus, APT CEO Jeff Mann
with RWM’s Hakan Dagtas, Roderick Go and Arturo Basa)
After three months of review, Guinness World Records has officially recognized the APT-RWM Iron Man Poker Challenge as the World’s Longest Continuous Poker Tournament with a record of 48 hours, 55 minutes and 58.5 seconds; shattering the previous record of 36 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds set in Delaware, U.S.A. in August of 2012.
APT announced this information through a press release.
The APT-RWM Iron Man Poker Challenge began on December 13, 2013 at the Resorts World Manila Premier Club and attracted a total of 115 entries. It reached the previous record with still five players left on the Final Table on December 15th. Damon Shulenberger, Sandro Simon (Germany), Lim Dae Hoon (Korea), Choi Byung Kyoo (Korea) and Florencio Campomanes (Philippines) — were still grinding it out when the previous mark was finally broken at around 8:45 a.m. Manila time.
Both sleep-deprived and wanting absolute rest, Damon proved to be the tougher and more resilient player coming out on top after over four hours of heads-up battle against Kyoo.
“I have never experienced anything like it in my life. Not only going without sleep for two nights straight but I started at Level 1 at 8PM and never left the table for five minutes, until almost 50 hours later, with winning the championship,” reflected Shulenberger in the post-tourney interview.
“I owe it all to Berroca (juice) and also to the Asian Poker Tour girls for enlivening me with their presence,” said Shulenberger when asked of his method for staying awake and alert for the duration of the tournament. The Asian Poker Tour and Resorts World Manila will again bring world-class poker to Asia for the upcoming Asian Poker Tour Philippines scheduled to be held from April 30th to May 7th 2014.