The main event of the 13-day festival APPT Melbourne started on Friday, Oct 14 at the luxurious Crown Melbourne. The main event attracted a total of 523 players, creating the total prize pool money of AUD 1,198,300. After 5 days of grind, it was Ashish Gupta lifting the trophy with AUD 124,191 in prize money after a heads up chop.
There were several notable poker players seen battling it out on the felts, including Joe Hachem, Celina Lin, Randy Lew, Bryan Huang and Chen-An Lin. The Day 1A alone attracted 274 players, while 249 entries came from Day 1B, swelling up the field size upto 523 entries, which created a mammoth prize pool of AUD 1,198,300.
Day 2: 262 Survivors Patrick Donker in Chip Lead
After frantic action through the starting flights, there were 262 players left for Day 2, including 127 players from Day 1A and 135 players from Day 1B. Finally, it was Patrick Donker who ended the day as the chip lead with 173,900 chips. The 63 of the battling players are to be paid for their efforts. The min cash for the players is AUD 4,270 and the winner of APPT Melbourne Main Event will bag the top prize money worth AUD 235,875 .
Among survivors from the starting flights, the chip lead Patrick Donker started Day 2 with 173,900 chips. He was followed by Srdjan Brkic with164,200 chips at the end of Day 1B. Among notable players left for Day 2 were the champion of APPT 10 Manila, Linh Tran who bagged 26,900 chips and the 2015 APOY champion Alan King Lun Lau who amassed 48,300 chips. They all started Day 2 with the 3 PokerStars Pros surviving from the Day 1 flights.
The Bubble
The Day 2 of the APPT Main Event was full of thrilling action with plenty of bust-outs and stack building at the Crown Casino. The first two starting flights saw several star player falling, including the former WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem and also Bryan Huang along with other big names in poker. The day ended with 62 remaining players in the money. The close of the day proved very interesting and brought up double elimination that put every player in the money. Patrick Donker, who started the day as chip lead could chop just min cash with David Evans after finishing as bubble in the 63rd place of the APPT Main Event.
Top 10 chip counts of players at the end of Day 2:
- Bain, Tristan R 575000
- Ulmer, Timothy Joseph 516000
- Cohen, Julian L 448500
- Lim, Ricky J 386500
- Prasad, Jayesh 382000
- Mclean, Benjamin R 378500
- Kempson, Corey J 352000
- Cabret, Joseph A 331500
- Ou, Raymond 298000
- Aristidou, Petros 291500
Day 3: Final Table made With Ashish Gupta in Lead
After another full day action, the final table was set at last. At the day of start, there were 62 players left to battle it out for AUD$235,875 in the main event of the 2016 APPT Melbourne at Crown Melbourne. Leading the way was Ashish Gupta with 2.22 million in chips. Gupta eliminated four players in the later stages of the tournament to secure the top spot in final 7. All seven survivors are returning today to battle it out for the prestigious title and the first- place prize money worth AUD235,875. Here are the chip counts of the final 7 players:
Seat 1: Trung Tran – 2,065,000
Seat 2: Jay Prasad – 2,160,000
Seat 3: Tu Lan – 755,000
Seat 4: Raymond Ou – 795,000
Seat 5: Ben McLean – 845,000
Seat 6: Ashish Gupta – 2,220,000
Seat 7: Shawn Lee – 1,325,000
Day 4: Final Table
Ben McLean was the first casualty on the Final Table in 7th place. He took home $30,550 for his efforts. After Shawn Lee departed in 5th place, the remaining 4 players – Jay Prasad, Trung Tran, Raymond Ou and Ashish Gupta struck a deal. Jay Prasad the chip leader then, got AUD 175,000 and he finished 4th in the tournament. Trung Tran ended up in the 3rd place for AUD 107,313. Raymond Ou the heads up chip lead struck another deal with Ashish Gupta but Ahsish went on to beat him in the heads up play to claim the title.
Here are the final payouts in full:
#1 Ashish Gupta – $124,191**
#2 Raymond Ou – $136,535**
#3 Trung Tran – $107,313*
#4 Jay Prasad – $175,000*
#5 Shawn Lee – $47,175
#6 Tu Lan – $37,525
#7 Ben McLean – $30,550