APT Taipei has been a record-setter so far, being the biggest and largest event in the Asian Poker Tour. So far it has offered some of the largest payouts of any event and attracted more people than any of the previous Asian Poker Tours. And today, one more record is broken as Phachara Wongwichit wins the APT High Roller, the APT event with one of the largest payouts.
Phachara Wongwichit is an Ambassador for Natural8, the main sponsor for APT, and has previously won an APT High Roller trophy in a previous event. This win in Taipei marks his second major win and probably his most important as this event is considered the largest in the Tour’s 15-year history. As a Natural8 Ambassador, he has become an inspiration for many poker players around the world, and his win here has only improved that reputation.
APT High Roller Overview
By the final day of the APT High Roller, only 84 players remained out of the record-breaking 302 entries. These players were all competing for part of the massive TWD 26,364,600 (USD 860,930) prize pool. This prize pool broke records as it was one of the largest prizes in the Series’ history.
Of these 84 players, less than half of them would take home part of the money. The competition took hours with five 40-minute level matches to reach the bubble. The last to depart before the bubble was former Main Event winner Farhad Aghayev who had to leave at 40th place. His departure guaranteed that all remaining players will win at least TWD 181,900 (USD 5,940) in their prize money, among them was Phachara Wongwichit who was playing for Thailand.
Another 7 rounds of games followed until only 9 players remained. The last to be eliminated before the top 9 was Junichi Nakagiri who has been the one to eliminate Aghayev earlier. Though he was skilled enough to beat the former APT champion, he wasn’t able to make it to the final table and had to settle for 10th place and TWD 461,400 (USD 15,070) payout.
Phachara Wongwichit was Crowned the APT High Roller Champion
During the final table, which spanned two levels, Phachara Wongwichit emerged as the last man standing after skillfully outplaying his opponents. In the end, only Kong’s Tsz Him Chan from Hong Kong remained, and despite initially trailing Chan, who had twice as many chips, Wongwichit refused to let that stop his gameplay and persevered.
Wongwichit continued to play, making clever moves and closing the gap between them until he finally emerged victorious. As the tournament winner. Phachara Wongwichit was given a large part of the prize pool, amounting to TWD 4,800,900 (which is approximately USD 156,930). The runner-up, Chan, also received a large payout of TWD 4,000,000 (which is about USD 130,750). When it came down to heads-up play, the top two payouts were adjusted to be more even. This was a remarkable achievement for Wongwichit and Chan in the world of competitive poker.
After the tournament, Phachara Wongwichit had a few words to say about his win.
“I feel it was like a setup like it was meant to be. Since Day 1 when APT and Victor [Chong] showed me the trophy I said ‘I want that High Roller one’. And with all the support from the Thai team and all my international friends it feels really great [to win]!” said Wongwichit before heading off to celebrate with his watching rail.”
Phachara Wongwichit, APT High Roller Winner
Wongwichit wasn’t the only big winner recently. APT Taipei had many events and many winners including Sam Lam who won the Super High Roller Tournament.
To get allt the details of that impressive achievement, you can check out our APT Super High Roller update.