Remember when we talked about Sam Trickett spectacularly crashing out of a $100,000 tournament at the Aussie Millions earlier this week? And remember when we said that he’d bounce back before the end of the week and win a tournament with an even bigger buy-in?
Actually, we did expect Trickett to bounce back from the poor showing. What we didn’t expect was that he’d do it so quickly. See, days after the British poker player of the year spectacularly blew $100,000 in a little less than eight hours of play at the $100,000 Aussie Poker Challenge, Trickett signed up to play in the LK Jewelry $250,000 Challenge and made quite a good showing for himself. Ok, that’s not true. He didn’t make a good showing; he actually won the whole damn thing, beating German Tobias Reinkemeier in the heads-up final and pocketing a sweet $2 million in the process. Despite the relatively thin field, the quality of players in the tournament didn’t lack in acclaim. Erik Seidel was also there, as were Macau high rollers Richard Yong and Winfred Yu. And that’s not even counting the German trio of Reinkemeier, Fabian Quoss and Igor Kurganov, all of three of whom Trickett had to outlast in the final four to add yet another hefty payday to his already staggering live tournament winnings.
Trickett has actually made high-roller events a specialty, having collected a staggering $16 million in events with buy-ins ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, including his runner-up finish at the Big One For One Drop where, despite finishing second to Antonio Esfandiari, he still walked home with $10 million.
Needless to say, that subpar showing in the $100,000 Aussie Poker Challenge was an abberation, something Trickett quickly made up for by winning yet another high roller event. That’s why the man is considered one of the best in the business.
Jeon Seung Soo takes down the field en route winning the APT Asian Series Cebu 2013
Meanwhile, the Asian Poker Tour has successfully concluded its first major tournament of the year, closing the APT Asian Series Cebu 2013 with South Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo taking home the Main Event title and winning the first prize money of Php 1.302 million (just over $32,000). Soo had to outlast fellow countryman Minsoo Kim for the title but in the end, he managed to not only win the APT’s first tournament of the year, but also shot up to first in the APT Player of the Year race. Overall, it was yet another top flight tournament for the Asian Poker Tour. Fresh off of an enormously successful 2012, it’s good to see that the APT is picking up right where they left of. As for the next stop, look for the tour to head over to the Soo’s homeland of Korea where the APT Asian Series Jeju is set to take place from February 27 to March 6, 2013 at the Royal Palace Casino, Oriental Hotel in Jeju.
