Freerolling APPT Champion
August 28, 2007
Brett Parise, a 22 year old Californian, has achieved every online player's dream. He turned a freeroll win at PokerStars into a live tournament title.
The incredible ride to the APPT Manila championship began before he even left home. The Californian student received his passport just two hours before boarding the plane for the Philippines after winning his seat in a PokerStars freeroll.
After three days of play and a nearly three-hour-long heads-up match, the young American prevailed over an international final table to grab the first ever PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour trophy and the $179,775 first-place prize money.
The final table was very inexperienced, with two never having played a live tournament before. Australian, Van Marcus, was the most experienced, having made final tables at the the WSOP and Aussie Millions previously. He also started as the chip leader, so was a big favorite before final table play began.
Final table chip counts were as follows:
Van Marcus - 738,000
Roger Spets - 413,000
Derick Hernandez - 287,000
Nicholas Bamman - 240,000
Bas van Liere - 207,000
Maor Feldinger - 199,000
Ira Blumenthal - 184,000
Brett Parise - 173,000
Kazuhiro Sato - 109,000
Parise had some luck to make it to heads up play. He had AJ and A7 both hold up while all in pre-flop to elimnate Van Marcus and Nicholas Bamman in fourth and third place respectively. Just like in a freeroll some might say...
Heads-up play was a long back-and-forth affair as Parise and Ira Blumenthal, a 45-year-old attorney, played each other to a standstill for nearly three hours. Finally, a short-stacked Blumenthal pushed all-in preflop with J5, and Parise called instantly with pocket tens. His tens held up and Parise was the champion.
He got the trophy, the prizemoney and the mantle of first ever APPT champion, but perhaps best of all a story that will never get old no matter how many times it's told. From zero to hero indeed!
You can win trips to play in the remaining APPT events in Seoul, South Korea and Sydney, Australia at PokerStars. There's satellite tournaments every day, even freerolls!
