Following its recently-completed Macau tournament, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) has signed three top-name pros to serve as ambassadors. Poker pros J.C. Tran, Quinn Do, and Nam Le will “represent the APT on the world poker circuit,” according to a press release distributed by the APT on Tuesday. The news comes as Le won the APT Macau High Rollers event for $474,358. In addition, Quinn Do finished third for $153,846.
On his win in the High Rollers event, Nam Le commented in a press release distributed by the APT on Tuesday, “I’m truly delighted to have won and so happy to have gotten my deal with the APT off to the best possible start. I’m looking forward to representing the Tour around the world. It wasn’t looking great for me in this tournament at one stage, but I was always confident that I would bounce back.”
Le is the owner of two six-figure cashes in the World Series of Poker. He was the runner up to Mark Vos in a $2,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2006 WSOP, cashing for $401,647 in his first WSOP final table. In 2007, he finished third in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament, pocketing $239,230 in the process. Le has recorded wins in the 2006 World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star event as well as the 2006 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge II.
J.C. Tran won his first gold bracelet during the 2008 WSOP, taking down a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event for $631,170. He’s amassed over $1.7 million in winnings from WSOP and Circuit Event winnings alone. On the World Poker Tour, Tran has made five final tables, highlighted by a second place finish in the L.A. Poker Classic during Season V. In that tournament, he pocketed $1.1 million. He won the World Poker Challenge shortly thereafter, earning an additional $708,973. He is the owner of more than $3.1 million in WPT winnings. Online, his claim to fame is winning the 2006 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event. Needless to say, Tran is one of the most experienced and successful poker players in the world.
Quinn Do won a bracelet during the 2005 WSOP, pocketing $265,975 for a win in a $2,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em tournament. Do won $909,400 for finishing second in the WPT’s L.A. Poker Classic during Season VI, losing to Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey heads up. Joining Do at the final table were Le, Ultimate Bet icon Phil Hellmuth, and WSOP “November Nine” member Scott Montgomery. Finally, Do placed third in the 2005 Bellagio Cup for $228,850. That tournament had an eclectic group at the final table, including Scotty Nguyen, Mimi Tran, Jeff Shulman, and “Spiderman” actor Tobey Maguire.
Tom Hall, CEO of AsianLogic (which operates the APT) stated, “We have big plans for these guys and are happy they signed with us to spread the word about the APT worldwide. We expected success, but such a [big] result for two of the ambassadors so quickly is brilliant.”
Events in Seoul and Singapore will round out the Asian Poker Tour. The Macau event boasted a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool and a buy-in of $5,300.
