It was a busy week in the world of poker but we’ll start off the news with a player who had a banner week. Yuki Ko has won many times in his career but this week proved to be particularly special for him.
Ko Collects A Slew Of Big Paydays
Yuki Ko had a week to remember. The Japanese poker pro had a massive couple of days of winnings stretching from April 8 to 12. He started off in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Korea, winning a No-Limit event and taking home $31,647. Ko beat out a field of 226 players to win. Then he picked up a $30,000 Platinum Pass in a tournament that took three days to finish. However, Ko didn’t stop there as five hours after he was done with that tournament, he jumped right into a High Roller tournament and won $62,236.
The first victory might have been sweeter to Ko, who beat New Zealand’s Taehoon Han heads-up after Han won their first meeting back in July 2017. This was similar to Mike Leah in 2014 when the Canadian player won back-to-back World Series of Poker tournaments in Los Angeles, although Ko wound up taking home more money than Leah. As if that wasn’t enough, one day later Ko finished eighth in another APPT tournament, winning $16,521 for his efforts.
Not a bad few days of work for Ko, who is now 13th on Japan’s all-time money list.
Nyugen Joins Cryptonia Poker
Scotty Nyugen, who is best known in the world of poker for winning five World Series of Poker bracelets, is moving into the crypto space. Nyugen will now be representing Cryptonia Poker, which is an online poker company that is also building a poker platform on the Ethereum blockchain. Cryptonia Poker will release its initial coin offering on May 1 and June 1. An ICO is the cryptocurrency version of an IPO, which is when a company sells stock – or, in this case, tokens – to raise money in return for a stake. As is common for the launch of an ICO, celebrities or influencers are brought in to help publicize the launch.
The crypto aspect of this project is that they want to pair the game of poker with the transparency of the blockchain. A number of poker companies, online casinos and sportsbooks are shifting toward the blockchain as it allows for unprecedented transparency, easier deposits and withdrawals, and quality assurance (fair play).
CoinPoker To Sponsor APT
Speaking of cryptocurrency, one of the first brands in the space, CoinPoker, is making a move into the mainstream. It’ll be sponsoring the Asian Poker Tour, which figures to give the brand great exposure. The APT will offer satellite tournaments that use cryptocurrency and then will allow players to play in their Super High Roller and Main Event tournaments.
This relationship officially begins at the APT Macau Championships at Babylon Casino from April 25 to May 6. Players will be able to both enter and cash out with cryptocurrency and this is very big news not only for the Asian Poker Tour, but for the poker community as a whole.