In what was probably the toughest field in Asia’s relatively short poker tournament history, 20-year-old Yevgeniy Timoshenko from the United States took the final table and top prize with a pair of ladies. Along the way, Timoshenko had to compete against 256 other entrants including such big names as Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, David Rheems and David Saab. When all was said and done, Timoshenko was one of the 8 finalists battling it out at the final table.

“I’m very fortunate to have won this,” said Timoshenko as he raised his trophy. “I ran extremely well. The final table was a pretty tough lineup. I’m really ecstatic that I finally won a main event.”

Timoshenko gathered $500,000 for his first place finish, Joon Hee Yeah from South Korea took second for $250,000 and in third for $126,000 was Rober Karlian out of Thailand. The next two events for the Asian Poker Tour will be APT Seoul and APT Singapore. Dates for those events have yet to be announced but it will take a lot to beat the drama of APT Macau’s star-studded competition.