by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Jan 31, 2012 | Updated on Jan 31, 2012William Dorey won the first ever Asian Poker Tour event in Europe this weekend, topping a field of 125 players to win a £17,130. As you might expect given the name, the Asian Poker Tour has mainly been devoted to staging events throughout Asia, with events located in the Philippines, Macau, and India(check out some our Indian Poker Sites). However, the APT held a special tournament at that Fox Poker Club in London in order to celebrate the Chinese New Year.The tournament, which had a buy-in of £545, attracted a field of 125 players. Most of the participants were local UK poker players, including a few notable pros such as Steve Watts and Surinder Sunar.The two-day tournament saw the field reduced to just 37 players after the first day of play. On the second day, the field was eventually reduced to a final table that featured many professional players, including a few of the most recognizable names in the field. Sunar was eliminated in fourth place, while Watts – a recent World Poker Tour final table member – took third place.That left Dorey in a heads-up competition with Mark Karoullas. While Karoullas isn’t one of the biggest names in British poker, he had several notable cashes to his credit, including having won side events at both the 2009 World Heads-Up Poker Championship and the 2012 European Poker Tour event in London.But ultimately, this would be Dorey’s day to shine. On the final hand, Karoullas made a preflop call for all of his chips with A8, which put him ahead of Dorey’s A6. While Karoullas was ahead, a six on the flop turned the tables, and Dorey successfully sweated the turn and river in order to win his first live tournament title.Karoullas won £13,500 for second place.The win marked Dorey’s largest career cash, though he has had some notable successes over the past two years. Dorey has cashed twice in the World Series of Poker, and earlier this month finished 17th at the WPT Dublin Main Event.
