HomeNow that both qualifying days of the Main Event are in the books, it is time for Day 2 with 81 players returning to Resorts World Manila for the next stage of their battle. The past two days saw the APT Philippines 2017 II draw in 132 entries and at USD 1,650 per buy-in, the prize pool came to USD 192,060. The eventual winner will take home the juiciest cut of USD 49,070 and the APT Championship Ring.
Day 2 kicks off at 1pm today with Australia’s Ram Sanati Farajash riding high at the top with a commanding lead. Farajash amassed a 222,000 stack at Day 1A. Coming in second in chips is USA’s Ian Lee who also stacked up in Day 1A. Lee enters with 197,400. The next two players were the leaders in Day 1B, Vietnam’s Anh Nguyen with 172,500 and Japan’s Kiyohito Takeda with 172,000.
The agenda for today is to complete another eight rounds or to the money of 18 places, whichever is reached first. Blinds will begin at Level 9: 600-1200 ante 200. The average stack is 81,400. Out of all the gunners, only 14 players are bubble protected.
You can view the top 20 leaders here. For the complete list, head to the APT Facebook page.
We will be posting live updates on some of the action which you can access through this link. You can also click on the banner at the home page of the website.
Finland’s Jukka Jarvinen hails at the Super Deep Stack Turbo
Super Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Jukka Jarvinen
The Super Deep Stack Turbo took command of the far side of the poker room with players enjoying the first fast-paced event the festival had to offer. The event tallied 61 entries for a prize pool worth USD 17,750. After a wild and crazy rollercoaster ride just to get to the final table of 10 players, nerves continued to be on edge with the bubble round at hand and the average stack at a lowly six big blinds.
The bubble burst when Andy Li Xueyan crippled Mark Pagsuyuin with A-K outdrawing J-J. This sent Pagsuyuin down to two big blinds and was eliminated one orbit later by Finland’s Jukka Jarvinen. After the fall of Iran’s Roozbeh Namvarasi in 9th place, the crew moved to the RFID table where Jarvinen went on to win the event.
Getting to the top seemed easy for Jarvinen who took down nearly all the players at the final 8. He eliminated ailing short stacks Go Mori (6th) and Elan Zak (7th) simultaneously with his 5♠ 3♠ besting J♦ 8♦ and A♣ 4♦ on a board of 5♥ 3♥ 4♣ 7♥ 8♥; he booted out Lee Seungkwan (5th) with his 9-9 landing quads on a board of 8-7-9-9-5 to bad beat 10-10; he sent Hiroshi Miyoshi packing in 3rd place with A-5 over K-J; and to cap it all, his A♠ K♥ dominated Jiego Erquiaga’s A♣ 2♣ to win the tournament.
You can catch all the head-turning action in the APT Twitch channel and at the APT YouTube station.
Japan’s Kohei Kawanishi wins the WeLoveSport.com event
WLS Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Kohei Kawanishi
The last side event to complete yesterday was the WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo event. This event got started in the evening with 75 entries heating up the felt. Alike the earlier turbo event, action was fast and brutal with players on a shove or fold at the final 8. By the time it reached the heads up round, Japan’s Kohei Kawanishi faced off against USA’s Mike Steinbacher who is now a familiar face at the feature table with three appearances.
Before the winner emerged, there were a few hands that shook the felt. Kawanishi check-called Steinbacher to the river and not only won with his J-8 on a board of K-K-8-6-J but also exposed Steinbacher’s 10-9 bluff.
Despite falling into the danger zone, Steinbacher managed to claw his way back up and into the chip lead. All his work however came crashing down in one brutal hand. Both players were all in preflop, Steinbacher K♥ K♦ and Kawanishi 9♣ 9♥. The board ran Q♣ 7♥ 9♠ 4♠ 8♠ for a winning set to Kawanishi. He shipped in a huge double up. Not long after, Kawanishi eliminated Steinbacher to claim his first-ever APT trophy and the USD 3,010 first place purse. After the tournament, Steinbacher told us it was the third pocket kings that burned him today. He was eliminated at the Main Event and at the earlier turbo event holding cowboys.
You can catch all the final 8 action in the APT Twitch channel and at the APT YouTube station.
Tuesday, September 19: Events on the floor
With Day 2 of the Main Event kicking things off, two side events will be sharing the floor later in the day. The Pot Limit Omaha Hi gets started at 3pm. Buy-in is USD 330. This is the only non-Texas Hold’em tournament on the schedule. In the evening, the MegaSportsWorld Deep Stack Turbo fires up with a buy-in of USD 185.
Full schedule and structure can be found here.