HomeAt the end of Day 1B of the APT Philippines 2014 Main Event, it was Do Hoang Anh from Vietnam who led the pack towing 66 others to the next round of the highlight tournament of the eight-day poker festivities at the Resorts World Manila.
Chip Leader Going Into Main Event Day 2, Do Hoang Anh
Anh had 87,725 in chips to grab overall leadership going into Day 2 outdoing the pair from Guam, Jim Bonanno (79,375) and Annie Bordallo (75,175), who led Day 1A.
Four others are not far behind however, as the Philippines’ Richard Marquez (73,525) and Jojo Tech (71,275); Canada’s Linh Duong (71,875) and South Korea’s SJ Kim (72,375) did their share of getting into big pots and winning them to claim a spot in the top five for Day 1B.
When approached for an interview, Anh politely begged off saying he wasn’t too good in the English language. But perhaps, his poker skills can do all the talking.
A quick count at dinner break showed that Anh already had roughly 79,000 in chips with still two levels to go in Day 1B. Some of those chips came from a set-over-set win in Level 3; and yet another set-over-set situation in the same level! If not for a late loss in a raising war versus Anvar Muratov, the Vietnamese would have had a bigger lead over the field.
Next to Anh for Day 1B leadership is Marquez, a local pro from the host country.
“Before the last hand I had around 60,000 and someone shoved 9,000. I had ace-ten so I decided to call it (thinking) he had something like suited connectors or maybe pushing king-queen or king-jack since he was short stacked,” said Marquez referring to the day’s last hand, which put him among the leaders.
The APT live reporting team also caught up with New Zealander Paul Hockin, the recent APT Asian Series Cebu Main Event champion, who is looking for back-to-back APT titles in 2014.
“I got pretty lucky today, I got aces twice and got my chips through that. I had a few decent hands in the pocket. I think I made a few mistakes today but hopefully tomorrow I can play better,” shared Hockin. “It would be nice to go back-to-back obviously and lock up some APT Player of the Year points.”
The APT champion was seated beside Bryan Huang (Singapore) for the latter part of the evening and the Kiwi admitted that it’s a challenge playing against the popular pro.
“A little bit, I’m quite good friends with Bryan so we talk hands a bit so he knows how I play and (I know) how he plays. So yeah, I just play a little bit tighter when he was on my left,” said Hockin, who had 61,500 in chips. Huang also has a playable stack entering Day 2 with 25,450 in chips.
Check the chip count tab of the live reporting page for a complete list of all Day 2 qualifiers.
A total of 116 players advanced to the next round from the original total of 208 main event entries which generated a prize pool of $504,400. The lion’s share of $126,500 will go to the newest APT Main Event champion and 27 players will end up in the money for at least $5,500.
Day 2 of the Main Event begins at 1:00 p.m. Monday, May 5. Two side events are still on tap with the $450 NLHE event at 3:00 p.m. and the $170 WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo event at 7:00 p.m. Go to the APT Philippines 2014 Events Schedule page for full details.