HomeAfter Day 2 of the APT Asian Poker Series Cebu 2015 Main Event, only 30 players remained in contention for the first major Asian Poker Tour (APT) in the tournament held at the All In Poker Sports Club in Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu City, Philippines. The day dragged on to the last level scheduled for the day— with the bubble to the money yet to burst— in the highlight tournament of APT’s inaugural event of the year.
With only 27 places paid in the main event with a PHP 50,000 buy-in, the short stacks have lots to do in Day 3, which is set at 1:00 PM Tuesday (February 3rd). Alexey Gatsko of Russia won’t have that problem as he lands in the top spot after hauling in an impressive 573,500 in chips— the clear cut chip leader entering the next round.
How large was Gatsko’s haul for the day? Huge! As the Russian even asked tournament director Lloyd Fontillas for an extra chip bag during bag-and-tag time!
Gatsko started the day with 67,075— 14th among the 105 players who qualified for Day 2— and used the above average stack to pile up the chips including two key hands that brought him to the top of the heap.
With the board Q♥ 3♦ 9♣ J♣ 6♣ already tabled and a brewing pot in the middle, Gatsko fired for value of 80,000 to the middle to send an opponent to the tank. The opponent eventually folded and Gatsko scooped the big pot. A few hands later, it was Gatsko again against the same opponent and again the pair were fighting for a big pot. The board J♦ 2♥ 4♠ 6♥ 9♠ was again already in the middle and the Russian faced a good-sized bet of roughly 30,000 and Gatsko responded by going over the top to put the opponent at risk if he called! The opponent once again threw away his hand giving another good chunk to Gatsko, who reached over the 500K chip mark at this point.
“I completed the straight in that hand. I wasn’t bluffing,” shared Gatsko after bagging and tagging his chips.
The champion of the main event will earn PHP 2,307,300, the lion’s share for the total prize pool of PHP 9,236,300 created by 207 entries from three starting days.
The Top 4 Players Entering Main Event Day 3
Joining Gatsko atop Day 3 are Martin Gonzales (Philippines) with 305,000; Dinesh Alt (Switzerland) with 300,500; Charles Chua (Malaysia) with 250,000 and Kim Enriquez (Philippines) with 210,000.
APT Asian Poker Series Cebu 2015 Main Event Day 3 – Chip Counts:
1. Alexey Gatsko (Russia) – 573,500
2. Martin Gonzales (Philippines) – 305,000
3. Dinesh Alt (Switzerland) – 300,500
4. Charles Chua (Malaysia) – 250,000
5. Kim Michael Enriquez (Philippines) – 210,000
6. Jay Lubas (Philippines) – 201,000
7. John Tech (Philippines) – 196,000
8. Bryan Huang (Singapore) – 168,500
9. Thomas Urtti (Finland) – 167,000
10. Ichtiar Eripin (Indonesia) – 158,000
11. Simba (Korea) – 157,000
12. Yukio Kiyohara (Japan) – 113,500
13. Arvin Jason Palmero (Philippines) – 112,000
14. Mark Lloyd (Australia) – 106,000
15. Christian Haggart (Canada) – 105,500
16. Eulogio Yu Jr. (Philippines) – 103,000
17. Zhou Hongming (Singapore) – 100,850
18. Nash D (United States) – 99,500
19. Joseph Kim (Korea) – 92,000
20. Fred Romeo (USA) – 83,500
21. Gwak Junsop (Korea) – 77,500
23. Yoichi Fujiya (Japan) – 75,500
22. Chadalampos Lappas (Greece) – 75,500
24. Soebakti Hartanto (Indonesia) – 54,500
25. Ben Loo (Malaysia) – 53500
26. George Manolas (Australia) – 51,000
27. Peng Mendoza (USA) – 48,500
28. Jin Wook Lim (Korea) – 45,000
29. Sung Jin Park (Korea) – 36,500
30. Christopher Runas (Philippines) – 19,500
Aside from Day 3 of the main event, two other side events are on tap on Tuesday. The Heads Up (PHP 13,200) and Deep Stack Turbo 2 (PHP 5,500) are scheduled at 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM, respectively. For full details, check Events and Schedule page.