HomeThe Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2016 II Main Event was the highlight of the day at Resorts World Manila in Newport City, Philippines, with Day 1a attracting a small field of forty players, however most of them were highly decorated and well-known in the APT and Asian circuit.
The day began with fifteen players getting to the table early and availing of the Main Event Bubble Protection. Among them were previous APT Main Event champions, Japanese pro Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, who was already warmed up after a 3rd place finish at the Head Hunter event just minutes prior, and Japanese pro Iori Yogo who currently leads the APT Player of the Year 2016 rankings. Other champions who joined in after the starting buzzer were Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee, Filipino pro Mike Takayama, and Canada’s Linh Tran. Although most of them would make it through to Day 2, it was Tran who deserved the most recognition after closing out the day as the chip leader with a massive 240,500 chips.
Main Event Day 1A Chip Leader, Linh Tran
Throughout the day, Tran displayed nothing but ferocity at the felt. He eliminated Filipino player Jay Lubas very early in the tournament with a dominating set of tens winning against a missed flush draw. Halfway into the main, he proceeded to rail Takayama in stunning fashion. The hand began with Takayama raising on the button and then shoving his healthy stack after Tran three bet on the small blind. Tran quickly called with 8♣ 8♠, revealing Takayama’s 7♥ 5♦ bluff. Although the board ran low, it still didn’t improve Takayama and he was eliminated. Tran capped off his night scooping up all the chips of Filipino player Jon Costiniano to be the only player to cross the 200k chip range.
Coming in second-in-chips was Korea’s SJ Kim who jumped into an early lead after cracking the aces of Guam’s Jim Bonanno with pocket kings improving to a set on the river. Before ending the night, Kim was granted a pair of aces of his own and proceeded to eliminate Japan’s Kengo Nishihara who shoved with ace-king. Kim ended the day with 176,400 chips.
Rounding out the top three was Malaysia’s Kah Boon Teh. Teh is one of the most memorable newcomers this year having reached the heads up round at the APT Main Event three months ago in this very same venue. Teh didn’t win the championship then but the amount of bad beats he delivered to get to the runner up spot was simply mind-blowing. At today’s festivities, there were no crazy moments for Teh, just a steady influx of chips amounting to 154,000 at bagging.
There were a total of 21 survivors today with several notable players in the lineup, Norway’s Kai Paulsen, Guam’s Annie Bordallo, Singapore’s Alex Lee, Malaysia’s Victor Chong, and China’s Guofu Chen. They will return on Sunday for Day 2 of the Main Event.
For a read on some of the highlights and to view the full chip counts of Day 1a, head directly to the Live Reporting section of the website. Day 1b takes the floor Saturday promptly at 1pm.