HomeAnother side event in the books, another trophy awarded at the Asian Poker Tour Kickoff 2017 at Resorts World Manila!
The NLH Welcome Event resumed today with the Final 8 players out of 120 entries back at the felt for the race to victory. Taking control at the latter stages was Filipino pro John Tech, railing half the field to claim the US$4,460 first prize and his first trophy of the festival.
NLH Welcome Event Champion, John Tech
The Final 8 began with George Taylor as the first casualty, falling in 8th place. Taylor shoved his 2♣ 2♦ at the flop and ran right into Tech’s A♣ A♠. Immediately after, short stacks began to fall in succession. Jay Aldave couldn’t dodge Guido Budack’s overcards and was sent out in 7th place. Sato Shinichiro was next, also falling at the hands of Budack in 6th place, then Jonald Garcia was rivered by Phil Rohm to join the railbirds in 5th place.
At this point, it was all Tech. He shipped in all of Rohm’s chips with another winning pocket aces, then ousted Budack with his 2♦ 2♥ set against A♦ J♦ on a board of 2♠ 5♦ A♥ 4♣ Q♣.
Entering the heads up round, Tech had nearly a 5:1 chip advantage against Allan Daypuyart however taking care of business proved to be difficult. The first hand quickly awarded Daypuyart a double up with pocket kings to slow down the game. Tech answered back, picking up several pots to jump back up to a dominating lead but just when he was cruising to victory, Daypuyart caught a lucky break with his K♥ 3♥ flush against Tech’s A♣ 8♦ for a double up to take a slight chip lead.
The round resumed with both players seesawing back and forth as the biggest stack until Tech finally slammed the door shut with two winning hands. The final hand saw Tech’s A♣ 9♠ connect on the board of 5♠ K♦ 6♣ 9♥ 8♦ to crush Daypuyart’s A♦ J♠. You can watch all the Final 8 action on the APT Twitch channel.
Final 8 Payouts
1st John Tech – Philippines – US$3,900 (deal made)
2nd Allan Daypuyart – Philippines – US$3,710 (deal made)
3rd Guido Budack – Italy – US$1,810
4th Phil Rohm – USA – US$1,320
5th Jonald Garcia – Philippines – US$1,090
6th Sato Sinichiro – Japan – US$900
7th Julius Aldave – Philippines – US$740
8th George Taylor – Jamaica – US$620
APT donates PHP60,000 to the Cancer Warriors Foundation
APT Charity check awarded to the Cancer Warriors Foundation
Main Event Warm-Up recap
The Main Event Warm-Up attracted 73 entries, each one ponying up US$440 for a total prize pool US$28,320. By the end of the scheduled 16 rounds, there were 14 players remaining with Jamaica’s George Taylor in the lead with 607,000 chips.
At the start of the day, Taylor was seen at the Final 8 of the NLH Welcome Event but after an early departure, he jumped into the Warm-Up. It wasn’t until the last four levels where Taylor began to accumulate a stack well above average. What sent him soaring though was a stunning bad beat hand against Michael Kim Falcon. On a turn board of 3♥ 3♠ 5♠ Q♣, Taylor snap-called Falcon’s three-bet shove with both players almost even in stacks. Falcon held A♠ 3♣ trips and Taylor with 2♣ 2♦ two pair. The river 2♥ dealt a crushing blow to Falcon as Taylor landed his two-outer to improve to a full house.
Coming in second position was Malaysia’s Liew Kuen Seng with 575,000 in chips. Liew was one of the day’s early chip leaders and consistently won multiple pots to finish with a big stack. Rounding out the top three was Filipino John Costiniano with 344,00 in chips.
Among the survivors include pros Lester Edoc, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, APT RPOY China winner Hung-Sheng Lin, and past APT Main Event champion Alexis Lim.
The event saw a number of pros in the field however they failed to make the cut. Among them were APT POY 2016 champion Iori Yogo, Singapore’s Alex Lee, India’s Kunal Patni, and John Tech.
Action resumes tomorrow at 1pm. Only 9 players will see dividends with the eventual winner earning US$7,840. The Final 8 will be featured on the RFID table and will be aired in the APT Twitch channel.