HomeIt was a tough day at the APT Championships Philippines 2017 with 57 players returning to the Main Event felt at Resorts World Manila. The agenda for the day was to reach the Final 8 and be one step closer to the title and the USD 105,530 first place purse. After an intense and serious eight hour battle, the finalists were established with Japan’s Asakura Yasuyuki at the helm with 2.14M in chips.
Final Table Chip Leader, Yasuyuki Asakura
Getting to the Final 8 was no walk in the park. It began with many players falling without any pay, including past APT Main Event champion, Ha Duong. The bubble burst on Aso Seitaro but since he was iinsured with bubble protection, he didn’t leave completely empty-handed.
For Yasuyuki, he entered the day second in chips and continued to dominate, eliminating many players very early. When he railed Sathesh Kumar with his set of sixes over Kumar’s pocket kings, his stack zoomed well past the million chip range, and from there, he never looked back. Another one of his crushing blows was the elimination of Michael De Leon who held pocket aces. With the all in at the flop, Yasuyuki turned a runner-runner nut flush. Click here for the hand report.
Among the notable players, past APT Main Event champion Linh Tran did well in chipping up to the final two tables but he couldn’t go any further than 18th place. His set of tens at the flop fell to Akashi Kosaku’s straight. Youren Bo also fell to Kosaku with pocket aces fully dominating pocket kings. After putting up a strong fight, Ying Lin Chua bowed out as well with his chips sliding over to the leader Yasuyuki. By then, Yasuyuki had amassed over 3M in chips. Although he lost some of it before the end of the day, he eliminated Byeongcheol Kim in 9th place to establish the Final 8.
Final 8 of the Main Event
Asakura Yasuyuki 2,140,000
Mike Takayama 1,990,000
Akashi Kosaku 1,870,000
Keith Seah 1,290,000
SJ Kim 1,165,000
William Te 1,065,000
Noel Araniel 830,000
Anton Del Rosario 695,000
Ending the day second in command is past APT Main Event champion Mike Takayama with 1,990,000 in chips. Takayama had a very impressive run to the Final 8. He entered the day with a healthy big stack but lost a massive pot against Byeongcheol Kim to send it spiraling way down until he was eventually left with only five big blinds. The grind upwards consisted of a couple of all in victories and a gamble with his ace-three suited. You can read up on his hands here.
Other rags to riches players were Keith Seah who was in danger of being the bubble boy when Chanting “Peggy” Chen called his short stack shove but was unable to eliminate him; and also William Te who tripled up his short stack with pocket nines.
Korea’s SJ Kim, Day 3’s entering chip leader is another past APT Main Event champion who made it into the Final 8. Kim didn’t have as many fireworks today as he did at Day 2 but he kept his stack well intact and finished with 1,165,000.
The Final 8 players will return for the race to the championship title at 130pm tomorrow. We will be streaming it live in the APT Twitch channel with a 30-minute delay.
Congratulations to all the finalists!
You can read up on all the Day 3 action, chip counts, and payouts in the Live Reporting page.
Main Event Day 1A – 170 entries
Main Event Day 1B – 272 entries
Day 2 recap
Ludovic Marcel Riehl wins the No Limit Hold’em 1
NLH 1 Champion, Marcel Riehl
While Day 3 was up and running, the No Limit Hold’em 1 event also resumed with 83 players returning out of the 204 entries. There was an adjustment to the event with two flights offered to accommodate the number of players wanting to enter. At USD 440 each, the total prize pool amounted to USD 79,150. Capturing his first ever APT trophy was France’s Ludovic Marcel Riehl who defeated Singapore’s Alex Lee at the heads up round. Both players struck a deal awarding Riehl USD 17,600 for his victory.
Final 8 payouts
1st Marcel Riehl – France – USD 17,600 (deal made)
2nd Alex Lee – Singapore – USD 13,590 (deal made)
3rd Jessie Leonarez – Philippines – USD 7,760
4th Masaaki Hibino – Japan – USD 5,540
5th Antonin Hiroux – France – USD 4,510
6th Ye Ke Jie – China – USD 3,640
7th Kazuki Sasaki – Japan – USD 2,930
8th Lester Edoc – Philippines – USD 2,370
There were 27 players paid for this event. You can watch the Final 8 action in the videos section of the APT Twitch channel and the APT YouTube channel.