HomeWow! What an incredible day at the APT Championships Event! The recently crowned APT Main Event champion, Lester Edoc, leads the race! Edoc took full command of the later levels to close out Day 2 backed by a gargantuan stack of 1,162,000. He was also the only player that crossed the million range.
Chip Leader heading into Day 3, Lester Edoc
The APT Philippines Championships 2018 at Resorts World Manila saw a total of 82 entries for the Championships Event with 51 back at the felt today. With registration still open for an hour in Day 2, this added another 18 entries to bring the total tally up to exactly 100. One of those entrants was Edoc, jumping in for the first time.
The opening rounds were rough on Edoc, dropping from the 50k starting stack to just 11k. This left him with slightly over 10 bbs on just the second level of the day.
But this was Edoc. The Filipino pro had been on an insane hot streak, crushing every tournament on home soil. It was only a matter of time that he’d find a spot to double up in. It came against Tetsuya Tsuchikawa with Q♦ 8♠ over J♥ 3♥. From there, Edoc’s stack continued to grow until the final three tables where he just about slingshot beyond reach.
It was a three-way showdown that did it. Joachim Chua had 8-8, Kim Taehyung 9-9, and Edoc with A♦ K♦. When the board ran J♥ K♠ 6♦ A♣ A♦ it was a double knockout with Edoc shipping in 980k. During the bubble round, he earned several more pots to end Day 2 over the seven-digit marker.
Bubble bursts
While Edoc bagged up a massive pile, one player that missed the money by one spot was Gyeong Byeong Lee, the day’s entering chip leader.
Throughout the day, Lee stayed consistent, bobbing slightly up and down but always one of the top runners. Entering the bubble round, he had a very healthy stack and seemed to be a shoe-in for Day 3.
But things went awry for Lee. In just two hands running back-to-back, he took a nosedive getting railed on a terrible bad beat. You can read about it via this link, but we’ll give you the final hand.
Lee and Kosei Ichinose had all their chips in on a board K♦ Q♣ 9♦ 2♦. Lee held 4♦ 5♦ flush and Ichinose Q♥ Q♠ set. When the 2♠ came down on the river, Ichinose overtook with a full house to deliver Lee a shocking defeat. Ichinose, on the other, bagged up 723,000 – the second largest stack of Day 2.
Apart from the day’s action, the official prize pool was revealed.
Prize pool – Php9,700,000
17 places paid
1st – Php2,402,500
The final 17 players will return for Day 3 on Sunday, April 1. With everyone now in the money, they will be playing to the Final 8.
Joining the top two chip leaders are a couple of decorated APT Main Event champions, Iori Yogo (592,000) and Henrik Tollefsen (181,000). Also making the list were Yun Bong – 5th at the Main Event. APT Player of the Year 2017 winner- Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, pros Kunal Patni, Eugene Co, and Dhanesh Chainani to mention a few.
Check out the LiveUpdates for a read on some of the exciting action of Day 2.