HomeBig day at APT Philippines 2019 with players lining up for the top attraction, the MAIN EVENT – P10 Million guaranteed. At the end of the scheduled eight rounds, 124 signed up with only 56 remaining at bagging time. Claiming the chip lead was China’s Xiaobo Zhou with 145,900.
Xiaobo Zhou – Day 1A chip leader
During the last level, Zhou and and Philippine’s Jiego Erquiaga battled for leadership. Erquiaga jumped out front after railing a player with A♠ J♥ over A♥ 10♥ on a board that completed to A♣ 2♦ 3♠ 6♥ A♦. However, just before the last hands were called, he tangled with the other big stack Zhou and lost with A♣ 8♦ to 7♦ 7♣ two pair on a board of Q♣ Q♦ 4♦ K♣ 3♣. This gave Zhou the lead while Erquiaga closed in second rank with 126,800.
Impressively, driving his short stack to third position was Japan’s Harunobu Kojima. Kojima doubled up twice during the last 15 minutes of play to bag up 114,200. Similar situation for Italy’s Sandro Bruni. He doubled up through John Costiniano with K♣ K♦ over Q♠ J♠ on a running board of 6♣ 8♠ 6♠ 8♥ Q♥. Bruni ended the day with 113,200. To round off the top five was Japan’s Tomoharu Furuya with 109,900. The top five were the only players to cross into the six-digit marker.
Henrik Tollefsen
Other notable players advancing were two-time APT Main Event champion Henrik Tollefsen (53,400), Linh Tran (36,800), Cao Ngoc Anh (86,600), and John Tech (73,700).
Full Main Event Day 1A Chip Counts
Day 1A survivors advance to Day 2 taking place on Sunday, April 28 at 1pm at Resorts World Manila. They await the results of the next starting day.
Day 1B gets underway on Saturday, April 27 at 1pm. This is the last starting day offered. For players joining, make sure to get there early and have your chips in play on the first deal to be eligible for Bubble Protection.