HomeDay 3 of APT Philippines 2019 saw another batch of players capture one of the mighty APT Golden Lion trophies. That brings our total winners to five with plenty more events to conquer. The latest victors were Japan’s Narutoshi Otsuka, Guam’s Randie Villavicencio, and Taiwan’s Fu Bang Huang. We have recaps below on those events. Additionally, the final 8 roundup of the High Rollers Single Day (Shot Clock) and the Head Hunter broadcasted on APT Twitch and APT YouTube. You can check those out anytime.
APT Player of the Series standings
High Rollers Single Day (Shot Clock) #1
The second High Rollers event of the series drew 37 entries with each one ponying up the P86,000 buy-in. Out of the P2,871,200 (~USD 55,000) prize pool, 7 players earned a cut. Emerging victorious was Japan’s Narutoshi Otsuka claiming his first-ever live tournament APT title.
Narutoshi Otsuka – High Rollers Single Day winner
Prior to Otsuka’s victory, the final 8 players were moved to the RFID feature table with the money just one spot away. Sitting as chip leader was China’s Yu Kunlong. He proceeded to pay a costly double up to Koichi Aiba to drop to nearly bottom rank. His attempt to get back up proved futile to bust out on the bubble at the hands of Tobias Peters. This gave Peters the chip lead.
At 7 remaining and everyone guaranteed a piece of the pot, the trend continued. Out next was Peters who shoved on a board 3♥ A♣ J♠ holding A♠ J♥ top two pair only to run into Aiba’s J♦ J♣ set. The turn 5♠ and river 9♥ were no help, Peters was down to two small chips and busted shortly after.
One of four Japanese players at the table fell 6th on a three-way showdown. Short stacked Ryo Kotake risked it all with A♠ K♠, Otsuka did the same with A♦ J♦, and Lester Edoc called with 6♦ 6♣ after having already fired out an initial three-bet. The board ran J♠ 5♣ 4♦ 8♥ 8♠. This sent Otsuka into second rank with five remaining.
Chip leader Aiba distanced himself further from the pack by dusting Roger Spets in 5th place with A-2 finding an ace on the board to overtake pocket jacks. Out next was Edoc in 4th place; this guaranteed a Japanese victory with Aiba, Otsuka, and Kosaku Akashi remaining.
Alike Kotake’s bust out, Otsuka railed Akashi in 3rd place with his dominated A♣ 6♣ getting lucky against A♥ 10♥ on a board of 10♣ 6♦ J♠ 6♥ J♣. He shipped a monster stack going into heads up against Aiba. Aiba couldn’t make a dent and fell in 2nd place with A♦ 7♦ losing to A♥ Q♣. The final board was 9♥ A♣ J♣ J♦ 9♠, higher kicker plays.
Payouts
1st Narutoshi Otsuka – Japan – P986,800
2nd Koichi Aiba – Japan – P634,100
3rd Kosaku Akashi – Japan – P427,500
4th Lester Edoc – Philippines – P301,200
5th Roger Spets – Switzerland – P221,000
6th Ryo Kotake – Japan – P168,200
7th Tobias Peters – Netherlands – P132,400
Head Hunter
The highly popular Head Hunter event attracted the largest side event field so far with 130 entries (P16,500 buy-in) charging the tables. While the P1,497,600 (~USD 28,700) prize pool was very healthy, the instant bounty reward of P4,000 made everyone even hungrier. After a two-day run, Guam’s Randie Villavicencio outlasted them all to ship the P363,300 (~USD 7,000) first prize along with 8 bounty cash rewards. This was his first ever APT title.
Randie Villavicencio – Head Hunter champion
Day 1 of the Head Hunter saw the money reached (22 places) at the fall of David Erquiaga on the bubble. Erquiaga’s A♣ K♦ was unable to improve against Moe Saquing’s J♣ J♠. From there, players hit the rail fast leading to the final 8 bagging up before 1am. The finalists returned today with Emmanuel Segismundo holding the largest stack.
Final 8 action started off fairly quick with the bottom three in the rung falling within the first hour. Saquing followed in 5th place to bring the field to half. At this point the game slowed. Everyone’s stack swung as each gained brief control the chip lead. Segismundo had a jump on the lead after winning a sizable pot against Villavicencio on a board 3♥ 10♥ 4♦ Q♥ 10♦ with progressive bets before the river was checked. Segismundo had K♥ 10♠ over Villavicencio’s J♣ 10♣.
Sent to the bottom, Villavicencio charged back and found his way to the top again until he was sent back down by Koren Dahan. As for Segismundo, his earlier win was the most he would pile up and eventually fell in 4th place to Stephen Nathan with A♦ A♣ fully dominating Q♦ Q♥. This awarded Nathan the lead and over half the chips in play.
Next heated action saw Dahan double up Villavicencio with A♣ 2♥ that didn’t improve against K♦ 9♥ on a board 5♥ K♣ 10♥ 9♦ 6♣. Dahan called the check-raise shove at the flop. Several hands later, the rest of Dahan’s chips went to Villavicencio with K♠ J♥ losing to 5♦ 5♣ that completed to a full house.
Heads up followed with Villavicencio backed by 70 percent of the chips in play. It took only two hands for Villavicencio to finish off Nathan. The final hand was 2♦ K♠ 7♥ 2♣ 9♠ with Nathan shoving his 7♣ 5♥ into Villavicencio’s K♦ 3♥.
Final 8 Payouts
1st Randie Villavicencio – Guam – P363,300
2nd Stephen Nathan – UK – P242,100
3rd Koren Dahan – Israel – P168,300
4th Emmanuel Segismundo – Philippines – P121,600
5th Moe Saquing – Philippines – P90,900
6th Eom Seung Hwan – Korea – P70,200
7th Daryl Lee – Singapore – P55,700
8th George Sandford – UK – P45,400
Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split Single Day (Shot Clock)
The Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split Single Day drew 38 entries. At P16,500 each, it generated a prize pool of P552,900 (~USD 10,600) of which 7 players profited. The money flowed after Fu Bang Huang eliminated a player on the bubble. Two dropouts later, the five-handed battle ended with everyone agreeing to an ICM deal with P30,000 and the trophy set aside for the winner. Not only did Huang have the largest stack during the deal, he went on to win it to pocket a total of P141,700.
Fu Bang Huang – PLO Hi-Lo Single Day winner
Payouts
1st Fu Bang Huang – Taiwan – P141,700
2nd Eom Seung Hwan – Korea – P95,700
3rd Ngeow Fai Chung (Tony) – Malaysia – P85,400
4th Tony Khoang – Netherlands – P90,200
5th Xiyong Zheng – China – P82,000
6th Claude Storno – USA – P32,400
7th Izutsu Shojiro – Japan – P25,500