HomeIt was another record-breaking day at the Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2016 with players getting out of the summer heat and filing up the tables of the day’s side events. By night’s end, two players emerged victorious and were awarded the first trophies of the festival.
Event 1: Opening Event $50,000 Guarantee
Out of the monstrous 338 entries for the record-breaking Opening Event, only 76 players survived day one. They returned today to battle it out for the first trophy of the APT Philippines 2016. Leading the pack was Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon who had a dominating chip lead but was unable to keep it intact and bowed out before reaching the money. The player who did go the distance was Filipino player Julius Lagman.
APT-RWM Opening Event Champion, Julius Lagman
Lagman’s run for the title was akin to watching someone in zen mode. Cool, patient, and relaxed, he eliminated USA’s Ben Martin with quad nines just before entering the final table as one of the leaders. At the final table, he took light stabs at pots until he eventually doubled up in a hand against USA’s Nick Gorman. With over 1.3M chips to play with, he railed Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan in 4th place with trips and claimed over half the chips in play. Then the tides turned. He doubled up Canadian Zack Lazarus when his ten-eight offsuit was no good against Lazarus’s ace-four. Shortly after, he doubled up China’s Zhinning Chen when his pocket jacks was burned by Chen’s pocket nines that landed a full house on the board.
Quietly letting go of the recent misfortune, Lagman continued coolly until he eliminated Lazarus in 3rd place with his A♥ 7♥ versusLazarus’s K♥ 3♥ on a board of 7♣ 2♣ 7♣ 4♣ 5♥. At heads up against Chen, Lagman was ahead in chips, roughly around 60/40. They struck a deal and resumed play for the remaining pot and the trophy. The final hand saw Chen call Lagman’s all in with Chen holding K♠ 4♠ and Lagman with 10♥ 10♣. The board offered no help to Chen and Lagman claimed the victory. Lagman earned $18,210 and the Opening Event trophy.
You can watch all the final table action on APT Twitch.tv
Event 2: Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers
The Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers event saw 19 players pony up the $2,200 buy-in with only 6 of them surviving by the end of regulation time. Returning tomorrow with the largest stack will be Filipino player Johnson Tan with 599,000 chips.
Event 3: Battle of the Nations
The Battle of the Nations turned up a record-breaking number of 60 players, that’s a total of 30 teams. This event will resume tomorrow with 8 players remaining at the end of the allotted time. All the players are from different teams. Team Vietnam with Pham Duy Tien and Thai Phuc An earned the last team standing cash prize of $2,320.
Event 4: Ante Up for Charity
Ante Up for Charity Champion, Sam Razavi
The Ante Up for Charity event with a $150 entry fee also had a record-breaking turnout. There were a total of 62 entries, the highest number of participants to date. This brought the prize pool to a generous $9,300 with $3,100 going to charity and the rest as cash prizes. Facing off at the heads up round were UK”s Samad Razavi and India’s Srinivas Polishetty. Both players opted to cut a deal and resumed play for the trophy. Although Polishetty had more chips, Razavi grinded his way to take a slight chip advantage and in the final hand of the night, Razavi burned Polishetty’s pocket queens with a straight.Razavi earned $1,520 and the event trophy. This is the first event Razavi participated in and has already claimed a title.
Tomorrow’s Events
Tomorrow will be another big day of poker festivities at the APT Philippines 2016. In addition to the continuation of the PLO High Rollers and Battle of the Nations, the Head Hunter $100 Bounty kicks off at 1pm. Buy-in is $440. Shortly after, at 130pm, the Ladies of Poker takes to the felt. This has a $165 buy-in fee. At 2pm, the High Roller Open Face Chinese Pineapple Shooutout (12 max). Buy-in for this event is $1,100. Then at 3pm and at 6pm there will be satellites for the Main Event. For full details, head to the website.