HomeIt took over five hours for Day 3 of the CHAMPIONSHIPS EVENT to conclude and when it did, it was no surprise to see who was at the top of the chip rung. Philippine player Joseph Talamayan brought his mighty axe down on six players and even delivered the bubble to stockpile 3,715,000. With 9,524,700 chips in play, do the math. He has over a third of that total.
You can read up on the Day 3 action via the Live Updates. We also have a Day 3 recap below along with a brief bio on the Final 8 players.
Final 8 players
Top: Joseph Talamayan, Oliver Helm, Ashish Munot, David Erquiaga – Bottom: Vamerdino Magsakay, Nguyen Nam Duong, Tanaka Masatoshi, Lim Chor Heng
Final 8 chip count
Joseph Talamayan – Philippines – 3,715,000
Oliver Helm – New Zealand – 1,476,000
Ashish Munot – India – 1,041,000
David Erquiaga – Philippines – 934,000
Vamerdino Magsakay – Philippines – 893,000
Nguyen Nam Duong – Vietnam – 637,000
Tanaka Masatoshi – Japan – 439,000
Lim Chor Heng – Singapore – 390,000
Final day info
Date: Sunday, July 14, 2019
Time: 1:30PM
Total chips in play: 9,524,700
Average stack: 1,190,587
Opening blinds: 12K – 24K ante 24K (countdown from 29 minutes)
The Final 8 race to the crown will stream live on APT Twitch and APT YouTube.
Running hot and with the best chance of shipping the title is the chip leader Joseph Talamayan. He is a rare sight in the APT circuit but he did finish 14th at APT Philippines 2018 Main Event in September. Talamayan bagged an overwhelming stack in Day 1A, was one of the leaders entering Day 3, and will be bringing in an intimidating 3,715,000 stack to the Final 8.
Oliver Helm and Nguyen Nam Duong are back at the final table. Both of these players made it to the series Main Event Final 8. Nam Duong finished in 2nd place and Helm finished in 3rd place. Helm enters in second rank with a bulging 1,476,000 stack while Nam Duong has 637,000 which is a decent 26 big blinds.
The lone player from India in the Final 8, Ashish Munot, brings in the third biggest of 1,041,000. He rounds out the top three with over a million. Wherever Munot finishes, he will be pocketing his largest live tournament payout.
Aside from Talamayan, the roster also includes two other players from the Philippines: David Erquiaga and Vamerdino Magsakay. Between the two, Magsakay previously reached the final table. He finished 3rd at the APT Philippines 2019 Main Event in April. Magsakay enters with 893,000 while Erquiaga has slightly more of 934,000.
Japanese player Tanaka Masatoshi enters with 439,000. Alike several of the players, he has been at the final table before. He is looking to better his 7th place finish at the APT Philippines 2018 Championships Event in September. And to complete the list is Singapore’s lone hope, Lim Chor Heng with 390,000. Lim was a strong force in Day 3, knocking out four players. No matter where Lim finishes, it will be his first deep run at a major APT tournament.
All of these players are on the hunt for their first-ever APT championship title.
Final 8 payouts
1st VND 1,655,320,000
2nd VND 1,103,570,000
3rd VND 767,180,000
4th VND 554,120,000
5th VND 414,400,000
6th VND 319,830,000
7th VND 253,970,000
8th VND 206,920,000
Championships Event Day 3 recap
The Championships Event is the second featured tournament of APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh 2019 ongoing at Pro Poker club. It drew 192 entries at VND 38,500,000 each for a prize pool of VND 6,518,400,000 (~USD 279,000). The money flowed in Day 3 after the fall of Chen Da Jia on the bubble with pocket jacks losing to Talamayan’s pocket queens.
Bubble bursts
From there, it was a race to the Final 8. By this time, it was Singapore’s Lim Chor Heng backed by the largest stack of over 1.2M. He won a three-way showdown before the bubble burst. It sent Sumit Sapra to the rail and Cao Ngoc Anh in the danger zone.
First to claim a piece of the prize pool was Yong Huyn Yoo (20th). He didn’t have much going and nurtured his short stack enough to reach the money. Following him to the rail was a very disappointed Tung Nguyen (19th) who pushed on the turn with top two pair only to get called and rivered by Je Hun Hong ‘s flush.
Bounced out next was the Cao Ngoc (18th). Cao Ngoc was the only player in Day 3 hunting for a second major APT title. He came out firing, lost a large portion of his stack to Lim on a three-way showdown, and managed to hang on to reach the money. He was eliminated by Oliver Helm with pocket kings over pocket queens.
Ngo Trung Hieu took 17th, he went all in with A-Q but Ashish Munot had him dominated with A-K that held. The next casualty was Lakshpal Singh (16th) with A♥ A♦ cracked by Lim’s 3♦ 3♥. The shoves were on the turn 2♠ 3♣ 10♥ 8♠ 5♥. Kim Hak Do tumbled 15th, he was Talamayan’s second victim of the day. Lim claimed his fourth and last knockout with Nguyen Tien Thanh “Terry” in 14th place. This was another good run for Terry who finished 4th at the series Main Event.
The Talamayan hammer
Then the Talamayan hammer came down, knocking out four of the five next players to close the day and form the Final 8. Falling in 13th place was Ta Duy Quoc Chinh who called to his doom with top pair but was way behind Talamayan’s nut flush. The last Korean in the lineup followed. Je Hun Hong may have rivered Tung Nguyen earlier but against Talamayan, he missed his draw to drop out in 12th place. Binh Minh took 11th place with pocket fours running into Talamayan’s pocket eights turned quads. This formed the unofficial final table with Talamayan sporting nearly 3M in chips.
Short stacked Bobby Zhu Xinghua could not catch a break and left in 10th place with all his chips sent to Helm. Tran Huy Hoang bubbled to the Final 8 with Talamayan crushing Tran’s top pair with a flush on the river.
Joseph Talamayan
Payouts 9th -20th
9th Tran Huy Hoang – Vietnam – VND 172,440,000
10th Bobby Zhu Xinghua – Singapore – VND 143,700,000
11th Binh Vinh – Vietnam – VND 119,750,000
12th Je Hun Hong – Korea – VND 119,750,000
13th Ta Duy Quoc Chinh – Vietnam – VND 99,790,000
14th Nguyen Tien Thanh “Terry” – Vietnam – VND 99,790,000
15th Kim Hak Do – Korea – VND 99,790,000
16th Lakshpal Singh – India – VND 83,160,000
17th Ngo Trung Hieu – Vietnam – VND 83,160,000
18th Cao Ngoc Anh – Vietnam – VND 83,160,000
19th Tung Nguyen – Vietnam – VND 69,300,000
20th Yong Huyn Yoo – Korea – VND 69,300,000