HomePASAY CITY, Philippines – 128 entries have already been tallied in the Asian Poker Tour (APT) 2022 Philippines Championships Event bringing the prize pool to now over PhP14M (US$247,088) with registration open for the first two levels of Day 2. All this while former APT Player of the Series (POS) Mike Takayama took down his second title this leg as action continued to be riveting at the Grand Wing Casino, Newport World Resorts here.
128 entries almost doubled the Day 1A turnout bringing the total entries to 196 in this PhP80,000 (US$1,412) buy-in event. Registration closes at the end of the break following Level 10 (Blinds: 1,000/2,000 BB Ante 2,000) which happens during Day 2 tomorrow (November 25th) at precisely 1:00PM (UCT+8). 38 advanced from Day 1A.
Day 1B saw the rise of Germany’s Samuel Tebege to the top of the leaderboard with 318,500–good for second overall as 63 made it through to the next phase.
Tegebe, who was among those waylaid by Matthew Holley of the North Marianas Islands in yesterday’s 2-Day No Limit Hold’Em (NLH) has had cashes in the United States, Belgium, Malta and the Czech Republic prior to his first APT cash yesterday.
Following Tebege is Filipino Randee Clybouw with exactly 300,000 while Korea’s Ha Woojong finished the session at third with 243,500.
13-time APT champion Lester Edoc continues to pace the field with 348,000 in chips.
| Player | Pos. | Table | Seat | Chips | Country |
| EDOC LESTER | 1 | 23 | 8 | 348,000 | PHI |
| TEBEGE SAMUEL | 2 | 22 | 5 | 318,500 | GER |
| CLYBOUW RANDEE | 3 | 34 | 3 | 300,000 | PHI |
| LI LOK CHING | 4 | 27 | 2 | 272,000 | AUS |
| KIEM PAUL | 5 | 24 | 3 | 245,000 | USA |
| WOOJONG HA | 6 | 28 | 4 | 243,500 | KOR |
| NASATHAEN ORATHAI | 7 | 28 | 6 | 240,500 | THA |
| DELA CRUZ RUDERICO | 8 | 24 | 4 | 207,500 | PHI |
| TALAMAYAN JOSEPH | 9 | 30 | 7 | 189,000 | PHI |
| ROSETE MAXWELL | 10 | 27 | 8 | 167,500 | PHI |
Meanwhile, Takayama triumphed anew, this time in (Event #30) the High-Rollers 6-Max Hyper Turbo wherein he finished fourth in the last staging less than 24 hours ago.
Mike Takayama (PHI) now joins Katsuhiro Kawai with two titles in these proceedings
The win was the second in these proceedings by the WSOP Bracelet holder and pocketed PhP287,500 (US$5,075). However, the 161.99 POS points he garnered puts him once again at the heels of Japan’s Katsuhiro Kawai in the POS battle and trails in that race by a mere 43.45 points, 1,006.28 to 962.83.
It is one of the closest duels in recent memory.
Local bet Ephraim Guevara captured second place for PhP141,200 (US$2,492) while third went to Hon Yeong Woo of Korea for PhP75,700 (US$1,336).
(Event #29) the Super Deep Stack Turbo (S-DST) attracted 43 entries and ultimately had Japan claiming a 1-2 finish as Masatoshi Tanaka emerged victorious and received PhP195,600 (US$3,452) while Kazuhiro Tamura got PhP131,000 (US$2,312) for his second place finish. Ayesh Heiti was the third placer for PhP91,000 (US$1,606).
Masatoshi Tanaka (JPN) tops the field in the Super Deep Stack Turbo (S-DST)
Finally, just before the APT Players Party got underway, Japan snared another trophy as Sho Sakui outlasted 39 entries en route to the title in (Event #31) the Hyper Deep Stack Turbo (H-DST) for his first APT crown and sixth cash. Sakui, whose only other title came in Switzerland in 2018, also took home PhP78,000 (US$1,377) after an ICM Chop was agreed upon during the three-handed portion of the tiff.
The Philippines Joseph Sia got PhP77,000 (US$1,356) for being the runner-up while finishing in third was another Filipino in Joshua Cordova for PhP60,900 (US$1,075).
As the APT Players Party rages on, players will take whatever rest they can before Day 2 of the Championships Event happens as three more Turbo events plus the opening of (Event #32) the 2-day Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) tourney unfolds at 3:00PM.