HomeThe Final 8 of the Asian Poker Tour Finale Main Event has been decided here at the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Casino Filipino with Singapore’s Jeremy Giam Jian Hui in the lead with 605,000 chips.
APT Poker Finale 2015 Main Event Final Eight
But don’t let the chips fool you. Despite coming into the day as one of the leaders, Giam had a very tough day at the felt. After eliminating USA’s Gerald Casey before the money stage, he began to experience multiple attacks to his stack. He doubled up four players namely, Malaysia’s Cheng Teck Keong, Korea’s Lee Jongyeol, Japan’s Naruyasu Ota, and Filipino player Marc Rivera. It seemed as if he was the banker for everyone to withdraw chips from. He continued to lose more chips in a couple of big hands against UK’s Ben Martin. At one point, his stack went well below average and was in danger of elimination. He eventually was all in against Japan’s Kota Nakano and with his A♦ 8♥, he out-drew Nakano’s pocket sevens. From there, he caught another lucky break and scooped a massive double up when his A♦ J♠ connected with a flush 4♠ 8♠ 10♠ J♣ K♠ against Martin’s A♣ K♦. He also eliminated tough contender India’s Kunal Patni in 10th place.
Entering day 3 as the chip leader was Filipino pro Andrew Gaw. For most of the day, Gaw kept his lead and contributed to downsizing the field by eliminating Malaysia’s Yen Yau Shern. He earned a hefty pot when he check-called Patni at all the betting stages and won with trips. Gaw climbed to 700k on that hand. Before the last elimination of the day, he lost a couple of pots to bring him down to 555,000 chips. He ended the day second-in-rank.
Another Filipino player making it through was Joven Huerto. As noted yesterday, Huerto was one of the chip leaders at the end of day 1. At day 2, he bagged up a stack highly capable of causing others damage. At day 3, he had a steady run of chips coming in and out of his stack all afternoon. He earned a big one against Giam when his A♦ J♦ landed a nut flush. Huerto finished the day with 479k chips.
Rounding out the Final 8 were Lee Jongyeol from Korea with 412k chips, China’s Guofu Chen with 348k chips, UK’s Ben Martin with 327k chips, S.Korea’s Kyungrok Kim with 322k chips, and Filipino player John Sayo with 305k chips. All these players had great runs at day 3 and you can read all about it in the Live Reporting section of the website.
Among them, Martin delivered the day’s most crushing blow by eliminating Vietnam’s William Kang in the bubble. Kang shoved all in with ace-jack only to run smack into Martin’s aces. After that, short-stacked players began to slowly fall starting with Canada’s Thomas Lee. Two levels later, Kim ended the hopes of Japan’s Naruyasu Ota by denying him a final table berth with a 9th place finish.
Congratulations to the Final 8 and to all the players who made it in-the-money!! We will return at 1pm on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 for the Final 8 battle to the finish.
Payouts: 9-18
9th – Naruyasu Ota – Japan -P230,000
10th – Kunal Patni – India – P197,000
11th – Marc Rivera – Philippines – P185,000
12th – Wong Pol Liank – Malaysia – P185,000
13th – Cheng Teck Keong – Malaysia – P185,000
14th – Lim Yo Hwan – Korea – P158,000
15th – Jun Saito – Japan – P158,000
16th – Kota Nakano – Japan – P140,000
17th – Yen Yau Shern – Malaysia – P140,000
18th – Thomas Lee – Canada – P140,000