HomeA lot of heads were scalped at the Asian Poker Tour Cebu 2016 Main Event with only 18 players out of the 72 returning qualifiers making it through day 2. By the end of regulation play, the man at the top was Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon with 397,500 chips.
Chip Leader Heading into Main Event Day 3, Michael Falcon
Falcon’s rise happened in a series of events. He doubled up against USA’s Andrew Graham when he landed a set of sevens against Graham’s missed nut flush. He later scooped up another big pot with his pocket aces; and then during the bubble stage, he muscled the table with his big stack and won three sizable pots to bring him up to where he ended the day.
Coming up in second position, though very far from Falcon, is Filipino player JC Sayo with 270,500 chips. Sayo entered day 2 in the same position, second-in-chips, and maintained his status as one of the leaders all day. In one of his hands, Sayo earned himself a very big pot when he landed a full house with his pocket queens. Next in chips were UK’s Alex Ward with 242,000 chips and Korea’s John Kim with 229,500 chips.
However, the crazy stories of the day were definitely attributed to the sudden rise of Filipino pro Lester Edoc and the quick fall of Kosei Ichinose on the bubble. During hand-for-hand at bubble time, Ichinose avoided elimination and doubled up his short stack with his king-ten offsuit against Edoc’s king-five of clubs. Ichinose doubled up again with his pocket aces besting a player’s pocket queens. In the meantime, Edoc was looking for spots to double up his decreasing stack after losing a big pot to Singapore’s Sheila Chung. Then it happened, Edoc went head-to-head against Ichinose again, this time with Ichinose calling Edoc’s four-bet shove. Ichinose had A♦ K♠ and Edoc had that familiar K♣ 5♣. With about even stacks, the board ran Q♣ K♦ 10♠ 7♣ 10♣ landing Edoc a flush and a double up while Ichinose fell to 5k chips. Immediately after, Ichinose was eliminated as the bubble boy and Edoc bagged up 226,000 chips. Although it was a painful departure for Ichinose, he availed of the Main Event Bubble Protection and will be awarded a seat the next APT Main Event of the same value.
With Ichinose’s elimination, the Main Event was halted for a continuation tomorrow with everyone now guaranteed a payout. Ichinose joined other Japanese players on the rail such as Azusa Maeda, Iori Yogo, and Tetsuya Tsuchikawa. Singaporean pros Bryan Huang, Feng Zhao, and Alex Lee, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen and Kai Paulsen, and UK’s Samad Razavi and Korea’s Sim Jae Kyung were also eliminated from the Main Event.
Congratulations to the day 2 qualifiiers. Day 3 begins at 1pm tomorrow. They will play down to the Final 8.