HomeAlan ‘Ari’ Engel has climbed to the top of APT Philippines Day 1B and, after bagging up 98,900 in chips, will hold pole position at tomorrow’s Day 2. Engel’s effort at the felt today has seen him edge past Day 1A’s chip leader of Australia’s Oliver Speidel.
Engel was down to just 5000 at one point in the early blind levels but managed to triple up after hitting top pair on the jack-high flop holding Q-J. From there, he went on to amass his big stack, saying after play concluded, “I made a lot of hands and got paid off, basically.”
Main Event Day 2 Chip Leader: Alan Engel
Engel has been in hot form at this APT, having already taken down the USD $5000 buy-in High Rollers title on Friday to pocket USD $38,750 in winnings.
With 134 players registering for Day 1B, it brings the total number of players in the USD $2700 buy-in APT Philippines Main Event to 254. This has created a USD $615,950 total prize pool with first place set to receive a hefty USD $197,000 payday.
A number of players returned for a second bite of the cherry after busting from Day 1A. These included APT Ambassadors Joe Hachem, Nam Le and JC Tran, as well as David Steicke, Linh Tran, Craig Cockburn, Alvin Cheam, Lester Edoc, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, Hoi Ting Lee and Richard Marquez.
While Hachem, JC Tran and Cheam were unsuccessful in their bid to make Day 2, the others all successfully circumnavigated the tournament minefield. A total of 78 players survived the day’s play and will be joining the remaining 59 players who made it through Day 1A meaning that 137 players in total will be returning for Day 2 on Monday April 23.
Check out Poker Portal’s Live Updates from Day 2 of the Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2012 Main Event
Latest APT Philippines 2012 Event Champions:
Freezeout Champion: Kitty Hui-Chen Kou
MegaSportsWorld Deep Stack Turbo Champion:
Liam John Anderson