HomeFrom 192 entries down to the Final 8 players!
The APT Korea Incheon Championships 2018 resumed the next stage in the race for the MAIN EVENT title with 36 players on the hunt. After five quick levels, Daiki Horikawa railed Morihiko Ogawa to form the Final 8 players.
MAIN EVENT – Final 8
Top L-R: Tsubasa Kamei, Iori Yogo, Daiki Horikawa, Yosuke Murata
Bottom L-R: Stu Terakawa. Tomoharu Furuya, Shiga Mitsuhio, Toshimasa Sakato
The race to the title takes place on Tuesday, August 14 in Paradise City starting at 130pm local time. Action resumes with 11:36 remaining in Level 21 with blinds at 5000-10000 ante 10000. Average stack is 598,500 with 4,788,000 total chips in play.
You can read up on how these players maneuvered their way to the Final 8 in our Live Updates. We also have a short review on each of them below and a Day 3 recap.
Tsubasa Kamei – 1,026,000
Tsubasa Kamei closed Day 3 as the only player reaching the seven-digit marker. He bagged up 1,026,000, one he amassed in two separate hands.
Four hours in, Kamei eliminated Tomoki Matsuda in 18th place. Both players engaged in a preflop raise war that ended with both stacks up front. Kamei’s K♥ K♦ nut flush went on to defeat Matsuda’s A♦ Q♥ flush with the board running a dramatic 8♦ A♥ 5♥ 7♥ 10♥.
An hour later, Kamei , surged to over a million after eliminating Soichiro Kojiya in 10th place with A♥ 10♥ spiking the ace on the turn to defeat Kojiya’s Q♦ Q♥.
Iori Yogo – 882,000
Iori Yogo earned second rank with 882,000. Yogo railed three players along the way in Day 3, namely, Jacky Wong, Yosuke Otsubo, and Tsuyoshi Nitta. He is the most decorated player coming into the final table and will be looking to claim his second APT Main Event title.
Daiki Horikawa – 873,000
It is rare to see quads tabled but for Daiki Horikawa he didn’t just table one, he tabled two quads. The first one doubled him up with the shoves taking place on a turn board that completed to 2♦ 2♥ 2♠ 7♣ 8♣. Horikawa had 2♣ 6♥ quads and Naoki Morita with 7♦ 7♠ full house.
His second quads earned him 145k from Toshimasa Sakato’s stack with 10♠ 5♠ quads on a board of 10♣ 7♦ 4♣ 10♥ 10♠. Horikawa bagged up the third largest stack of 873,000.
The next five players down the rung bagged up below the average stack of 598,500.
Yosuke Murata – 567,000
While we weren’t able to catch many hands from Yosuke Murata, he was the next player down the rung with 567,000. He railed the last female in the running, Aya Kagawa in 11th place with Q♦ Q♠ over A♦ 10♥ that missed the board.
Stu Terakawa – 483,000
Leading the lower half of the chip counts was Stu Terakawa with 483,000. At the unofficial final table with 10 remaining, Terakawa shipped in a double up with his set of kings against Tomoharu Furuya.
Tomoharu Furuya – 420,000
Speaking of Furuya, he entered Day 3 running second-in-command and took the lead within minutes after railing Anthony Mak. Furuya grew further when he railed Manami Hayamizu with A-A over 8-8. He stayed up top for a majority of the day to earn his spot in the Final 8 with 420,000.
Shiga MItsuhiro – 305,000
For Shiga Mitsuhiro, it was full speed ahead in Day 3. He was seen all in several times during the first round and avoided the rail when he spiked a lucky trips on the river against Satoshi Okuda. With the shoves on the flop 3♦ 6♠ 7♥, Okuda had A♦ 7♦ top pair and Shiga with 9♣ 6♥ second pair. The turn Q♥ was blank but the river 6♣ was the winner. He closed the day with 305,000.
Toshimasa Sakato – 235,000
And lastly, we have Toshimasa Sakato. Though he is the lowest on the rung, Sakato already has one title at the series for his victory at the NLH Single Day event. He joins the Final 8 crew with 235,000.
DAY 3 recap
Day 3 concluded in just under five hours with the field going from 36 players down to the Final 8. With only 32 paid, the bubble was quickly reached with Ziegler Oliver taking the hard fall with A-K unable to improve against Tsuyoshi Nitta’s 10-10.
Ziegler Oliver bubbles
The fast pace continued sending players to the rail to grab their pay. The day’s entering chip leader, Shinji Sugeta couldn’t get much going and was booted out in 17th place. Manami Hayamizu also couldn’t stage another strong run and fell in 22nd place. Another notable player, Kyung Min Lee, went on a bit of a roller coaster but was ultimately knocked out in 13th place.
The unofficial final table of 10 players was formed after Yosuke Murata railed Aya Kagawa in 11th place. At the final table, Tsubasa Kamei denied Soichiro Kojiya’s queens with his ace seeing a pair on the turn. The Final 8 was formed with the elimination of Morihiko Ogawa in 8th place. His A-K was outdrawn by Daiki Horikawa’s A-J that improved to a full house on a board of 3-6-J-J-3.