HomeWith the last remaining trophies finding their way to happy winners, the Asian Poker Tour closed out its nine-day APT Philippines III 2016 poker festival at Resorts World Manila.
Throughout the week, there were over 450 individual players who made the APT event their home and a total of 2000 entries, representing 26 countries across the board. The festival generated a grand total prize pool of nearly USD 750,000. It was an exciting series filled with success stories and impressive achievements. Here’s a review on some of those moments.
Highlights and achievements
Main Event Champion, In Chul Shin
Korea’s In Chul Sin won the USD 1,650 Main Event, capturing his first-ever championship title. Sin overcame a field of 186 entries to earn the largest pot of the festival, USD 67,660. Runner-up finisher, Malaysia’s Jin Yong, turned his USD 360 Main Event satellite ticket to a whopping USD 38,970 payout.
APT Player of the Year 2016 Update
The APT Player of the Year 2016 race saw lots of mobility with second-ranked UK’s Samad Razavi making up some ground on top-ranked Japan’s Iori Yogo. Entering the series, Razavi was behind the leader by 529 points and after cashing in four events, which included a trophy at the Super Deep Stack Turbo event, he has narrowed the gap to 191 points. Yogo also had multiple deep runs, cashing out in two events. At the APT Regional POY 2016 race, Razavi leads the International bracket while Yogo leads the Japan bracket.
In other countries, Hung-Sheng Lin leads the China bracket, Kimura Lee overtook John Kim for the top spot in the Korean bracket, and in the Philippines bracket, it is a four-way heated race between Lester Edoc, Chris Mateo, JC Sayo, and Mike Takayama who has a narrow lead after winning the Deep Stack Hyper Turbo.
Sayo bags two side events
Filipino JC Sayo is the only player to win two trophies at the series. He won the No Limit Hold’em 1 Day event and the Head Hunter event. He also ran deep at the Main Event, finishing in 14th place.
Multiple Cashes
In addition to the ones mentioned above, there were several players who also profited in multiple events.
- Filipino Mike Takayama holds the most cashes, cashing out in a total of five events with a title claimed at the final event of the series, the Deep Stack Hyper Turbo.
- Japan’s Jun Funabashi cashed out in four events with a title at the No Limit Hold’em event.
- Korea’s Changhun Lee had three cashes, placing 1st at the PLO High Roller event, 2nd at the OFC High Roller Event, and 23rd at the Main Event.
- India’s Dhaval Mudgal had three cashes with a first place title at the MSW event.
Final Side Events results
High Rollers
High Rollers Champion, Steffen Endres
The USD 2,200 High Roller event attracted a total of 23 players for a total prize pool of USD 44,620. The field was decorated well-known pros such as Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen, New Zealand’s Thomas Ward, and Japan’s Gerard Bringley. It was a two-day event with 7 players returning to the felt today. Outlasting them all was Germany’s Steffen Endres defeating Japan’s Aso Seitaro at the heads up round. The final hand saw the chips go in the middle on the turn of a board showing K♣ 4♣ 3♠ 5♣ J♥. Seitaro held K♦ 4♥ two pair but Endres had better with 8♣ 9♣ flush.
Payouts
1st Steffen Endres – Germany – USD 16,230 (deal made)
2nd Aso Seitaro – Japan – USD 15,000 {deal made)
3rd Lester Edoc – Philippines – USD 7,590
4th Mike Takayama – Philippines – USD 5,800
6 Handed Turbo w/Antes
6 Handed Turbo Champion, Ryutaro Okuda
The 6 handed Turbo w/Antes event had a 68 entry turnout for a prize pool of USD 13,190. There were nine players in the money with Singapore’s Feng Zhao amassing the largest stack at three handed. When Japan’s Ryutaro Okuda eliminated USA’s Moses Saquing in 3rd place he balanced with Zhao then proceeded to win several stacks to eventually capture the trophy. The final hand saw Zhao with A♠ 3♣ and Okuda with A♥ K♥ with a board running A♣ 9♥ 7♣ 6♦ 4♦.
Payouts
1st Ryutaro Okuda – Japan -USD 3,650
2nd Feng Zhao – Singapore – USD 2,260
3rd Moses Saquing – USA – USD 1,650
4th Jun Funabashi – Japan – USD 1,280
5th Kevin Steele – USA – USA 1,110
6th Jun Labadan – Philippines – USD 960
7th Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – Japan – USD 840
8th Hiromi Sato – Japan – 750
9th Algerico Tabacon – Philippines – USD 690
Deep Stack Hyper Turbo
Deep Stack Hyper Turbo Champion, Mike Takayama
The final event of the series was the Deep Stack Hyper Turbo event with 77 contenders contributing USD 110 to a prize pool of USD 7,470. As soon as the cards were in the air, it was definitely full speed ahead with many players dusted early. The heads up round saw two local players battle for the trophy, Mike Takayama and Harold Ruaya. As the more seasoned pro, Takayama went on to win the event claiming the USD 2,050 first place cash prize.
The APT would like to thank everyone for participating in the APT Philippines III 2016. Congratulations to all the winners throughout the festival! Our next stop is just a week away, the APT Poker Cruise 2016 at the Rex Fortune Cruise in Hong Kong from September 29th-October 2nd. Following that event is the APT Manila 2016 at the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel & Casino on October 4th-12th. See you there!!
