HomeAnother day of winners and trophies at the Asian Poker Tour Kickoff 2016 with four events heating up the APT felt at the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Casino Filipino. The day began with the Head Hunter Bounty event, the Ladies of Poker event, and the High Roller Open Face Chinese Pineapple event. Running alongside was the Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers event resuming for its final day. Here is a short recap on all those events.
PLO High Rollers
PLO High Rollers Champion, Henrik Tollefsen
The PLO High Rollers event that kicked off yesterday saw a total of 22 entries ponying up the P55,000 entry fee bringing the prize pool to P1,067,000. By the end of the night, only 8 players survived, including Sam Razavi, Iori Yogo, and John Tech. Another player also in the list was American pro Aaron Mermelstein, a new face in the Asian circuit. Mermelstein is decorated with a long list of wins and cashes in his home country, earning over $1M in live tournaments All of these players however would be looking to catch up to the chip leader, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen, the only two-time APT Main Event champion. The PLO High Rollers event resumed today, and after several hours, Tollefsen proved too tough to beat. He defeated Yogo at heads up round to claim the first place purse of P459,000.
Payouts:
1st Henrik Tollefsen – Norway – P459,000
2nd Iori Yogo – Japan – P288,000
3rd Alan Kim – USA – P181,000
4th Aaron Mermelstein – USA – P139,000
Ladies of Poker
Ladies of Poker Champion, Menchu Esdaile Razavi
The Ladies of Poker was underway with only six ladies in attendance. Though this may be the smallest number this event has turned up, the list of players in the battlefield were quite intense such as Ferlyn Cabaling, Menchu Esdaile Razavi, and Giselle Raloto. Shipping in all the chips was lady Razavi, defeating Raloto at the heads up round.
Payouts:
1st Menchu Esdaile Razavi – Philippines – P18,900
2nd Giselle Raloto -Philippines – P10,200
Head Hunter
Head Hunter Champion, SJ Kim
The Head Hunter event had a total of 89 entries each paying the P17,600 entry fee. This brought the prize pool to P1,025,300 plus P356,000 for the bounties. By the end of the eighth hour, Filipino Lester Edoc delivered the ITM bubble and the final table of ten was set, filled with some of the toughest players in the APT circuit such as Sam Razavi, Mike Takayama, and Tetsuya Tsuchikawa to mention a few. The first to fall was Takayama in 10th place (P44,000), followed by two Korean players Jae Wook Shin in 9th (P48,400) and Yo Hwan Lim in 8th (P53,500). Landing his first cash of the APT year, Razavi ended in 7th place for a P60,900 payout. It took a while before it was down to five players with American player Nick Blackburn taking 6th place (P70,100).
At five handed, Tsuchikawa could not hold to his big stack and had to settle for a 5th place finish (P81,200). He was quickly joined by another short stack, American player Jeffrey Shultz in 4th place (P94,500), then German player Andreas Hesefeld fell in 3rd place (P123,200), leaving just Kim and Edoc in the battlefield.
The heads up round was grueling with both players well-versed in each other’s skill. With one more bounty up for grabs, crowd favorite Kim delivered the final hatchet, just before the witching hour, and scalped Edoc to take the title and the trophy. Kim claimed the first place purse of P279,100 while Edoc earned P170,400 for his runner up finish.
High Roller OFC Pineapple Shootout
High Roller OFC Pineapple Champion, Simba
The High Roller OFC Pineapple Shootout 12 max nearly hit capacity with 11 players signing up. With a buy-in of P55,000, the prize pool was P533,500 with the top three seeing a payout. At four-handed, the players struck a deal, giving the fourth place some cash back. After two players fell, it was heads up between Korea’s Sim Jae Kyung aka Simba and Russia’s Evgeny Kocherov. It took quite some time before a champion was decided, and it was none other than Simba. This is a great accomplishment for Simba having placed second last December in this same event to Malaysia’s Pang Kwong Yuen. This is Simba’s second APT OFC Pineapple trophy having won his first at the event’s debut in September 2014 at the APT Asian Series Manila.
Payouts:
1st Sim Jae Kyung – Korea – P240,000
2nd Evgeny Kocherov – Russia – P145,000
3rd Lim Yah Loon – Singapore – P100,000
4th Seung Soo Jeon – Korea – P48,500
Tomorrow: APT Kickoff 2016 Main Event
Day 1a of the APT Kickoff 2016 Main Event will begin at 1pm tomorrow. Buy-in for this event is P55,000. The winner of this event will be awarded the first-ever APT Championship Ring! Just as a reminder, this will be the first time the APT will be implementing a Main Event Bubble Protection. To avail of this, you must pre-register, draw for your assigned seat before the tournament begins, and have your chips in play at the first hand of level one. So sign up early and get protected.
The Open Face Chinese Pineapple Shootout 36 max will also be on the roster tomorrow. Buy-in is P16,500. This event begins at 2pm. At 6pm, there will be a Last Chance Main Event Mega Satellite with a buy-in of P5,500. One seat will be awarded per ten players.