HomeMikiya Kudo entered the Final 8 round as the chip leader and after 103 hands, he rose to victory to become the Asian Poker Tour‘s newest Main Event champion. Congratulations to Mikiya Kudo! He was awarded the PHP2,844,500 first prize money and the exclusive APT Championship Ring.
The APT Finale Philippines 2018 – MAIN EVENT – ran a total of five days with 307 runners heating things up at host venue Resorts World Manila. With each entry at PHP 55,000 this created a guarantee breaking prizepool of PHP 14,889,500 of which 52 players earned a cut. The bigger chunks were claimed today with the Final 8 players battling it out. You can read up on all the action in the LIVE UPDATES.
Final 8 recap
The day began with Mikiya Kudo leading the pack. Four heavily decorated tournament pros surrounded him including Korean pro Lim Yohwan, the latest APT Championships Event victor.
The competition didn’t seem to faze Kudo. He quickly shipped one in by railing the only Philippine player remaining, Jiego Erquiaga in 8th place.
Jiego Erquiaga – 8th place
Next to fall was UK’s Stephen Nathan (7th). He was one of Yohwan’s multiple knockouts of the day.
Malaysia’s Victor Chong loosened up the table as well, eliminating Japanese pro Kosei Ichinose in 6th place. This was Ichinose’s deepest APT Main Event run.
Despite the chip boost, Chong was sent nosediving next by Yohwan down to barely a small blind. Chong’s pocket tens didn’t improve against pocket queens. His bid for a second live tournament career title ran aground in 5th place.
With half the field gone, Yohwan challenged for the chip lead and successfully claimed it after winning a big pot against Kudo. This was the first time since Day 3 that Yohwan had the advantage.
Kudo made up the lost chips off Le Ngoc Khanh, the lone Vietnamese player remaining. He shipped a pot that crippled Khanh to 10 bbs with A-K over K-Q on a king-high board. Yohwan collected the rest sending Khanh out in 4th place.
Le Ngoc Khanh
At three-handed, the players attempted a deal but it was quickly rejected. Game resumed with Yohwan backed by a dominating stack. Kudo tightened the gap after railing fellow countryman Koji Asaka in 3rd place.
This brought about the heads up round between Kudo and Yohwan with the Korean pro leading in chips. Yohwan’s bid for a second major APT title seemed very promising but when action began, Kudo proceeded to dominate the Korean pro claiming a majority of the bigger pots between them.
By Hand #9, Kudo had taken back the lead and from there, he never relinquished it. By Hand #14, Kudo widened the gap to 3:1 with his 9♥ 3♥ two pair that saw progressive bets throughout on a board 9♦ K♦ 8♣ 3♦ 7♥. A deal was once again discussed, and again it was rejected.
Kudo began to grind down Yohwan. On Hand #24, it was all over. Yohwan all in with A♥ Q♣, Kudo called with A♠ 3♥. The final board ran a crowd roaring 4♠ 5♠ 2♦ 9♦ 8♥ for a straight on the flop to Kudo.
Final 8 payouts
1st Mikiya Kudo – Japan – PHP 2,844,200
2nd Lim Yohwan – Korea – PHP 1,896,100
3rd Koji Asaka – Japan – PHP 1,323,800
4th Le Ngoc Khanh – Vietnam – PHP 963,600
5th Victor Chong – Malaysia – 728,200
6th Kosei Ichinose – Japan – PHP 569,000
7th Stephen Nathan – UK – PHP 458,000
8th Jiego Erquiaga – Philippines – PHP 379,200
Daily recaps can be found in the News page.