HomeThe mid-week hump day turned up more players at the Asian Poker Tour Experience Manila 2016 for the final qualifying flight of the Main Event at the APT Poker Room located in the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel and Casino. There were a total of 77 entries at the end of late registration with nearly half of them coming out early to avail of the Main Event Bubble Protection. By the end of the day, there were 34 players remaining with Korea’s Jae Chul Chang sitting with the largest stack of 105,775 chips.
Main Event Day 1B Chip Leader, Jae Chang
Chang had a good day at the felt, picking up many pots early that by halfway through the tournament, he had already amassed a sizable stack. In the latter half of the day, he earned a few more pots, one of them being a set of sixes against Filipino player Christopher Mateo’s two pair.
Coming in second-in-chips today was Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon. Falcon scooped up two healthy pots during the last hands of the day with a big one holding five-seven two pair that sent a player to the rail. For Japan’s Mitsuru Sano, he was well on his way as being the chip leader but after losing a couple of big pots late in the day, he ended up third-in-command with 89,600 chips. Filipino player JC Sayo claimed the third spot with 89,250 chips at bagging. In the middle of the day, Sayo landed a sweet double up with his set of kings and from there, he never looked back. Another Filipino player also ended up in the upper part of the chip rung, pro John Tech with 81,450 chips. Tech’s chip rise began when his pocket aces got well paid, and accumulated more during the final hands when Sano paid his two pair.
Other players who survived the day were Korea’s John Kim, Filipino pro Andrew Gaw, Japan’s Jun Funabashi, India’s Srinivas Polishetty, plus previous APT champions Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo, and New Zealand’s Paul Hockin. There was also one double qualifier, USA’s Stephen Kidder.
With over half of the field falling to the wayside today, among them were Japan’s Iori Yogo, Korea’s Lee Jong Yeol, China’s Guofu Chen, Japan’s Kosugi Wataru, and Filipino player Euryd Rivera.
We will return tomorrow for Day 2 of the Main Event with today’s survivors merging with the Day 1a qualifiers for another battle at the felt.