HomeIt was like a day at the racetrack with Day 2 of the Main Event seeing a lot of the big guns and risk-takers burning up the felt at the Asian Poker tour Experience Manila 2016. The day kicked off with 58 players returning to the APT Poker Room located in the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel and Casino, each one of them battling to earn every chip at the table. After a dramatic bad beat at the bubble stage, 18 happy players qualified into Day 3 with Korea’s Jae Chul Chang earning the top spot with 261,500 chips.
Main Event Day 2 Chip Leader, Jae Chang
Chang entered the day exactly where he left off in Day 1b, taking down pots and amassing more chips. He quickly overtook the day’s leader, Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee, and when the field was cut down to half, Chang had a dominating lead that was simply too impenetrable.
Chillin’ in second position is Filipino pro John Tech with 237,500 chips. Tech was teetering above the six-digit chip range for most of the day until he picked up two nice pots, one with pocket kings and another with pocket queens. Sitting beside Tech was Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo who was the reason players celebrated as he delivered the bubble by cracking England’s Sam Welbourne’s A♦ A♠ with his K♠ 6♠ on a board that ran 10♠ Q♠ 5♣ J♥ A♣.
Another player who continued to stay up in the rankings was Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon. Late in the tournament, Falcon made a fantastic read on a player that shipped him a very well-earned pot. During the hand, Falcon called a four-bet preflop then debated on whether or not to call a shove on a flop of 9♦ 2♣ 8♦. Falcon struggled but eventually called with his 7♦ 7♠. He was ahead against ace-king which held on to bring him to where he ended the day, 196,000 chips.
Rounding out the top five leaders was Filipino player Christopher Mateo. Mateo clearly had one of the most colorful runs today. He was shaved down to seven big blinds when his 9♠ 4♥ shove was called by Korea’s John Kim with A♦ Q♥. Fierce as he is, Mateo bounced back, picking up blinds and antes on his uncalled shoves until he landed a crazy double up. Facing Kim again, Mateo gambled with none other than 9♠ 4♥ which was called by Kim with A♦ 8♠. The board ran K♣ K♦ 6♥ 4♠ 2♣ giving Mateo a pair and a stack that eventually grew to 186,500.
Other notable players who joined the leaders at bagging were Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee, Canada’s Linh Tran, Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan, John Kim, Japan’s Jun Funabashi, Jun Saito, and Canada’s John Beveridge.
With the day filled with APT regulars and previous champions on the roster, several of them were ousted before reaching the money, such as Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, New Zealand’s Paul Hockin, Filipino Andrew Gaw, JC Sayo, and Germany’s Julian Hasse to mention a few.
We will return for Day 3 of the Main Event at 1pm tomorrow. The 18 remaining players will play down to the Final Table of Eight.