HomeIt was a short day at the Main Event of the Asian Poker Tour Cebu 2016 with the Final 8 decided in just less than four hours.
APT Cebu 2016 Main Event Final Eight
Day 3 began with 18 players battling it out for a final table berth. The first to fall was Finland’s Marko Loukaskorpi who shoved all in on a board of A♠ J♣ J♦ in an attempt to push the chip leader, Denmark’s Michael Falcon, out of the pot. Falcon called with an A♥ 3♠ and Loukaskorpi’s 8♥ 6♥ bluff was revealed. The board did fill up with the turn of J♠ and river of A♣, however, Falcon had the higher full house.
Next to fall was USA’s Andrew Graham in 17th place, then Filipino Mike Takayama in 16th place. Falling in 15th place was Korea’s Kwon Ohjung who was eliminated by Falcon as well. USA’s Nick Blackburn stayed afloat with his short stack for as long as he could but he too hit the rail when he tried to bluff out Japan’s Jun Saito out of a pot but to no avail. Saito called and Blackburn finished in 14th place. Korea’s Chin Yong Kwon took 13th, getting the boot when Falcon spike a higher pair on the river, then another Korean fell, Changhun Lee in 12th in a sick set over set hand against UK’s Alex Ward. Lee had 8♣ 8♠ and Ward had 9♠ 9♣ on a board of 8♥ 9♥ 10♥ 5♦ A♥. Both players were all in on the turn.
Singaporean Lim Yah Loon exited in 11th place after losing two hands prior, one of which was a damaging coin flip against Singapore’s Sheila Chung. The last two Japanese players were the next to be eliminated with Filipino player JC Sayo ending Yozo Nomura’s run in 10th place and Korea’s Ji Young Kim denying Jun Saito a final table berth.
Final 8 Players
Ending the day as the chip leader was Korea’s John Kim with 637K chips. Kim was on a consistent rise all day and then climbed into the leader’s seat in a hand against Ward where he showed his top pair 10♣ on a board of 10♥ 5♥ 2♦ 9♣. Michael Kim Falcon finished the day second-in-command with 600K chips. Entering day 3 as the chip leader, Falcon was the demise of a few players today. These two leaders, Kim and Falcon, built up quite a lead against the other six players, and were the only ones who were above average stack at bagging.
Sitting third-in-chips was Korea’s Ji Young Kim with 319K chips. Kim was on the brink of elimination early but found two spots to double up in, one of them was up against Filipino pro Lester Edoc. During the hand, she was being pushed all in by Edoc on a board of 10♦ 10♥ 2♣ 7♣ and she called for her tournament life. She had K♣ 10♣ for trips and Edoc had 2♦ 2♥ full house. When the river felted a 7♠ it gave her the higher full house and a wild double up. Another female player also made it into the final 8, Sheila Chung, who bagged up 283K chips. Chung landed three double ups, one that burned Nomura’s pocket kings when her ace found a pair on the river, another against Falcon, and the last one that crippled Loon.
Lester Edoc was next in chips with 281K. Edoc’s lost an early pot to lady Kim, and out of all the players, his chips fluctuated the most throughout the day. Alex Ward finished in sixth position with 275K chips. Ward won two big double ups against Falcon, and also eliminated one player.
JC Sayo was next with 265K chips. Sayo was quiet all day, keeping his stack in the same range as when he entered the day. Impressively, this is Sayo’s third deep run in a row at the APT having finished in 6th place at the APT Finale Main Event and 10th place at the APT Kickoff Main Event. Bringing up the back end of the chip rung was Peru’s Yohn Paredes with 226,000 chips. Paredes was on the verge of elimination but his pocket queens did him good and doubled him up late in the day to earn the last spot in the Final 8.
Congratulations to the Final 8! They will be returning tomorrow for the battle to the finish starting at 130pm. They will be seated at the RFID table which means, spectators will be able to watch the action on APT Live‘s Twitch account. In addition, there will also be Live Reporting for the Final 8.
Payouts:
9th Jun Saito – Japan – P213,000
10th Yozo Nomura – Japan – P182,000
11th Lim Yah Loon – Singapore – P171,000
12th Changhun Lee – Korea – P171,000
13th Chin Yong Kwon – Korea – P147,000
14th Nick Blackburn – USA – P147,000
15th Kwon Ohjung – Korea – P147,000
16th Mike Takayama – Philippines – P129,000
17th Andrew Graham – USA – P129,000
18th Marko Loukaskorpi – Finland – P129,000
