HomeThe Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2016 II concluded the final flight of its US$2,200 Main Event at Resorts World Manila in Newport City, Philippines attracting a bigger field of 74 entries as compared to the opening flight’s turnout. Among them were players from all over the globe which included pros from the Asian region, past APT Main Event champions, and APT circuit die-hards.
Main Event Day 1B Chip Leader, Kimura Lee
Finishing up Day 1b with the largest stack was one of APT’s most jovial regulars, Korean pro Kimura Jongyeol Lee, known throughout the circuit for celebrating every big winning hand with the famous poker phrase “ship it!” And Lee certainly shipped it, bagging up 224,500 chips. One of the biggest boosts to Lee’s stack today was a winning hand against former APT Main Event champion, Vietnam’s Ha Duong with both players hitting a set on the board. Before he capped off the night, he won another pot against Duong with his bottom pair proving to be the best hand.
Sliding in to the second spot in the chip count was Spartan Poker satellite winner, India’s Vikram Kumar. Kumar entered the first flight of the Main Event yesterday but didn’t have much going for him and exited very early. He returned today with a fresh new stack, doubled up with a nut flush, and never looked back. Kumar ended the day with 188,900 chips.
Korean player Soo Bum Kim, who happens to be Soo Jo Kim’s brother, earned the third largest stack of the day, bagging up 161,600 chips. One of the highlights of his day was winning a very big pot with a nut flush against two other fellow Koreans. Unlike his brother SJ who is decorated with several poker titles, this is Soo Bum’s first deep run at an APT event.
In addition to the top three chip leaders of Day 1b, Korean player Gyeong Byeong Lee, who won the APT Main Event two months ago, qualified into this festival’s Main Event with multiple stacks. With a much larger collection today of 125,500 chips, his Day 1a stack will be removed from play. Two-time APT Main Event winners, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen and Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo, also made it through to Day 2 along with past champions, Ha Duong, Hong Kong’s Kwan Kit Kwok, and Filipino pro Mike Takayama who fared better than his initial attempt at yesterday’s flight.
There were a total of 45 players who survived the onslaught of Day 1b and they will be joining the 20 qualifiers from Day 1a starting at 1pm tomorrow for another grueling battle to the championship title
You can read up on some of the action of Day 1b along with the Chip Counts of all the qualifiers in the Live Reporting section of the website.