Last day of the festival! Yong leads APT Championships Final 8; Mitsuoka and Kitagawa win trophies

Good morning everyone and welcome to the last day of the APT Championships Philippines 2017 at Resorts World Manila. After eleven days of nonstop poker madness, we are down to the last few events to satisfy your poker appetite.

1PM: 6 Handed Turbo w/Antes – USD 220
2PM: Open Face Chinese Pineapple – USD 440
6PM: Deep Stack Hyper Turbo – USD 110

In addition to the side events today, we will also witness the crowning of the first APT Championships winner with the Final 8 returning for their ultimate duel to the throne.

Yesterday saw 35 players return to the felt for Day 3 of the APT Championships featured event. Leading the runners was Korea’s Kim Gab Yong who had over a million chips. Today, Yong will once again be at the helm backed up by an enormous 3,280,000 stack entering the Final 8. Yong has been on fire at the ongoing festival having already won two side event titles, the Head Hunter event and the High Rollers.

In addition to the leader, special acknowledgement must be given to Korea’s In Chul Sin who is in the Final 8. Sin is a past APT Main Event champion looking to score his second title.

Here are the Final 8 players, the remaining payouts, and a short recap of the action at Day 3.

Chip Counts

Payout

The eventual winner will be shipping in the USD 91,670 first place purse, the APT Championships trophy, and the APT Championship Ring. The Final 8 begins at 130pm. We will be streaming the Final 8 live in the APT Twitch channel and the APT YouTube channel with a 30-minute delay.

Day 3 recap

Day 3 began with 35 players returning however only 27 of them earned a payout. The bubble burst when one of the day’s entering chip leaders, Malaysia’s Ying Lin Chua, eliminated Korea’s Ji Young Kim with his 10 8 full house over her Q Q on a board of 9 8 8 10 6. Hand history 

With the remaining players all in the money, heavy action followed with several players vying for the top spot. Malaysia’s Victor Chong chipped up after a couple of huge run-ins with the leader Yong. On one of the hands, he cracked Yong’s pocket aces with his ten-seven offsuit that improved to trip sevens. Chong increased further after eliminating Japan’s Ken Okada.

Another player who charged up the ranks was Japan’s Shinobu Tanaka who claimed many pots along the way to sit in the chip leader’s seat for a brief period. APT POY 2016 champion Iori Yogo also made waves after his back-to-back pocket aces earned him maximum pay while crippling Chua in the process. Chua exited shortly after. Hand history

However, their moment at the top was just temporary. Yong resumed control after winning the biggest pot of the day. During the hand, Yong tank-called Chong’s shove on a completed board of A 4 2 K A. Yong exposed Chong’s Q 9 bluff with his winning A 3 trips. Hand history

The Final 8 was reached when Yong eliminated Russia’s Semen Kapitonov whose ace-king missed the board against Yong’s pocket jacks.

There was no shortage of great moments in Day 3; you can read up on all the exciting action in the Live Reporting page.

APT Championships Day 2 recap
Day 1A and Day 1B recap

Japan’s Toshio Mitsuoka wins the NLH 2 

NLH 2 Champion, Toshio Mitsuoka

While Day 3 of the APT Championships was running, the Final 8 of the No Limit Hold’em 2 was on the RFID table. The event attracted 137 runners for a healthy prize pool of USD 54,800. Prior to the final duel, the table was dominated by the Japanese that by the time it was five-handed, there was only one lone foreigner in the mix, the Sam Razavi Champions Cup winner, Singapore’s Dhanesh Chainani.

Despite Chainani’s efforts, the title was just not his for the taking. Toshio Mitsuoka chipped up until he had well above a 2:1 chip advantage over Chainani. The final hand saw Chainani three-bet all in with A 4 and Mitsuoka with 8 8. No help came on the board for Chainani and the room erupted with huge applause when Mitsuoka was pronounced the winner.

Final 8 payouts
1st Toshio Mitsuoka – Japan – USD 13,590
2nd Dhanesh Chainani – Singapore – USD 7,950
3rd Jun Mogi – Japan – USD 5,500
4th Yuri Odagiri – Japan – USD 4,010
5th Yoshihiro Tanigami – Japan – USD 3,320
6th Carmen Esdaile Razavi – Philippines – USD 2,740
7th Alan Kheng- USD 2,260
8th Kayoko Fujiya – Japan – USD 1,890

You can watch the Final 8 action archived in the APT Twitch channel and the APT YouTube channel. 

Very happy victory for Japan’s Ryo Kitagawa at the Queen Playing Cards event

Queen Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Ryo Kitagawa

Team Japan is really raking in the trophies with another one of their countrymen bagging a trophy. At the Queen Playing Cards Deep Stack Turbo event, 84 players graced the felt for a prize pool of USD 12,220. Defeating Singapore’s Corine Shi at the heads up round was Ryo Kitagawa who was the chip leader for quite some time. The final hand saw Kitagawa’s 9 8 pair up on the board 5 K A 9 2 to best Shi’s J 10. Kitagawa earned the USD 3,320 first prize and the event trophy. This is a huge victory for Kitagawa who was runner-up in two APT side events last year.  He has now proven he can go that extra distance and ship in a trophy.

Final 8 Payouts
1st Ryo Kitagawa – Japan – USD 3,220
2nd Corine Shi – Singapore – USD 2,020
3rd Raul Aquino – Philippines – USD 1,470
4th Misaki Satouchi – Japan – USD 1,130
5th Isao Takeuchi – Japan – USD 970
6th Michael Kim Falcon – Denmark – USD 840
7th Yuichiro Kawasaki – Japan – USD 730
8th Yosuke Kijima – Japan – USD 640

You can watch the Final 8 action archived in the APT Twitch channel and the APT YouTube channel.