HomeGood morning everyone! The Asian Poker Tour is back at the Macau Billionaire Poker room in the Babylon Casino for another fun filled poker day at the APT Macau 2017!
Owning the spotlight today is the final entry heat of the APT Main Event, our most prestigious tournament that boasts of the best structure offered in the region. This is also the only event where you can win the exclusive solid silver APT Championship Ring. The event begins at exactly 1pm. Buy-in is HKD 19,800.
Main Event Details
Starting stack: 50,000
Opening blinds: 100-200
Blinds duration: 60 minutes
Late registration: closes at the start of round 7
End of Day 1B: bag and tag after Level 8
At the start of 2016, the APT added a special incentive for all the early birds of the APT Main Event, namely the Main Event Bubble Protection. This powerful perk is something players will surely not want to miss out on as it rewards the insured bubble player a consolation prize of one free seat to the next APT Main Event of the same value or receive the equivalent in APT credits. And it is very easy to qualify for the protection:
- Pre-register
- Draw for your seat
- Have your chips in play by the first deal of round 1
There were a total of 44 players at Day 1A with Malaysia’s Choong Kian Weng bagging up the largest stack. Today’s survivors will merge with the 26 players from Day 1A for their next bout at tomorrow’s Day 2. The APT Main Event is scheduled to run for five days with the Final 8 held on Wednesday, June 21st.
Side Events and results
Running alongside the APT Main Event are two side events scheduled for the day:
NLH One Day event 2 – buy-in HKD 2,200 – starts at 2pm
WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo – buy-in HKD 1,100 – starts at 6pm
For more information, see the APT Macau 2017 event page.
Manoj Pentakota holds his head high at the Bounty tournament
Head Hunter Champion, Manoj Pentakota
India’s Manoj Pentakota entered the final day of the Head Hunter event as the chip leader and walked away as the last man standing. But it didn’t seem that way at the start.
The event began with the final 8 of the 59 total hunters back at the felt ready to chop some heads. The first fallout was Tetsuya Tsuchikawa who already had a very short stack to begin with. Several rounds later, Pentakota’s stack took heavy beatings, substantial enough to send him to the bottom of the pile.
It was only after two more players were dusted that Pentakota began to stage his return to the top. He doubled up through Feng Chan then eliminated Tsz Hin Ng in 5th place with a dramatic A♥ 7♦ two pair over K♥ 5♠ two pair on a board of A♣ K♠ 5♥ 7♣ 2♦. From there, he was once again the man to chase.
Pentakota distanced himself further by eliminating Vincent Kwun Ngai Li next, then after Chan sent Arjun Dhingra out in 3rd, it was heads up with him having the edge in chips over Chan. It didn’t take long for him to finish off his opponent; he won a sizable pot with his K-Q straight then on a flop of 8♦ 9♦ 2♣, both players were all in with Pentakota holding 6♦ 5♦ and Chan with Q♥ 10♦. The next two cards came 5♣ and 8♠ for a winning two pair to Pentakota and the victory. He claimed the HKD 47,000 first prize plus a slew of bounties along the way.
Payouts
1st Manoj Pentakota – India – HKD 47,000
2nd Fang Chen – China – HKD 29,100
3rd Arjun Dhingra – India – HKD 21,200
4th Vincent Kwun Ngai Li – HKD 16,500
5th Tsz Hin Ng – Hong Kong – HKD 14,300
6th Man Wun Ku – Macau – HKD 12,400
7th Shuai Ping – China – HKD 10,900
8th Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – Japan – HKD 9,700
9th Jun Cui – China – HKD 8,800
Luen Kwan Kwok victorious at the NLH One Day event
NLH One Day Event Champion, Luen Kwan Kwok
The first No Limit Hold’em One Day event attracted 44 players with each one ponying up the HKD 3,300 entry fee. This brought the prize pool to HKD 128,000 with five players pocketing a piece of the pie. But before the cash flowed, it was a long and grueling match during the bubble round with the six remaining players putting up a very strong fight. The hatchet finally came down on Chinese Taipei’s Hung Sheng Lin signaling the start of the money round.
Due to the length of the game, the players decided to strike an ICM deal, although that didn’t slow the game at all. A few levels went by and Foo Hsien Loong cracked the ice and fell followed by India’s Alok Birewar. Both players were actually the chip leaders when the ICM deal was struck. Next out was the other Indian at the table, Pavan Ashokkumar bringing on the much awaited heads up round between Yue Tin Wong and Luen Kwan Kwok.
Wong had a 4:1 chip advantage against Kwok and looked as if he would take it to the limit in one swift stroke however one big double up changed the tides. Kwok landed trips with A♦ 9♣ against Wong’s K♠ Q♠ on a board that ran K♥ A♣ A♠ J♥ 4♦. The ensuing hands all went to Kwok until Wong was left with no choice but to go all in on a turn board of 6♣ A♥ Q♦ 4♦. Wong had 10♥ 4♣ for bottom pair that was ahead of Kwok’s 7♦ 8♦ but with many outs to come, the river 5♥ was one of them and Kwok took it down with a winning straight.
Payouts (ICM deal)
1st Luen Kwan Kwok – Hong Kong – HKD 27,100
2nd Yue Tin Wong – Hong Kong – HKD 22,100
3rd Pavan Ashokkumar – India – HKD 19,000
4th Alok Birewar – India – HKD 27,400
5th Foo Hsien Loong – Malaysia – HKD 25,400
You can watch the fun daily highlights in the APT YouTube channel.