HomeAfter 8.5 hours of regulation play, the Final 8 was reached. One of these players below will become the next APT Main Event champion!
Evgeny Kurilenko – Russia – 2,421,000
Hele Liu – China – 2,086,000
Sai Ho Philip Chiu – Hong Kong – 1,244,000
Hung Sheng Lin – Taiwan – 1,040,000
Toshimitsu Kamei – Japanese – 925,000
Wang Jun – China – 737,000
Hiroshi Matsumoto – Japan – 534,000
Wang Meng – China – 438,000
Congratulations to the Final 8! We will return tomorrow at 130pm for the race to the title.
Germany’s Piet Pape will not be gracing the Final 8 felt having just fallen in 9th place. He shoved on the small blind with 8♠ 7♦ and big blind Hung Sheng Lin called with 6♦ 6♠. The board spread 9♦ 5♥ A♦ K♠ Q♥ and Hung’s pair held.
We have reached the Final 8!
After losing his stack on a failed steal, Wang Meng was all in on the next hand and initial raiser Evgeny Kurilenko called. Meng had A♦ J♥ and Kurilenko with 8♠ 9♠. The board ran 9♦ 5♥[ad} K♠ Q♥ for a good double up to 442k.
(L) Wang Meng, Hiroshi Matsumoto (R)
Action folded all the way to the small blind Wang Meng who shoved but big blind Hiroshi Matsumoto woke up with Q♣ Q♥ and called for his tournament life. Meng sheepishly opened up 2♥ 8♦, caught red-handed attempting to steal the blinds.
Meng was almost successful when the flop ran 3♦ 7♦ 5♦ giving him a flush draw, but with the turn A♣ and river 5♣, it was a miss and Matsumoto doubled up to 550k. Weng spiraled down to 189k.
It was a slow and steady climb but Toshimitsu Kamei got to the seven-digit range which is average stack with 9 players remaining. To get him there, he won a pot against the leader Evegeny Kurilenko. Action began with Kurilenko raising to 50k, called by both Kamei and big blind Hung Sheng Lin.
At the flop A♣ 2♣ 8♦, Hung checked, Kurilenko bet 55k, Kamei called, and Hung opted out. On the 9♣ turn, Kurilenko sent the action to Kamei who used it to slide out 103k. Kurilenko folded. Kamei now at 1M.
Phachara Wongwichit has just been taken out of the running with Sai Ho Philip Chiu giving him the boot. At the unofficial final table of 10, Wongwichit raised to 40k, Chiu three-bet to 115k, action folded around back to Wongwichit who shoved with 546k total. With a total of 715k, it took some time for Chiu to make the call. When he did, he was ahead with A♥ K♥ over A♦ Q♥. The board ran 3♦ 6♥ K♦ 6♣ 3♣. Chiu chargest to over 1.3M.
We are down to the final 9 players. One more bust out and we bag up.
It took two hands for Hung Sheng Lin to take all of Hye Keun Park’s chips to bring us to the unofficial final table of 10 players. The first hand saw a flop 9♦ 8♠ 7♥, both players found themselves all in. Park with 10♠ 8♣ and Hung with Q♥ J♦. The turn A♦ and river 10♣ improved them both but Hung’s straight was the better spread. He doubled up to 400k while Park dropped to 240k.
Not long after, they met again. Park shoved preflop and Hung called. Park had K♣ 6♣ Hung with A♥ 8♣. The board ran 8♥ 5♣ Q♣ 2♦ 10♥ and Park was eliminated.
Hiroshi Matsumoto shoved on the utg seat with A♣ Q♠ and Piet Pape called with A♦ J♥. The board ran J♣ Q♣ 2♣ 8♣ 2♠ for a nut flush to Matsumoto. He now has 500k while Pape dropped to 616k.
Short stacked Suzuki Takuya shoved with A♦ 4♦ on the button and was looked up by fellow countryman Toshimitsu Kamei on the bb spot with 10♦ 10♥. When the flop ran 5♠ A♣ 4♥, Takuya jumped to a big lead with two pair. The turn 3♣ kept him ahead but when the fiver 10♠ landed, Takuya was eliminated and Kamei was very relieved to improve and ship it.
We are now down to 11 players.