HomeJohn Zicheng Low may have won the festival opener but at the Main, he ended far from glory. Zicheng caused the downfall of Jessie Leonarez early on then met his end two levels later at the hands of Dylan Kii. Both players had short stacks and were all in preflop. Kii had K♥ Q♦ and Zicheng K♠ J♦. The board ran 7♦ 6♦ 2♦ A♣ 3♠ for a better five-card spread to Kii.
We just lost another APT Main Event champion, Czardy Rivera. He was all in on a board A♣ Q♥ 10♠ 9♠ and Jun Obara called after a bit of tanking. Rivera had 5♠ 6♠ draw while Obara had A♦ 5♣ top pair. The river 9♣ was no help to Rivera and that ended his bid for the title.
It looked like a nice pot about to make someone rich however…
The hand started off with SJ Kim bumping it up to 2700. Lihn Manh Tran three-bet to 7200. Then Tetsuya Tsuchikawa made it 20k. Action circled back to Kim who folded while Tran went clear the other way with a shove. Tsuchikawa called. Both players turned over A-K. Though Tsuchikawa’s was diamond suited, the board fanned out a rainbow and that split the pot.
On the next hand, Tran was back in the pot, this time against Michael Kim Falcon. Tran raised to 2800, Falcon raised from the sb seat, and Tran called. The board completed 10♣ 9♠ 8♥ 7♣ A♣ with no bets fired by either. Falcon won with A♥ K♠.
Hung Sheng Lin had all his chips in on a flop 8♣ 6♠ J♠. He had K♠ Q♠ flush draw up against Wilson Tolon with Ah-Jc. The turn granted Lin the spread he needed and he doubled up his short stack.
Vietnam’s Hieu Trung Le bumped up his stack a bit after taking down one of the short stacks at his table. Hieu had K♦ K♠ ahead of his opponent’s A♠ J♥. The board ran K♣ 4♠ Q♦ 2♠ J♠ further improving Hieu to a set for the takedown.
Marius Zalyps entered the day with a nice stack built from Day 1B. Though he is still staying within the same range as when he started, he did ship in a small stack with a sweet boat. On a flop 9♥ 7♣ 6♥, one player was all in holding 7♥ 8♥ straight flush draw and Zalyps had him covered with Q♣ Q♦. The turn 6♣ and river Q♥ improved both players but Zalyps was ahead with his full house.
Here is the official tally for the Main Event:
Day 1A – 118 entries
Day 1B – 172 entries
Day 2 – 35 entries
Total entries – 325
Prize pool – PHP15,762,500
1st place – PHP2,674,900
55 payouts total
Catching some hands around the room, we saw a few good pots claimed. Euryd Rivera was in a three-way raised pot preflop that saw a flop spread 9♥ 10♣ 3♦. Everyone checked and the turn landed 9♠. Rivera bet 3100, Tomislau Glamuzina called, and Michael Soyza check-folded. On the river 4♥, both players checked and Rivera won with A♦ J♦.
With a raised pot preflop before them, Alecz Chan and Hiroyuki Yoshimura stared down a flop A♥ 9♠ 4♣. Chan checked, Yoshimura bet 6k, Chan raised to 15k, and Yoshimura folded giving Chan the pot.
Kyle Jae Hyun Lim earned one off Lee Ji Hoon with his J♣ 10♦ straight as the winning hand. At preflop, Lee raised to 2500 and got two callers, one of the Lim. At the flop 5♦ 8♣ 9♦, Lim called Lee’s 5500 c-bet. On the 10♣ turn, action switched. Lee checked, Lim bet 14k, and Lee called. The river 7♥, Lee checked again, Lim fired out 40k big ones, and he got the call getting nice pay for his straight. Several hands after, Lee fell out of the running at the hands of Eric Wasylenko.
We just reported that Linh Tran doubled up through Chris Vlahos… well, an orbit later or so, Tran filed out of the tournament area. He was all in with A-J and was ousted by Vlahos with A-Q. One past APT Main Event champion out of the running.