Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2013


Bag o’ chips

Level: 8 Blinds: 250/500 Ante: 50

Tournament officials just gave away those bags for those good ole chips– short stacked or big ones all 62 players who survived today will return for tomorrow’s Day 2 set at 1PM.

Later, check our home page for Day 1B’s recap plus the chip counts tab here in our live reporting page as we try to sort out everything here in the now-chaotic poker tournament area at the Resorts World Manila!


Edoc can’t take the Le heat

Level: 8 Blinds: 250/500 Ante: 50

From the small blind, Nam Le raised 1,100 preflop looking to steal the big blind of Lester Edoc. The latter wouldn’t give it up and made the call bringing us the flop of 5 4 8.

Le once again led out, this time with just 800. Edoc makes the call to bring the turn 2.

Le fired one more time with a considerable 2,550… Edoc again, calls.

River J was a different story though as Le put in the biggest one on this battle. He bet 4,150 and this time Edoc was sent to the tank… for a long time.

After 5 minutes, Edoc finally decided to let go of the hand giving the nice pot to Le, who has now around 80,000 in chips– among the leaders today.


Hachem is rolling

Level: 8 Blinds: 250/500 Ante: 50

Looks like Joe Hachem brought his A-game today.

First hand, he puts pressure on an opponent on the river. Here’s how it went down:
Preflop he starts the action with 1,200. Opponent calls.
K 2 K was the flop, opponent bet 2,700 and Hachem just calls.

6 was the turn and Hachem led out this time to 2,000. Opponent calls.
On the river J Hachem steps on the gas and fired 8,000 to the middle… Forcing the opponent to fold.

One or two hands later, Hachem was in the middle of it again. His A 4 was up against A 5 but Hachem had two pairs on a board of 4 Q 9 J A


Pain/Pleasure

Level: 8 Blinds: 250/500 Ante: 50

We just saw two players from different tables go all-in and it produced such real and honest pained-faces from their respective opponents’ that you know game of poker is one tough nut to crack.

One of those responsible for giving pain is Korean SJ Kim who gave Norbert Koh all he could handle in this hand:

Board already complete with A 7 5 9 4, SJ Kim went all-in for his final 16,000. With a healthy pot already in the middle, Koh took his sweet time to decide… He folded after 5 minutes in the tank and SJ Kim breathed a sigh of relief taking down the big pot and now up to around 35,000.


Lovett’s jacks shoot down rockets

Level: 7 Blinds: 200/400 Ante: 50

A player from UTG min-raised to 800 and saw the hi-jack player re-raise it to 2,100. Brian Lovett at the small blind flat-called. Action back to the original raiser, he three-bets to 5,700 forcing the fold from the HJ. However, Lovett decided to put everything on the line and went all-in for all of his 24,000+ chips.

Easy call for UTG player who showed he had the pocket rockets and was up against Lovett’s pocket jacks.

The flop 3 J 8 immediately shifted the tide in favor of Lovett and the turn 2 and river 7 assured that it stays that way much to the chagrin of the opponent, whose stack got cut down to below 8,000.

Lovett meanwhile is loving the jacks and has now over 48,000.


Edoc kicks out short stack

Level: 7 Blinds: 200/400 Ante: 50

From UTG, a player with just below 5,000 looked to double up or at least steal the blinds by moving all-in. All the players got out of the way except for Lester Edoc, who doubled the bet. He isolates the opponent from the others and we have a showdown:

Edoc: Q Q
UTG player: 5 6

The board ran out J 8 10 7 9 and both actually makes the straight but still Edoc has the better one. Edoc has now around 18,000.


Truong trounces one

Level: 7 Blinds: 200/400 Ante: 50

With the board already showing 4 8 Q A, we saw Tam Truong fire 4,875 to the middle, which already was a considerable pot. His opponent from the middle position stared at his cards, tanked for a little more before making a decision: fold.

Truong calmly collected the chips from the middle and stacks up to what is now near-50,000 stack.


Dinner Break!

Level: 6 Blinds: 150/300 Ante: 25

Players and media alike will look to reload in this 1-hour stretch. Come back in an hour for more live updates!


Hachem adds more just before dinner

Level: 6 Blinds: 150/300 Ante: 25

A hi-jack player raise to 750 preflop and saw the cut-off player make the call. Joe Hachem at the big blind re-raises to 2,150, which both HJ and CO called.

Postflop A 5 8 Hachem bets big worth 5,200… Enough to force the fold from both opponents and Hachem gets to roughly 30,000 at the end of the sixth level.