Main Event Day 2 at 1pm; McAuley and Abram win trophies

The Asian Poker Tour gets underway today with the APT Manila 2016 resuming another day of intense Main Event action at the APT Poker Room in the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel and Casino. In addition, two side events are lined up, the Pot Limit Omaha Hi and the WeLoveSport Deep Stack Turbo. Last night saw two players outshine, taking home trophies at the No Limit Hold’em 1 Day event and at the Deep Stack Turbo.

Day 2 of the APT Main Event

Day 2 of the APT Main Event kicks off the poker festivities at 1pm today with 30 total players returning to the felt. They will be playing another eight rounds or to the Final 8, whichever comes first. Leading the crew is Filipino pro Lester Edoc with 123,675 in chips. Edoc is still on the hunt for his first-ever APT Main Event title unlike the second chip leader entering today, Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo, who already has two titles and is looking to be the first one to land a third for his victory shelf. Jeon enters Day 2 with 117,800 in chips.

Other notable players in the field are Peru’s Yohn Paredes, Ireland’s Gary Thompson, Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon, Korea’s SJ Kim, Vietnam’s Tien Quyet Pham, Slovenia’s Casey Kastle, Filipino JC Sayo, and past APT Main Event champions Japan’s Iori Yogo and Hisashi Ogi.

Side Event Winners

USA’s William McAuley wins the NLH 1 Day event

NLH 1 Day Event Champion, William McAuley

American player William McAuley overcame a field of 28 players at the No Limit Hold’em 1 Day event to capture the trophy and the first place prize of P155,700. Entering the final table of eight players, McAuley held an impressive chip lead having worked very hard to come back from near elimination in the earlier rounds.

When the field was cut to half, everyone was in the money with Japan’s Yuichi So getting paid out first. So reached the money round after landing quads in one of the wildest hands of the final table. So all in against Japan’s Manabu Onda at the flop of 6 5 Q; So held K K overpair and Onda with A 8 nut flush draw. The turn of K improved both players with Onda having the edge, but with the river spiking a K, So overtook and doubled up ecstatically. After Japan’s Naruyasu Ota was eliminated in 3rd place, it was heads up between McAuley and Korea’s Ju Young Lee. Both players struck a deal and play resumed.

The heads up round saw McAuley up in chips but lost several pots for Lee to steal the lead. McAuley seized it back with his 10 10 surviving a coin flip against Lee’s A K. The final hand saw Lee all in with J 8 and McAuley with A K. The board ran dry and McAuley rose to victory.

Rollercoaster triumph for Australia’s Anthony Abram at the DST event

Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Anthony Abram

It wasn’t an easy ride for Aussie Anthony Abram to capture the Deep Stack Turbo trophy, in fact, it was more like a rollercoaster ride. The money round was reached when Abram delivered the bubble in 6th place. Before moving to the RFID feature table, Vietnam’s Tien Quyet Pham ended Japan’s Kenji Yamashita’s run in 5th place with his pocket nines besting A-K. At four-handed, everyone was below ten big blinds, except for Pham, which meant, there wasn’t much the players could do but shove especially with blinds on turbo mode.

Vietnam’s Nhat Nam Le was first to get called with his shove, doubling up through the leader Pham.  Abram was next to get a stack boost with his A Q full house against Pham’s 8 8 on a board of Q 6 A A 4. Pham made up some of the lost chips by eliminating Vietnam’s Viet Dung Nguyen in 4th place. Pham continued to pounce his opponents, sending Le packing by cracking pocket aces with his 5 6 straight on a board of 3 8 4 7 A.

At heads up, Abram and Pham’s stack would repeatedly fluctuate from leader zone to safe zone to danger zone. Abram seemed headed for the win after crippling down Pham to one big blind but Pham caught up to balance the stacks. One round later, Abram fell to one big blind when his 2 2 lost to Pham’s A Q with an ace showing up on the board. Abram would catch up and soon it was back to even with Abram holding a very small lead. The final hand saw Abram all in with K J and Pham with Q 5. A queen made her way to the flop giving Pham the lead but it wasn’t to last as the full board ran 3 Q 9 J 10 giving Abram the straight, the trophy, and the P87,300 first place purse.

Side Events today

Running alongside Day 2 of the Main Event are two fun-filled side events, the Pot Limit Omaha Hi with an entry fee of P11,000 at 2pm and the WeLoveSport Deep Stack Turbo at 6pm with an entry fee of P5,500.

You can catch the daily highlights and the games recorded on the RFID feature table at the APT YouTube channel.