HomeAfter four days of heated action at the Asian Poker Tour Philippines III 2016 in Resorts World Manila, the Final 8 of the Main Event was determined with Norway’s Markus Garberg holding a commanding lead of 2.435M in chips.
Main Event Final Day Chip Leader, Markus Garberg
Garberg entered Day 3 causing some major damage to several players. He cracked Singapore’s Ceesvin Abdulla’s A♠ A♣ with his K♠ 10♣ straight on a board of Q♦ J♣ 9♣ 4♠ 4♣. The all in was at the flop. He followed it up with the takedown of one of the day’s entering chip leaders, Vietnam’s Van Sang Nguyen. Later, he climbed over the million range after winning two big pots against Malaysia’s Jin Yong without a showdown. Next on his hit list were Korea’s Kimura Lee Jongyeol and Japan’s Jun Funabashi, then at the unofficial final table of ten players, Garberg ended the hopes of Filipino Ian Marcos with A♥ K♥ winning a coin flip against Q♦ Q♠ on a board that ran J♠ 10♥ K♣ 3♦ 5♣.
Returning to the APT final table is a past APT Main Event champion, Singapore’s Feng Zhao. Zhao won it back in APT Philippines 2104 and is the only player decorated with a championship title in the Final 8. Zhao finished Day 3 running second-in-chips with 1.745M. His biggest score of the day was up against Filipino Wally Sombero with his 10♠ 10♦ full house on a board of 8♣ 4♣ Q♣ 4♠ 10♥ getting maximum pay. He added more ammo to his stack by doing what Garberg did earlier in the day, cracking Abdulla’s aces.
Taking the third spot is Korea’s In Chul Sin with 1.220M in chips. Sin was patient in Day 3, waiting for the right spot to land that one big one. It happened late in the day against Vietnam’s Tran Hai Ha with both of them short stacked and all in. Sin had A♥ J♣ and Ha with A♣ 10♥. The board paired up both lower cards, and with Sin having the one point edge and a slightly higher stack, he skyrocketed to the top of the chip count.
The next two spots were shared by South Africa’s Edward Pastoll and USA’s Tristan Yumul both with exact same stacks of 1.050M. Filling up the last three spots were Jin Yong with 680k, Japan’s Shunsuke Tsuji with 615k, and Japan’s Rajesh Jiandoni with 475k.
APT Philippines 2016 III Main Event Final 8
Day 3 recap
Day 3 began with 39 players headed back to the felt after surviving the onslaught of Day 2. The chip leader was Malaysia’s Victor Chong who came out firing, eliminating a player at the first deal of the day. Despite his opening takedown, his stack would only hold up until the money round, exiting the field in 21st place. Past APT Main Event champions, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen and Japan’s Gerard Bringley, and APT Player of the Year 2016 current leader Japan’s Iori Yogo all fell right after the bubble was delivered.
Filipino JC Sayo, the only player with two APT trophies in this series, also ran well throughout the day but after his stack took two heavy beatings, he had to settle for a 14th place berth. The one player who probably suffered the most crushing of beats was Singapore’s Abdulla. Not only did he bubble to the Final 8, but he also lost three hands holding pocket aces with the third one as his final hand of the day.
You can read up on all the Main Event action, view the chip counts and payouts in the Live Updates page. The Final 8 will kick off at 130pm and will be featured on the RFID table.