HomeIt was another swinging day at the Asian Poker Tour Experience Manila 2016 with lots of cards flying and chip shuffling all around the room. Coming out today to the APT Poker Room at Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel and Casino were players looking to take part in the side events, namely the Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers, the Battle of the Nations, and the Ante Up for Charity. Also taking place was the final day of the P1M Guaranteed Welcome Event. By the end of the night, several trophies found its victors.
P1M Guaranteed Welcome Event Recap
1M GTD Welcome Event Champion, Jae Wook Shin
Starting with the P1M Guaranteed Welcome Event, from 230 entries at yesterday’s flights, only 53 qualified into the final day with Korea’s Jae Wook Shin paving the way as the chip leader. Action moved in lightning speed with many players falling like dominoes. The bubble burst when one of the day’s leaders, Korea’s Youngsub Song, eliminated China’s Jiang Haibo. From there, more tumbled and the final table of eight was reached when Malaysia’s Adimus Putra eliminated Filipino player Moises Bogabil in 9th place.
The first casualty of the final table was birthday celebrant Yoichi Uesugi from Japan. Uesugi came in with a low stack, was chunked down to an even shorter stack when he doubled up fellow countryman Kosugi Wataru, and then he fell at the hands of Shin in 8th place. As for Wataru, his double up didn’t last very long because he lost a costly pot against Song which he could not recover from. He was blinded down and was eliminated by Filipino player Aristotle Sigua in 7th place. Filipino player Joseph Sia had a tough time at the final table, unable to make any bold moves, and was eliminated in 6th place by Song. By this time, Song had well over 1.5m chips. Putra was next to hit the rail and had to settle for 5th place when his A♣ 10♣ was not good enough against Sigua’s 7♦ 7♠.
With half of the players at the final table eliminated, orbits went quick. USA’s Nick Gorman got all his chips in with a flush holding 10♥ 7♥ on a flop of 9♥ K♥ A♥ against Song with A♠ A♦. The turn of 6♦ kept Gorman ahead but with the river of A♣, Song crushed Gorman’s hand with quads and eliminated him in 4th place. A few hands after, Sigua hit the rail hard in 3rd place when his Q-3 was out-kicked by Shin’s K-3 on a board of 6-8-3-3-4. At heads up, it was the only two Korean players at the final table who remained to battle it out, Shin versus Song, with the former having a slight lead in chips. Song went to work quick, winning several pots to take the chip lead. But his momentum was put to a big halt when he four-bet shove with A♥ 5♥ and was snap-called by Shin with K♥ K♦. The board offered no joy for Song and Shin doubled up to an 11:1 chip advantage. The final hand saw Song all in with A♠ A♦ and called by Shin with Q♣ 4♥. The board ran a wild J♥ 8♣ K♥ 10♥ A♣ giving Shin a straight, the first place cash prize of P335,000, and the first trophy of the festival.
Other players who finished the day with payouts in this event were Taiwan’s Wang Ping Yuan, Korea’s Lee Jong Yeol, John Kim, and Filipino players Euryd Rivera, Del Ty, and Edilberto Gopez to mention a few.
Final Table of Eight Payouts:
1st Jae Wook Shin – Korea – P335,000
2nd Youngsub Song – Korea – P192,800
3rd Aristotle Sigua – Philippines – P131,200
4th Nick Gorman – USA – P93,700
5th Adimus Putra – Malaysia – P76,300
6th Joseph Sia – Philippines – P61,600
7th Kosugi Wataru – Japan – P49,500
8th Yoichi Uesugi – Japan – P40,200
You can watch the final table action at APT’s Twitch account.
Battle of the Nations
Battle of the Nations Last Team Standing, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Jun Funabashi of Team Japan
At the Battle of the Nations event, there were 40 players, equivalent to 20 teams, who came out to represent their country. This generated a prize pool of P310,400 plus a Team Champion pot of P62,100. When the field dwindled down to ten players, the last team standing was Japan’s tandem Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Jun Funabashi. Play was stopped at eight players and will resume tomorrow at 1pm.
Ante Up for Charity
Ante Up for Charity Champion, SJ Kim
The Ante Up for Charity event for Feed a Child, Build a Nation, a Program by the Rotary Club Makati North, saw 23 entries for a prize pool of P172,500 plus P57,500 going to the charity organization. Taking it all the way to the finish line was birthday celebrant SJ Kim defeating Korea’s John Kim at the heads up round. Kim earned himself a sweet happy birthday prize of P49,400 plus the event trophy.
Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers
Pot Limit Omaha High Rollers Champion, Nohsung Park
The PLO High Rollers had ten players pony up the P55,000 entry fee with only two players seeing a profit. At three handed, Canada’s Linh Tran could not hang on to his chips leaving Singapore’s Lim Yah Loon and Korea’s Nohsung Park to battle it out. In the end, it was Park who denied Loon the trophy and the first place purse of P315,000. Loon earned P170,000 for the runner-up spot.