HomeDay 2 of the APT Asian Series Manila 2013 Main Event started with 155 players. When the smoke cleared only less than a third got into the money round—everyone else went hope disappointed knowing they came so close but just couldn’t make the cut.
A total of 45 players have qualified for Day 3 of the main event set at 1 p.m. Tuesday, October 15th. Everyone playing in Day 3 is already assured of at least a PHP 69,000 payout but all of them still have a chance for the champion’s purse of roughly PHP 4.27 million.
Main Event Day 3 Chip Leader, Jerry Lai
Emotions were real and the skills were rampant in Day 2 but for every Jerry Lai, who came out on top of the heap with 751,000 in chips> While Alistair Duff became the last casualty of the day and the unfortunate bubble boy.
Lai is joined by Victorino Torres (Northern Mariana Islands) with 592,000; Lester Edoc (Philippines) with 553,00, Czardy Earl Rivera (391,000) and Craig Sloan (Australia) with 382,000 inside the top five in chip counts entering Day 3.
Lai, the player from Malaysia, actually won earlier this week already ending up at first place in the Charity Event and according to him that was a good warm-up for his play in the main event.
“(That charity event) definitely gave me a lot of confidence winning that and going into the main event I feel more confident,” said Lai, who came into today’s play with 80,600 in chips— ranked 23rd among all the players to start Day 2.
“I set to play aggressive and try to gain more chips like how I did today. It was a pretty good plan,” explained the Malaysian. “I’ll just keep on being aggressive (for Day 3).”
On how he got the huge stack after Day 2, Lai pointed to a key hand when he was involved in a battle of the blinds.
“I was in the small blind against the big blind. That guy, I think he had jack-ten, and I defended my blind (after he raised) with seven-nine suited. The flop was 7-7-5, the guy bet and I put a raise and the guy shoved and I snap called with my seven-trips so it was a big double-up for me.”
Other crucial hands were when his pocket nines sent a player to the rail and propelled him to over the 400-chip mark; and yet another when his J♣ Q♣ hit two pair and he had to make a great call against a player who had complete air that brought him to over 500,000 in chips.
Lai made the headlines but the best side story of the day is probably how Edward Dam avoided being the bubble when his K♥ Q♥ pulled off the miracle against an opponent’s A♠ K♠. The board K♣ 8♦ 10♣ J♦ 9♣ completed the runner-runner straight for Dam and practically opened the unfortunate bubble story that was Duff.
“Queen saves me, queen saved me. First day, I had pocket queens and the other was ace-queen. So basically queen saved me today with that one card straight,” shared Dam, who was more than ecstatic to still have 137,000 in chip.
Meanwhile, Yuri Ishida of Japan took down the title in the Dafapoker No Limit Hold ‘Em event winning PHP 569,000 and Kai Paulsen of Norway ruled the Pot Limit Omaha Turbo event for PHP 412,200.
DafaPoker No Limit Hold ‘Em Champion, Yuri Ishida
Pot Limit Omaha Turbo Champion, Kai Paulsen
Also on tap Tuesday is the Heads Up 64 Max (Event #12) and WeLoveSport Deep Stack Turbo (Event #13) at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. For the complete schedule, check the APT Asian Series Manila 2013 event page.