HomeAnnie Bordallo of Guam and Mikal Blomlie of Norway took different paths to becoming the chip leaders after Day 2 of the APT Philippines 2014 Main Event at the Resorts World Manila.
Annie Bordallo and Mikal Blomlie, Chip Leaders Going Into Main Event Day 3
Still, the end result was the same; with 303,000 and 286,000 in chips, respectively, they’ll tow the 35-player field left in the tournament– all of whom have high hopes that they end up as the champion in this APT stop.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Those are the stories of two leaders entering the main event play on Monday. Bordallo was second in chips in Day 1B while Blomlie had roughly 12,000—ranking 106 of the 116 players who started play in Day 2.
“It was really kind of tough day. But I stayed even the whole time and thought I got lucky in a couple of hands that doubled me up at the right time,” shared Bordallo, who was involved in a wild set vs. flush draw battle versus Renan Morales from the Philippines.
“The ace-flush call was really painful to make, it was very hard. Obviously I was called for time but I just thought I had lots of outs available to me. It was a hard decision but I am happy I made it.”
After that huge hand, Bordallo continued her way to the top finishing the day with back-to-back wins over Malaysian Jerry Lai, who had one of the bigger stacks all night long.
Meanwhile, Blomlie’s plan was simple; stay alive early and find a good spot.
“Find a good hand and try to double-up. I had 20 big blinds on one-hour levels so I had some time,” said the Norwegian, who found that double-up early on when his big slick won against Do Hoang Anh’s mere king-jack. Anh was the chip leader entering Day 2 but is now eliminated from the main event.
“First, I double-up with ace-king against a king-jack. Then I had a big all-in, I just flatted aces and there was an all-in behind, I called. That was the start,” continued Blomlie.
And indeed it was just the beginning of the rise of Blomlie. His set of jacks earned big off Jojo Tech; he caught Ziyang Zhao’s bluff calling down with just king-high; he also busted local bet Andrew Gaw; and by dinner break he was the runaway chip leader.
Bordallo, Blomlie and 33 others continue their mission on Tuesday for Day 3 of the APT Philippines 2014 Main Event.
Completing the top five in the chip count are Ziyang Zhao (China) with 209,500; Huy Pham (Vietnam) with 200,000; Linh Duong (Canada) with 191,500 in chips.
A total of 208 main event entries generated a prize pool of $504,400. The lion’s share of $126,500 will go to the newest APT Main Event champion and 27 players will end up in the money for at least $5,500.
Day 3 of the main event begins at 2:00 p.m. with the Heads Up 64 Max event ($350 buy-in) set at 3:00 p.m. and the Deep Stack Turbo event ($170) at 6:00 p.m. Visit the APT Philippines 2014 Events Schedule page for more details.