HomeHello everyone and welcome to the last day of the APT Philippines 2017 II! For the past four days, the Genting Club of Resorts World Manila has been buzzing with thrilling Main Event action and today, it all comes to a head as the Final 8 players out of the 132 total entries return for the ultimate race to the coveted title. What everyone will be eyeing of course is the USD 49,070 first place purse and the exclusive APT Championship Ring.
APT Philippines 2017 II Main Event Final Eight
Based on stack sizes, the player that has the highest chance of capturing the glory is Korea’s Sung Ho Kim. Sung Ho amassed quite the arsenal in Day 3, and enters the Final 8 with 1.703M in chips. Last year, Sung Ho ran deep in two APT Main Events with his furthest at 6th place. Could the third time be the charm? We shall soon find out but for now what we do know is wherever he ends up, Sung Ho will already be earning his largest tournament live score.
Also in the Final 8 lineup are two highly decorated pros with APT Main Event titles, Korea’s Soo Jo Kim and Philippines’s Mike Takayama. For the former, SJ, he championed the APT Finale 2016 Macau. In addition, he has a long list of poker accomplishments under his belt. He enters with 1.433M in chips which puts him in second-rank.
As for Takayama, he is a two-time APT Main Event champion winning his first title back in September 2014 and his second just several months ago at the APT Championships Philippines. He is recognized as one of the top tournament poker pros in his country and like SJ, has a long list to boast of. If Takayama takes this all the way home, he will be the first player to earn a triple APT championship crown. Takayama enters the Final 8 with 741K.
Another player from the Philippines in the Final 8 is Eugene Co. One week ago, Co made headlines by winning the APT-RWM Opening Event. That was his first major tournament title. Seeing him at the Final 8 today shows he is ready to take this one down as well especially with the third largest stack. Co comes in with 869K in chips.
The bottom half of the chip rank has Korea’s Jae Hyun Lim at the helm with 702K, followed by Lebanon’s Hanna Khalife with 512K, Japan’s Daiki Kohagi with 347K, and to complete the lineup, another Japanese player, Zentaro Nakayashiki with 288K. Out of all four players, Khalife has the most experience at the APT, having ran deep at several side events through the years including a 17th place finish at the APT Asian Poker Series Manila Main Event two years ago.
The Final 8 will begin at 130pm, opening at Level 22: Blinds 12K-24K ante 4K. We will be streaming live starting at 2pm in the APT Twitch channel and at the APT YouTube station.
For chip counts and payouts, click here.
Day 1A recap
Day 1B recap
Day 2 recap
Day 3 recap