Today’s events: 52 players hunt down Main Event Final 8 berth; High Rollers at 3pm and Championships Satellite

Good morning everyone and welcome to another day of poker festivities at the APT Philippines Championships 2018 in Resorts World Manila. Up on the plate today, Day 3 of the Main Event! As it stands, 52 players will be returning to the felt each one looking to secure a Final 8 berth. Last night, the money started flowing with three players already taking a small cut of the Php15,762,500 prize pool. In case you missed the numbers, there were 325 total entries for the Main Event with 55 in the money.

As always, we will have live updates for you to keep up with the action. Here are some info for the players:

Opening round: Level 17 Blinds 2000-4000 ante 500
Average stack: 156,153
Chips in play: 8,120,000
Players: 52 remaining

Total entries: 325 
Buy-in: Php55,000
Prize pool: Php15,7652,500
Payouts: 55 places
1st place: Php2,674,900

Chip counts link

Payouts link

Coming in with the largest artillery is Vietnam’s Nguyen Hoang Bach with 434,000. Packed with nearly three times the average, Nguyen is in great shape to reach the final table as he did at last year’s festival, where he finished 3rd at the Championships Event.

Riding high in second position is Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee with 406,500. For those who may not remember, Lee won the APT Experience Manila Main Event two years ago. Lee is one of seven APT Main Event champions in the running. While each of them is hunting down their second title, defending champion Mike Takayama is one up, seeking his third. Takayama enters Day 3 with 168,000.

Other notable players in the lineup and with very healthy stacks are Hiroyuki Yoshimura, Lee Chin Yong, Soojo Kim, Yo Hwan Lim, Lester Edoc, Ha Duong, Victor Chong Florencio Campomanes, and Hajime Mogi. Cards start flying at 1pm.

Events today

With the main heating up the room, we do have a couple of events also joining in. At 3pm is the High Rollers event. This is a scheduled two-day event. Buy-in is Php107,500. Players can expect another highly crafted APT structure for this event.

Starting stack: 40,000
Opening blinds: 100-200
Level duration: 40 minutes

At 6pm, we’ve got another Championships Satellite taking place. Buyin is Php12,000 with one seat awarded to the Championships Event per ten players. The past days has seen a high number of players win seats to our featured events via these satellites. For the Main Event, there are several satellite winners still in the running for the title. With the money bubble already breached, these players are now making a big profit.

Full APT Philippines Championships 2018 schedule