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Crushing all previous records set by international tournaments held in the Philippines, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila Main Event has now reached the final day. Only the top 41 players out of the 1,364 remain in contention for the title and Singapore’s Sebastian Wong (cover image) with his stack of 2,365,000 spearheads the survivors coming into the final day.
Team India’s dream run in the Main Event ended on Day 2, where all the 22 Indian challengers, who had advanced from the two starting flights, were eliminated through the course of the day. Eight of them, headlined by Sriharsha Doddapaneni (43rd for ₱210,000~₹2.72 Lakhs) and Ravi Priya (62nd for ₱170,000~₹2.20 Lakhs) picked up scores while the remaining 14 fell out empty-handed.
With the remaining 41 survivors assured at least ₱210,000, the play will now resume with each of the contenders gunning for the top payday of ₱12,970,000 (~₹1.68 Crores) and the PSPC Platinum Pass worth $30,000.
Day 2 Recap
A total of 22 Indians resumed play on Day 2 among the 404 survivors. After a full day of play, the field was whittled down to 41 survivors.
Despite putting up a tough fight, Team India`s Main Event is now over with eight Indians managing to make it in the money at the event, while the 14 others fell out empty-handed.
Indian challengers Sriharsha Doddapaneni (43rd for ₱210,000~₹2.72 Lakhs), Ravi Priya (62nd for ₱170,000~₹2.20 Lakhs), Kunal Patni (81st for ₱157,000~₹2.03 Lakhs), Sahil Agarwal (84th for ₱144,500~₹1.87 Lakhs), Kanishka Samant (113th for ₱130,500~₹1.69 Lakhs), Vidwath Shetty (152nd for ₱118,000~₹1.53 Lakhs), Anup Palod (159th for ₱118,000~₹1.53 Lakhs) and Amanpreet Singh (161st for ₱118,000~₹1.53 Lakhs), all managed to make it in the money.
However, 14 others, i.e., Zarvan Tumboli, Sajal Gupta, Kavin Shah, Rajeev Kanjani, Varun Gupta, Siddarth Singhvi, Chiraag Patel, Rathi Shashank, Dhaval Mudgal, Aditya Sushant, Dilip Ajitkumar Menon, Jaydeep Dawer, Abhinav Iyer and Sahil Chutani, fell short of the money line.
Top scorer among the Indians, Sriharsha Doddapaneni played his A-game right through. He sent one player out in Level 16 when the player from middle position moved all in for his last 35,000 and Doddapaneni called from the cutoff. He tabled against the opponent’s . The runout was and Doddapaneni scooped the pot.
India’s Chiraag Patel, fresh from winning his first-ever international title in the ₱15,000 NLH Turbo, where he banked ₱350,000 (~₹4.54 Lakhs), missed making it in the money by a whisker.
Even as Patel, Zarvan Tumboli and Sajal Gupta were eliminated close to the bubble, Vidwath Shetty who had entered Day 2 with 126,500 in chips, managed to sail across the money bubble. With the bubble approaching fast, he survived a major hand in Level 17 where he moved all-in for 60,000 and was called by a player on the button. Shetty tabled against his opponent’s . The flop was of no help to Shetty but the on the turn gave him the lead with a pair of kings that held through on the river, getting him a double up.
The money bubble burst towards the end of Level 18, when Thananat Therdtskoonrat was eliminated by Qiang Xi, who hit trip sixes, forcing the former to exit in 163rd place. The remaining 162 players were in the money for a minimum ₱118,000.
Korea’s Seung Soo Jeon (67th for ₱157,000), Sparrow Cheung (72nd for ₱157,000), Filipino Florencio Campomanes (78th for ₱157,000), James Mitchell (79th for ₱157,000), and PokerStars team pro Celina Lin (128th for ₱124,000) also fell out on Day 2.
Day 3 of the event will begin shortly. Following Wong at the top of the chip counts are Kean Wie Tan (2,055,000), Samuel Welbourne (2,055,000) and Kenny Shih (2,040,000).
Many notables including China’s Bin Zhang (1,335,000), Norbert Koh (1,295,000), Japan’s Yuka Asaka (1,105,000), Yvo Molin (1,080,000), Day 1A chip leader Yuan Chao Li (500,000), and Tianyuan Tang (145,000) are also in contention for the most prestigious title of the series.
1. Sebastian Wong – 2,365,000
2. Kean Wie Tan – 2,055,000
3. Sam Welbourne – 2,055,000
4. Kenny Shih – 2,040,000
5. Daero Lee – 1,990,000
6. Lester Edoc – 1,800,000
7. Zebin Sun – 1,775,000
8. Teruhisa Aoyama – 1,740,000
9. Su Seng Wong – 1,675,000
10. Markus Garberg – 1,470,000
With the crescendo in the Main Event building up towards the finale and three other events, i.e. the ₱200,000 APPT High Roller, ₱25,000 6-Handed Shot Clock and ₱10,000 NLH Turbo to open to exciting poker action, Sunday promises to be an eventful day at the 2018 APPT Manila!
Stay tuned to PokerGuru for more updates from APPT Manila 2018!
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