APPT Manila: Sahil Chuttani, Anant Purohit & Vinod Megalmani Make it Through Day 1A of the Main Event

APPT Manila
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  • Namita Ghosh August 2, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila has entered its second week of running at the Okada Manila in the Philippines. After a healthy turnout in the APPT Kickoff and APPT National, it was the third marquee event at the stop, the PHP 65,000 (~₹87,965) Main Event that kicked off yesterday with the first of its two starting flights. The PHP 20 Million prize pool guarantee of the event was blown away in the opening flight itself as 403 entries (347 unique players and 56 re-entries) collected a pool of PHP 22,868235 (~₹3.09 Crores) with Day 1B yet to play out!

A sizeable group of Indian players is in attendance at the stop, and even as India`s latest poker sensation Abhinav Iyer was chasing the Super High Roller title, many of his compatriots took some time out from railing him to join the Main Event. Iyer too jumped into Day 1A of the Main Event after finishing fifth in the Super High Roller but could not last till the end.

An impressive 10 Indian players joined Day 1A, and three among them managed to make the cut for Day 2 amidst the 101 Day 1A survivors. Leading the trio is another one of our Young Gun`s Sahil Chuttani who has been a busy campaigner at this series. Chuttani is a well-known player back home with numerous scores, both live and online. He was most recently seen in action at the APPT stop in Jeju last June where he had famously final tabled the ₩6,000,000 High Roller, finishing fifth for ₩18,794,000 (~₹11.20 Lakhs).

Chuttani is chasing his first cash at the ongoing stop and looks well placed for a deep run in the Main Event. He bagged a stack of 231,500 for Day 2 – the seventh-largest stack among the 101 survivors on Day 1A.

Sahil Chuttani
Sahil Chuttani

Bengaluru-based Vinod Megalmani (153,000) is the other Indian who advanced to Day 2. Coming off a busy summer that saw him picking up two scores at the 2019 WSOP, Megalmani is another circuit regular with several years of live experience on his back.

Vinod Megalmani
Vinod Megalmani

Rounding up the list of the advancing Indians from Day 1A is a popular online pro from Visakhapatnam, Anant Purohit (150,500). In what is likely his first time playing an APPT event, Purohit is in fact, one of five Indian qualifiers who had won an APPT Main Event package on PokerStars India.

Anant Purohit
Anant Purohit

The second and last starting flight Day 1B hits the floor at 3 pm (PHT) today. The flight allows players who were eliminated on Day 1A to re-enter so it’s safe to assume that we will be seeing most of the Indian crew firing a second bullet in the Main Event today.

In side event action, Hong Kong’s Ivan Hon Cheong Lee emerged triumphant in the PHP 150,000 High Roller to win his second APPT Manila High Roller title and a payday of PHP 3,631,500 (~₹48.99 Lakhs).

There are two new side events slated to kick off today – the PHP 10,000 NLHE Hyper Turbo and the PHP 15,000 NLHE Hyper Turbo Freezeout.

PHP 65,000 Main Event – Day 1A

Sahil Chuttani, Anant Purohit & Vinod Megalmani Advance to Day 2

The much-awaited series headliner, the PHP 65,000 (~₹87,965) Main Event PHP 20 Million GTD played out the first of its two starting flights yesterday. A massive turnout of 403 entries (347 unique players and 56 re-entries) ensured that the advertised prize pool guarantee was obliterated on the first day itself! The prize pool has already touched PHP 22,868235 (~₹3.09 Crores) and will definitely increase as Day 1B brings in more players.

By the time the chips were bagged on Day 1A, only 101 players were left standing in the field. A band of 10 Indians, comprising of Jaideep Sajwan, Sahil Agarwal, Sahil Chuttani, Abhinav Iyer, Anant Purohit, Vinod Megalmani, Kanishka Samant, PokerGuru Ambassador Vivek Singh, Aditya Sushant, and Tjokroprawiro William entered the event, but only three of them could advance.

Chuttani leads the trio of advancing Indians with 231,500 in chips, which is also the seventh-largest stack heading into Day 2. Megalmani (153,000) and Purohit (150,500) were the other two Indians who succeeded in securing a berth for Day 2.

Leading the 101 survivors is China’s Jingzhi Wang (468,000). Following Wang are Brazil’s Patrick Takayuki (340,500) and Canada’s Edgar Kim (317,000).

Other notables who also made the cut for the Day 2 include Martin Gonzales (160,000), Phachara Wongwichit (129,000), Huidong Gu (117,500), China’s Wayne Zhang (109,500), and two-time Asia Player of the Year Alan Lau (92,000).

Jingzhi Wang
Jingzhi Wang leads 101 Day 1A survivors in Main Event

Top 10 Chip Counts at the End of Day 1A

  1. Jingzhi Wang – PHP 468,000
  2. Patrick Takayuki – PHP 340,500
  3. Edgar Kim – PHP 317,000
  4. Yuri Odagiri – PHP 266,000
  5. Yilin Yang – PHP 249,000
  6. Thai Loc Le – PHP 241,000
  7. Sahil Chuttani – PHP 231,500
  8. Xixiang Luo – PHP 228,000
  9. Alexis Gillot – PHP 215,000
  10. Lee Hwany – PHP 212,000

PHP 150,000 High Roller

Ivan Lee Wins 2nd APPT Manila High Roller Title & PHP 3.63 Million

Even as the Super High Roller was on the final stretch, another High Roller kicked off. With a buy-in of PHP 150,000 (~₹2.02 Lakhs), the High Roller – One Day attracted 115 entries (98 unique players and 17 re-entries) generating a prize pool of PHP15,728,550 (~₹2.12 Crores). The top 17 places were paid.

Three Indians, namely, Sahil Agarwal and Sahil Chuttani and Kanishka Samant, had entered the event, but all of them fell out empty-handed.

Eventually, it was Hong Kong’s Ivan Hon Cheong Lee who took down the title following a heads-up deal with Ireland’s Gary Thompson. Lee collected the title and PHP 3,631,500 (~₹48.99 Lakhs) in prize money. This was his second time winning a High Roller at APPT Manila. He had last August won the PHP 200K NLHE High Roller Shot Clock & BB Ante for PHP 4,676,260.

Some notables who managed to finish in the money were Australia’s Bobby Zhang (5th for PHP915,500), Malaysia’s Wai Kiat Lee (10th for PHP 322,500), USA’s Joshua Zimmerman (11th for PHP 322,500), and former Asia Player of the Year Alan Lau (13th for PHP 283,000).

Ivan Hon Cheong Lee
Ivan Hon Cheong Lee wins PHP 150K High Roller

Final Table Results (PHP)

  1. Ivan Lee- PHP 3,631,500
  2. Gary Thompson- PHP 3,000,000
  3. Yuwen Pan- PHP 1,738,000
  4. Jiang Wang- PHP 1,439,000
  5. Tian Jin- PHP 1,161,000
  6. Bobby Zhang- PHP 915,500
  7. Soo Jo Kim- PHP 700,000
  8. Daniel Furnival-PHP 527,000
  9. Kaitan Tang– PHP 392,550

Content & Images Courtesy: Asia Pacific Poker Tour

Keep following PokerGuru for all the updates from the 2019 APPT Manila!

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