APPT Manila: Vishal Tajpuria Among the Top Stacks After Day 1A of the Kickoff Event

There was a short lull immediately after the 50^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) wrapped up! But the next few weeks guarantee non-stop live action especially for MTT players with several marquee events lined up one after the other.

The most recent event to have stirred up action is the PokerStars sponsored Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) that is making its debut at the iconic Okada Casino in Manila. The 25-event, 10-day series will run from July 26-August 4.

While it’s still early, many Indian players are already present at the series namely, Sahil Agarwal, Kanishka Samant, Jaideep Sajwan, Mani Singh, Siddharth Kapoor, Vishal Tajpuria & Amrut Ashok Avhad.

Sahil Agarwal was conspicuously missing in the Team India lineup that traveled to the 2019 WSOP, but he is in Manila chasing another big score. Many of our readers will remember that Agarwal was one of the standout performers at this stop last year where he finished runner-up in the PHP 200K NLHE High Roller (Shot Clock & BB Ante) for PHP 4.65 Million (~₹60.65 Lakhs).

Mani Singh is another Indian back on familiar ground. He had final tabled the PokerStars sponsored Manila Megastack 12 Main Event last month, finishing fourth for ₱888,000 (~₹11.87 Lakhs).

Travel vlogger Jaideep Sajwan is also present in Manila after a busy summer in Las Vegas. Sajwan posted his first-ever WSOP score in the WSOP Main Event this year finishing 1055^th for $15,970 (~₹11 Lakhs) and is among the five Indians who won APPT Manila Main Event packages on PokerStars India – the others being Aditya Wadhwani, Anant Purohit, Bobbe Suri, and Neelansh Khurana. While not all, we do expect most of them to make it at the stop in time to encash the Main Event package.

Flagging off the series on July 26 was the APPT Kickoff PHP 3 Million GTD. The first starting flight of the event logged in 242 entries (193 unique players and 49 re-entries), and only 29 made it through the day. While the majority of the Indian crew present in Manila was seen in action, Vishal Tajpuria was the only one among them to advance to Day 2. Tajpuria bagged 249,500 in chips placing himself sixth on the end-of-day leaderboard. He is another Indian player we have seen a lot of recently and was last seen at APT Vietnam in January where he posted two scores.

China’s Li Jun (541,500) bagged the chip lead on Day 1A with Cao Anh (500,000) and Oleg Mordassov (391,500) rounding out the top three stacks. The two other starting flights play out today followed by Day 2 tomorrow.

Running alongside Day 1A of the APPT Kickoff was the PHP 8,000 NLHE Turbo Freezeout. Championing the field of 82 entries in the event was Greece’s Charalampos Lappas who was awarded the first title at the series along with PHP 127,000 (~₹1.71 Lakhs) in prize money.

The weekend promises to be action-packed with Day 1B and Day 1C of the Kickoff scheduled to play out today alongside the PHP 55K NLHE Deepstack (Single Re-entry). Day 2 of the Kickoff runs tomorrow along with three more events – PHP 8K NLHE Knockout Freezeout, PHP 100K NLHE Single Re-Entry, and the APPT National.

APPT Kickoff – Day 1A

The first event on the schedule, the APPT Kickoff PHP 3 Million GTD (~₹40.48 Lakhs) played out the first of three starting flights on July 26. A total of 242 entries (193 unique players and 36 re-entries) ponied up the PHP 16,000 (~₹21,591) buy-in, but in the end, only 29 of them made the cut for Day 2.

The field included seven Indians, namely, Sahil Agarwal, Amrut Ashok Avhad, Mani Singh Gurditta, Siddharth Kapoor, Jaideep Sajwan, Kanishka Samant, and Vishal Tajpuria, but barring Tajpuria, all others hit the rail before the end of play. The tournament permitted unlimited re-entry and many players including Agarwal, Avhad and Tajpuria fired two bullets. However, Tajpuria was the lone Indian to survive the day`s onslaught and will be returning on Day 2 with a stack of 249,500.

Spearheading the 29 Day 1A survivors is China’s Li Jun (541,500) with Vietnam’s Cao Anh (500,000) and Switzerland’s Oleg Mordassov (391,500) rounding up the top three stacks of the day.

Among the other notables carrying big stacks to Day 2 are Soo Jo Kim (250,000), and Richard Marquez (194,500).

The two other starting flights run today and Day 2 will commence at 1 PM (PHT) tomorrow. The tournament format permits multiple re-entries and players who have already made it to Day 2 can also play again to spin up a larger stack. Players who qualify twice will receive a min-cash for their shortest stack and will take only their largest stack through to Day 2.

Top 10 Stacks at the End of Day 1A

1. Li Jun- 541,500
2. Cao Anh- 500,000
3. Oleg Mordassov- 391,500
4. Sakae Takagi- 254,500
5. Soo Jo Kim- 250,000
6. Vishal Tajpuria- 249,500
7. Devadason L- 222,500
8. Richard Marquez- 194,500
9. Minjoo Cho- 166,000

PHP 8,000 NLHE Turbo Freezeout

The second event of the series, the PHP 8,000 (~₹10,975) buy-in NLHE Turbo Freezeout registered 82 players creating a prize pool of PHP 559,962 (~₹7.55 Lakhs). Outlasting the field was Greece’s Charalampos Lappas who defeated local pro Alex Torrefranca heads-up to win PHP 127,000 (~₹1.71 Lakhs) in prize money!

Final Table Results (PHP)

1. Charalampos Lappas – ₱127,000
2. Alex Torrefranca – ₱125,000
3. Jiankeng Pan – ₱67,200
4. Tae Hoon Han – ₱56,000
5. Yuichi Kanai – ₱44,800
6. Meng Long – ₱39,200
7. Park Sungwoon – ₱33,600
8. Tsai-feng Liu – ₱28,000
9. Marius Zalpys – ₱22,400
10. Yoko Suganuma – ₱16,762

Content & Images Courtesy: Asia Pacific Poker Tour

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