APT Finale Philippines 2018: Aditya Sushant Among Top 10 Stacks After Day 1A of the Main Event

The buzz of live tournaments carried through Resorts World Manila (RWM) in the Philippines on Wednesday, which saw three events play out. A big crowd of players turned up to enter the first starting flight of the PHP 10 Million GTD Main Event.

2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Aditya Sushant (70,600) is one of the few Indians who have reached Manila to participate in the series. Sushant entered Day 1A of the Main Event along with 94 others and made it through to Day 2. He is among the top 10 stacks with 46 survivors where Korea’s Chul Ho Bae (133,400) is in the chip lead.

Running alongside the Main Event was the Opening Event final table that culminated with Filipino player Marco Almerez emerging as the champion. Almerez banked PHP 445,800 for his win, even as Alfie Poetra took down the PLO Hi event for PHP 771,100.

Main Event – Day 1A

The hottest tournament on the 2018 APT Final Philippines roster, the PHP 10 Million Main Event wrapped up it`s first starting flight on November 28. Only 46 among the 95 who had registered for the flight made the cut for Day 2,with Korea`s Chul Ho Bae (133,400) bagging the chip lead.

India’s poker superstar and WSOP bracelet champion Aditya Sushant (70,600) was among the top 10 stacks at the end of play.

Other notables who have made it through to Day 2 are Australia’s Bobby Zhang (106,500), Singapore’s Kenneth Khoo (106,300), defending champion Tetsuya Tsuchikawa (63,000), former APT champions Lim Yo Hwan (80,500) and Linh Tran (52,200).

Two-time APT championship Henrik Tollefsen (13,700) is carrying the shortest stack from Day 1A and has a lot of work to do when Day 2 begins on November 30.

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1A

1.Chul Ho Bae – 133,400

2. Bobby Zhang – 106,500

3. Kenneth Khoo – 106,300

4. Charlito Aseberos – 89,500

5. Kwok Luen Hei – 84,100

6. Lim Yo Hwan – 80,500

7. Matz Jungsand – 78,80

8. Jun Obara – 76,200

9. Lu Li – 72,300

10. Aditya Sushant- 70,600

Opening Event

A week after taking down the RVS Cup, which is the biggest local tournament annually hosted at the Metro Card Club, local player Marco Almerez has won the 2018 APT Finale Philippines Opening Event. Almerez came into the final table fourth in chips with a stack of 291,000, but outlasted all his other seven opponents to claim the APT trophy and the PHP 350,600 top prize. With this victory that also happens to be his first recorded win, Almerez has stepped up in his contention for the APT Player of the Series title.

The event attracted 220 runners with each player ponying up PHP 11,000 to enter. The 1M guaranteed prize pool was surpassed with the prize pool touching PHP 2,134,000 and 37 players took home a share of the prize money.

The Filipino-dominated final table resumed on Wednesday with Chi Hung ‘Logan’ Ho (581,000) in the lead. PokerStars’ 2018 Player of the Year Mike Takayama was second in chips with a stack of 425,000.

Australian pro Rio Kitaoji crashed out first on the final table in eighth place, followed by Singapore’s Si Yang Phua and Tomohiro Tanaka from Japan in seventh and sixth place respectively.

Final table chip leader Ho couldn’t hold up long enough and bowed out in fifth place, leaving the four Filipino pros to battle it out for the title.

John Carlo Sayo was out in fourth place, and Xzar Ian Marcos finished third.

Seasoned Asian regular Mike Takayama came up against Almerez heads-up and made a strong bid to add more points to his APT Player of the Year tally. However, it was not to be as Takayama was soon relegated to a runner-up finish as Almerez was declared the champion!

Final Table Results (PHP)

1. Marco Almerez – PHP 350,600

2. Mike Takayama – PHP 300,000

3. Czar Ian Marcos – PHP 300,000

4. John Carlo Sayo – PHP 151,100

5. Chi Hung “Logan” Ho PHP 114,200

6. Tomohiro Tanaka – PHP 89,200

7. Si Yang Phua – PHP 71,900

8. Rio Kitaoji – PHP 59,500

PLO Hi

The 2018 APT Finale Philippines saw its only non-Hold’em event play down to a winner on Wednesday. With 53 entries registering with a PHP 16,500 buy-in, a PHP 771,100 prize pool was generated. The top nine players earned a share from the prize pool and grabbing the lion`s share was Alfie Poetra, who defeated Australia’s Anthony Abram heads-up to win the event.

The nine-handed final table saw a mix of Korean, Japanese and Australian players with Poetra the only player from the U.S.

Sang Hyun Park from Korea was eliminated first in ninth place, and Filipino Martin Corpuz was next to fall, in eighth place.

Japan’s Saihei Yamaoka crashed in seventh place, followed by Taehyung Kim from Korea and Filipino Romeo Dungca.

The field narrowed down to three-handed play after Japan’s Takao Shimizu saw his run cut short in fourth place with fellow countryman Kosei Ichinose going out in third place.

The heads-up play between Anthony Abram and Poetra came to a close when on a flop, Abram was at risk with against Poetra’s . Though Abram improved to a set on the turn, the on the river improved Poetra`s hand to a straight. Poetra was declared the winner, while Abram finished in runner-up place.

Final Table Results (PHP)

1.Alfie Poetra –PHP 231,300

2. Anthony Abram –PHP 154,200

3. Kosei Ichinose –PHP 107,600

4. Takao Shimizu –PHP 78,300

5. Romeo Dungca –PHP 59,200

6. Taehyung Kim –PHP 46,300

7. Daihei Yamaoka –PHP 37,300

8. Martin Corpuz –PHP 30,800

9. Sang Hyun Park –PHP 26,100

On tap today is the Day 1B flight of the Main Event and the NLH Single day Event ‘Shot Clock’. Coming up on November 30 are the Short Deck NLH ‘Shot Clock’, satellites to High Rollers and Championships Event, as well as Day 2 of the Main Event.

Content & Images courtesy –www.theasianpokertour.com.

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