By KomishAirms
CITY OF DREAMS Manila, Philippines
A whopping 260 total participants packed Day 1A of the PhP50,000 (approx. US$1,100) Main Event of the ninth staging of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila here making this among the biggest starting fields in this country’s poker history. “This is an impressive showing,” said Fred Leung, the Senior Marketing and Business Development Manager of Pokerstars Live Events Asia. “The initial forecast was for about four hundred players, but with this Day 1A number we could make five hundred players easily.”
A record breaking Main Event?
The opening day field already tied the total number of players that entered in last year’s APPT Manila Main Event and could actually break the all-time record for the stagings here in Philippines, which was set in 2010 with 430 total participants. That had a PhP100,000 buy-in with American pro Binh Nguyen snaring the title. With those eliminated today still being allowed to re-enter for Day 1B, that number being shattered is almost a certainty. Day 1B is set for today (August 7th) with the cards flying at 6:00PM.
Of the total number of runners, over one hundred qualified via online and live satellites including one that concluded well into Level 3. Team Pokerstars Pros Celina Lin, Vivian Young Shin Im, Kosei Ichinose, Aditya Agrawal and Bryan Huang all dove into the action early while World Poker Tour (WPT) National Philippines champion Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, three-time Asian Poker Tour (APT) Player of the Year Sam Razawi and the Godfather of Philippine poker Wally “The Dream” Sombero headlined the notables that saw action here today.
At the end of the hostilities (tournament clock was stopped at Level 9 with the blinds at 600/1,200/100), 75 players went through to Day 2 with the chip lead belonging to Sweden’s Douglas Olsson who won the WPT National Philippines OFC and finished fifth in the Main Event. Olsson raked in a total of 207,500. Coming in second is Rolf Galasen of Norway with 203,800 while Team Pokerstars Pro Bryan Huang hauled in 172,900. Korea’s Kim Dongkyu and the Philippines’ Jessie Leonarez round out the top five with 171,900 and 135,800, respectively.
Other notable names that advanced to Day 2 include 2014 Pokerstars Player of the Year Pete Chen, WSOP multi-casher Terry Fan of Chinese Taipei, Iori Yogo and Asuza Maeda of Japan, along with Lin and Im. On the local front, joining Leonarez into the next round are Pokerstars Supernova Derick Hernandez, Edwin Marzan, Marc Amparo, Isabelo Braza and Jester Intia. Sombero, Jose “Boyet” Drilon, and Pilipinas Poker TLB champion/qualifier Francis Beliran were among those who fell by the wayside for the home front.
The much awaited Players Party coincides with Day 1B at Chaos club with all Main Event players expected to wind down well into dawn. The PhP10,000 Turbo NLHE is also scheduled at 6:00PM as well as a “last chance” Steps Satellite for the Main Event at 2:00PM. The action is reaching its climax here the 2015 APPT Manila and somuchpoker.com will have it all covered.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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