APT Philippines back in RWM; Richard Marquez wins the opening event

Two days ago, poker players from all over the Asian region set their sails for Resorts World Manila in Newport City, Philippines to attend the Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2016 II festival running from July 19th until July 27th. For several years, the APT has hosted some of its biggest events at RWM, the country’s first integrated tourist destination, offering players top notch tournaments with highly applauded structures. Players can expect a lot of poker headed their way with a total of 19 side events spread out through the nine days, and a US$2,200 Main Event highlighted on the weekend.

Leading the festivities was the two-day APT-RWM Opening Event US$50,000 Guaranteed attracting a field of 233 players. The buy-in fee for this event was an affordable US$275 for a total prize pool of US$56,500. This highly popular kick starter saw a good mix of players in attendance with APT circuit regulars, Asian circuit players, recreational players, and eager newcomers filling up the seats. One of the most familiar faces at the opener was Filipino player Richard “Hotsauce” Marquez who wasted no time amassing towers of chips, to end the first day as the overall chip leader.

Marquez continued to blaze through the field on the final day, and joined a tough bunch of players at the final table. The most unpredictable of the lot was fellow countryman Christopher Mateo who previously won the opening event at the APT Cebu 2016 back in February. Another player to contend with was USA’s Armand Bermudo who ended day one as the overall second chip leader.

Final Table

The final table saw Bermudo enter with the largest stack after burning two players simultaneously with his pocket queens.

His stack increased further by cracking a player’s pocket aces with a one card nut flush. When the field whittled down to four players, Marquez had the crowd stunned when he made an incredibly gutsy call with only bottom pair to eliminate Mateo. Meanwhile, Bermudo gained more chips by railing Filipino player Jay R Villanueva with yet another lucky beat. With lots of action happening, the heads up round between Marquez and Bermudo seemed to meet all the criteria for a juicy heated battle but it was not to be. The showdown was quick with Marquez defeating Bermudo in just one hand. Marquez earned the first place cash of $9,270, and the APT event trophy. Marquez now has three APT trophies under his belt.

In the Money

Other notables who made it in the money were UK’s Samad Razavi, Korea’s Kimura Lee Jongyeol, China’s Zhinning Chen, and Filipino player Regie Ann Delos Reyes, Among the fallen without any pay were Korea’s SJ Kim, footballer Anton Del Rosario, Vietnam’s Phu Danh Nguyen, Korea’s Jae Chul Chang, and Filipino player JC Sayo.

Final 8 Payouts:

1^st Richard Marquez – Philippines – US$9,270 (deal made)
2^nd Armand Bermudo – USA – US$7,500 (deal made)
3^rd Jay R Villanueva – Philippines – US$7,500 (deal made)
4^th Chris Mateo – Philippines – US$7,500 (deal made)
5^th Jojo Bai – Philippines – US$3,220
6^th Tomoyasu Arai – Japan – US$2,600
7^th Ernest Punzalan – Philippines – US$2,090
8^th John Kim – Korea – US$1,700

A quick rundown of the APT Philippines 2016 Main Event

The five-day Main Event will offer its day one flights on the weekend with one held on Friday and the last one on Saturday. This schedule is designed to give players the opportunity to join the APT festival without having to miss out on too much work. Entry fee is US$2,200. In addition, the Main Event structure that was introduced back in April will be applied to this event. So in essence, the deeper you go the deeper the structure. Up for grabs is the seventh APT Championship Ring awarded to every Main Event champion since the start of the year.

Somuchpoker.com will be following the action at the APT Philippines 2016 II posting recaps and other stories throughout the week. So stayed tuned for more on the coming days.