Top results of the APT Philippines 2017; Sam Nee back-to-back titles

Amidst a busy summer of poker events around the world, the main island of the Philippines was having their own festival with the Asian Poker Tour hosting its sixth major event of the year, the APT Philippines 2017. The poker festival offered nine-days of poker from July 19^th – July 27^th, and was held – for the first time – at the Winford Hotel & Casino located in the heart of Manila. Here are some of the top results of the series.

Back-to-back Main Event title for Malaysia’s Sam Nee Aik Chuan

After a two-year break, Aik Chuan aka Sam Nee is back! And not only is he back, he is also the first-ever APT back-to-back Main Event champion. Earlier this month, Chuan returned to the live tournament scene and ripped up the APT Southeast Asia Main Event in Cambodia to win his first live victory since 2015.

A few weeks later, he zoomed his way to Manila, and amongst a small turnout of players, facing past APT champions Iori Yogo and Soo Jo Kim at the final table, he achieved what no one at the APT circuit has ever done, win a back-to-back APT Main Event title. Chuan earned PHP 1,001,000 (US$19,700 approx).

Since his return to the live felt in early July, he has now posted five total cashes, two of which were victories. This is certainly a very impressive performance for his first month back.

Main Event payouts

Rank	Name	Country	Prize (PHP)
1	Sam Nee Aik Chuan	Malaysia	1,001,000.00
2	Masato Nikawadori	Japan	628,600.00
3	Sangjun Lee	Korea	395,800.00
4	Iori Yogo	Japan	302,600.00

Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and SJ Kim win side events

Out of the 17 side events offered at the festival, poker professionals Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Soo Jo Kim each claimed one for themselves. Tsuchikawa topped the Ante Up for Charity event and also earned some extra pay and points for his 7^th place berth at the Opening Event. This helped sustain his lead in the APT Player of the Year 2017 leaderboard.

As for the Korean pro Kim, he ran deep in the Main Event Warm-Up then days later he claimed his own trophy, defeating Aik Chuan at final heads up round of the No Limit Hold’em event.

Emmanuel Segismundo wins the Opening Event

There were several local players that made headlines throughout the week however none were as pronounced as the festival opener champion Emmanuel Segismundo. Segismundo overcame a field of 136 entries to earn the second largest payout of the series amounting to PHP 330,000 (US$6,500 approx).

Impressively, this is his third cash and third live tournament victory for the month of July. He triumphed two events at the PokerStars Live Manila Super Series event, one of which was the PHP10K Main Event.

Opening event payouts

Rank	Name	Country	Prize
1	Emmanuel Segismundo	Philippines	330,000.00
2	Mark Jerick Almusajin	Philippines	259,300.00
3	Naveen Tiruvalluri	India	150,600.00
4	Christopher Gavan	Philippines	109,900.00
5	Gerardo Lubas Iii	Philippines	90,900.00
6	Joon Park	Australia	74,900.00
7	Tetsuya Tsuchikawa	Japan	61,800.00
8	Michael Capinpuyan	Philippines	51,700.00
9	Philip Rohm	United States	44,400.00
10	Jae Chul Chang	Korea	37,800.00
11	Joven Huerto	Philippines	35,600.00
12	Yul Maravilla	Philippines	35,600.00
13	Mary Jane Daypuyart	Philippines	30,600.00
14	Sangjun Lee	Korea	30,600.00
15	Jeon Seung Soo	Korea	30,600.00
16	John Jay Magadan	Philippines	26,900.00
17	Changjo Im	South Korea	26,900.00
18	Koki Takeishi	Japan	26,900.00

Article by Triccia David