APT Main Event (85,000 PHP)

Flight B of the APT Manila Main Event just concluded its action here at the City of Dreams in Manila. A total of 257 entries were recorded, who all coughed up the PHP 85,000 buy-in for their chance to earn a payout from the gigantic PHP 100,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. However, there were only 110 survivors after ten levels, who will be advancing to compete again on the Day 2 leg, which plays out on Sunday, November 3.

It brings the total number of entries in the Main Event up to 663, which includes entries from Flight A, plus 157 qualifiers.

Out of today's advancing players, Laurence Hall of Australia bagged the biggest stack with a total of 312,000 chips. The Melbourne native has had a stellar poker career in Australia and is now taking the opportunity to play in events around Asia that provide much bigger prizes and payouts, such as here in the Asian Poker Tour. Hall has amassed a nearly US$ 300,000 dollars in total live earnings and a deep run in this APT Main Event will certainly improve his standings to push past that line.

Jeonghan Lee of South Korea ranked second in the counts with 232,100, while Jeorge Lagatuz rounded up the top three with a count of 228,000 chips.

Lee has four APT cashes from way back in 2015 and 2017. Lee's last APT cash was a third-place finish in the APT Manila NLH High Rollers Event in 2017. Perhaps, it's about time he cashed another big one.

Lagatuz of the Philippines already cashed in the first event of this APT Manila with a 27th-place finish in the Philippines National Cup. Perhaps this is the time he gets a deeper run, maybe even a championship.

Other significant names from Flight B that will advance to Day 2 are Lester Edoc of the Philippines (113,100), who sits at third in the Philippines All-Time Money List. Edoc also just recently won the APT Manila No Limit Hold'em - Hyper Turbo Win the Button event just a few days ago.

Rex Clinkscales of the USA (123,300) has over US$ 1.8 Million is total live earnings and a deep run in this main event may see him pass the 2M mark.

Elliot Damashek of the USA (102,100) was the runner-up in the Vietnam National Cup of the APT Hanoi BIllions series last December 2023.

Zhen Chen of China (135,700) has made over $200,000 in six tournament cashes just this October 2024. Two of those were first place finishes that cashed a combined $US 167,000.

Craig Cooper of the UK (100,600) made significant cashes earlier this October at the APT Taipei Poker Classic and is hunting down some payouts from APT Manila.

Matthew Chan of Singapore (67,100) has cashed in APT events in Vietnam and Taiwan, and looks to add the Philippines to the list.

Meanwhile, some notables who failed to make the cut today were recent APT Manila Single Day High Roller Mystery Bounty winner John Matsuda of Japan, Mystery Bounty Hunter final table-ist Magnus Martin of Scotland, recent APT SUper High Roller champion William Teoh of Malaysia.

So far, there are a total of 192 players (82 Flight A, 100 Flight B) who advanced to compete for the APT Main Event Day 2 on November 3. That number will surely increase with 2 more flights to launch tomorrow. The APT Main Event Flight C opens at 11:00 AM of November 2 with Flight D later in the day at 6:00 PM.

Here are the the top ten chip counts of Flight B APT Manila Main Event:

A full APT Main Event Flight B Survivor list can be found by CLICKING HERE.

There was over 50,000 in the pot and a board that read T♣ A♥ 5♥ 6♦ 9♠ . Daon Kang and Kazuhiro Shirazawa were still in the hand.

On the final round of betting, Daon Kang dropped a 30,000 bet. Shirazawa's stack was covered and his tournament life in possible jeopardy.

Shirazawa went into deep thought, staring at the board and at his hand a few times. Notihing changed. The board was still the same as was his hand. He eventually surrendered the pot to Kang to fight another time.

Daon Kang applied pressure early by three-betting Thomas Lamb to 2,900 after Lamb opened the action with a raise to 900 from middle position. Lamb opted to call, bringing them to a flop of K♣ T♦ 4♠ .

Both players checked the flop, but when the 6♣ hit the turn, Kang seized the initiative, leading out with a bet of 1,700. Faced with Kang's aggression, Lamb chose to fold, surrendering his hand without contest.