APT Main Event

Soo Jo Kim opened for 65,000 and got called by John Costiniano from the small blind. Lester Edoc in the big blind jammed all-in for 754,000. Kim immediately folded his hand, while Costiniano, who covered Edoc, threw in two time banks, considering his options. He finally made the call.

Lester Edoc: K♦ Q♣

John Costiniano: A♣ 9♣

The dealer flopped 7♥ J♣ 2♣ , giving Costiniano a flush draw. The dealer continued with a 3♦ turn and a 4♥ river. Despite not getting his flush draw, Costiniano was still ahead with ace-high and scooped the pot, which stripped Edoc of the chance to potentially win his third APT Main Event title.

It started out as a friendly quarrel of the blinds with John Constiniano meeting the minimum requirement and Lester Edoc checking from the big blind to see a flop of 7♣ A♦ 6♣ .

Constiniano made a friendly bet of 25,000 and Edoc called to see a 3♠ on the turn. Constiniano turned it up a notch to 90,000, with Edoc then pumping it up to 250,000. Constiniano peeked at his cards and counted off the chips to match the raise.

Both checked after the 2♦ river with Costiano showing a pair of aces with his A♥ 4♥ . Edoc didn't bother to turn over the losing hand.

Lester Edoc opened from under the gun for 17,000 and got a call from Alex Chong, seated directly to his left. The flop came A♠ K♥ T♠ , and Edoc continued with a bet of 10,000, which Chong quickly called.

The action slowed on the K♠ turn, with both players checking. However, on the river J♠ , Edoc checked again, giving Chong the opportunity to fire a bet of 25,000. After a brief stare-down, Edoc folded, and Chong happily collected the pot.

Day 2 of the PHP 85,000 APT Manila 2024 Main Event made tour history, setting a new record for the largest Philippines Main Event field in tour history with 1,081 entries.

China’s Zhen Chen topped the chip counts, amassing 1,094,000 chips and emerging as the only player to cross the million-chip mark.

The day began with 369 players, all vying for a payout spot to earn a share of the Philippines' biggest-ever guaranteed prize pool of PHP 100 Million (~$1.7 Million).

A minimum cash prize was set at PHP 167,000 ($2,840), and by the end of the day, 159 players had secured their place in the hallowed money spots.

The bubble burst quickly, wrapping up in just 15 minutes and concluding the Day 2 action with 42 minutes remaining on the clock on level 17, with Norway's Mikal Blomlie finishing as the bubble boy.

Blomlie’s all-in with pocket sevens was called by South Korea’s Jae Wook Shin, whose Ace-Ten found a pair on the flop, ending Blomlie’s tournament run.

However, Blomlie didn't leave empty-handed, receiving a PHP 20,000 ticket (~USD 340) to Event #81: Double Stack PHP 15,000,000 GTD.

By evening’s end, the remaining players had bagged their chips, all locking up a place in Day 3. With several former APT Champions still in contention, the quest for the PHP 18,060,000 ($307,020) top prize promises to be an intense battle as the tournament action unfolds.

Close behind Chen, former APT High Roller Champion Vincent Huang from New Zealand bagged the second-largest stack with 974,000, while the Philippine’s Lester Edoc followed with 777,000.

Defending APT Mini-Main Event Champion Tom Verbruggen from the Netherlands, who topped the Flight D chip counts, finished with nearly the same stack after surrendering a significant portion of his chips to Chen. Two-time Main Event champion Mike Takayama also progressed to Day 3, sitting in thirteenth with a stack of 495,000.

Other notable players advancing include Thomas Ward (357,000), David "Spade" Erquiaga (331,000), Renniel Galvez (193,000), and Richard Marquez (83,000).

The top ten stacks can be found below.

A full APT Manila Main Event Day 2 Survivor List can be found by CLICKING HERE.

A full APT Manila Main Event Day 3 Seat Draw can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Yu Yung Chou of Taiwan raised to 2,500 from early position and found three callers behind. Four players entered a flop of A♣ 8♠ 2♦ where it checked to Chou, who fired 2,500. Neel Ajit Joshi called. When the action came back to Lester Edoc in the small blind, he raised to 11,500. Lee Wee Liew on the big blind got out of the way.

Chou went into deep meditation, played with his chips and took a peek at his cards, then played with his chips again before finally making the call. Joshi stepped out of the way for two players to see the J♦ on the turn.

It was Edoc's turn for deep thought, taking a very long moment before deciding to check.

Chou's tank after the flop was no match for his double-tank after the turn. The Flash ran around the world twice when Chou finally bet out 6,000, then Edoc didn't take too long to fold.

Desperately short-stacked Kwok Chun Yip raised to 2,400 from the hi-jack with Lester Edoc calling from the big blind with a rather formidable stack. Both players saw a flop of J♣ 6♠ 3♠ . Edoc took his sweet time before checking. With not so many chips to choose from, Yip picked up a 5,000 and put it in. Edoc took a moment to make Yip nervous before folding.