APPT Manila Championship 2024: Jesus Rivera leads Okada Kick Off Day 1 rounds; Stevan Chew, Rene Mar David, and Horace Leung ship opening day victories

Housed at the five-star Okada Manila complex, opening day of PokerStars LIVE’s APPT Manila Championship 2024 welcomed a fair share of local and international runners with more expected to arrive as the series progresses. Standing front and center was the PHP 10,000,000 (~USD 173,475) guaranteed Okada Kick Off, which ran through two flights and closed with Jesus Rivera on top of the charts. Newly minted players Stevan Chew, Rene Mar David, and Horace Leung, likewise booked a good start for their APPT run, having banked trophy victories across the side event lineup.

APPT Manila Championship – Player eGuide
APPT Manila Championship – Daily Updates

Jesus Rivera tops Okada Kick Off Day 1 charts

Two of three heats of the first key event on schedule, Okada Kick Off have officially wrapped up with a combined 37 survivors advancing onto Day 2 Final. Flight A recorded a modest 88 entry field and played through nearly eight hours on the floor before the action came to a close. Canada’s Christian Lortie (408,000) found the largest bag by Day 1’s end, joined by Ruben Clamares (355,000) and Edvard Poltavets (283,000) to round up Flight A’s top spots.

The later flight Flight B on another note, drew in a larger field of 148 entries yet closed one level earlier, with local runner Jesus Rivera (519,000) leading the counts. Rivera, along with second in the running Jessie Leonarez (507,000) managed to breach the 500K mark, enough to surpass Flight A chip leader Lortie across the overall pecking order. All returning players are now guaranteed a minimum payout with final numbers on hold awaiting completion of the qualifying rounds.

• Date/s: October 18-20, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 25,000 (~USD 430)
• Guarantee: PHP 10,000,000 (~USD 173,475)
• Flight A: 88 entries, 14 qualified
• Flight B: 148 entries, 23 qualified
• Flight C: Saturday, October 19
• Day 2 Final: Sunday, October 20

Top Ten Day 2 Qualifiers

End of Flight A Chip Counts
End of Flight B Chip Counts

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Stevan Chew in full birthday celebration with a victory at the High Roller Warm-up

“I got very lucky and I’m very happy. It is my birthday today. I came over here and left my wife at home. Now I got to celebrate a little bit with my friends. This is the first tournament I played in Manila so it was nice to win it. Bunch of friends are coming, and hadn’t been here before so I give it a go. I’ve been playing a lot online. It’s nice to mix it up a little bit and get up from the computer and stretch my leg.“, commented Chew following his victory.

Australia’s Stevan Chew definitely booked a birthday to remember having closed out a trophy win at today’s High Roller Warm-up event. Chew held over half the chips in play once the money trickled in and continued to widen the gap even further after cleaning out four of his final opponents. In full celebration mode, Chew banked the PHP 875,000 (~USD 15,180) top prize along with a PokerStars spade trophy to commemorate the memorable day.

• Date: October 18, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 75,000 (~USD 1,300)
• Prize pool: PHP 2,543,340 (~USD 44,120)
• Entries: 38
• ITM: 6

High Roller Warm-up Full Payouts

1st Stevan Chew – PHP 875,000
2nd Martin Sedlak – PHP 570,000
3rd Troy Mclean – PHP 395,000
4th Jeremy Jehanne – PHP 290,000
5th Marvin Dela Cruz – PHP 230,000
6th John Perry – PHP 183,340

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Rene Mar David ships series’ first trophy win at SuperStack

Local runner Rene Mar David shipped the first trophy win across the APPT Manila Championship 2024 games after closing out the SuperStack opening event. David entered the final rounds with the chip lead and carried this advantage all the way to the end. The Filipino regular locked in PHP 242,000 (~USD 4,200) in total prizes, along with a PHP 165,000 APPT Main Event entry, ringing in a good start to the series.

• Date/s: October 18, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 15,000 (~USD 260)
• Guarantee: PHP 1,000,000 (~USD 17,340)
• Prize Pool: PHP 1,024,320 (~USD 17,770)
• Entries: 80
• ITM: 11 places

SuperStack Full Payouts

1st Rene Mar David – PHP 242,000 + Ticket
2nd Feng Ji Chua – PHP 156,000
3rd Peter Steiner – PHP 111,000
4th Sunhwi An – PHP 85,000
5th Jimmy Johan – PHP 65,000
6th Joseph Magnotti – PHP 52,000
7th Lenart Ecarma – PHP 41,000
8th Koichi Saeki – PHP 33,000
9th Anthony Gabitan – PHP 26,320
10th Ashley Patterson – PHP 24,000
11th Robert Kuang – PHP 24,000

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Horace Leung wins Knockout Turbo [₱5K Bounty]

The APPT Manila Championship 2024 opening day festivities drew to a close with Horace Leung bagging a career first PokerStars victory across the final side event on schedule, Knockout Turbo [₱5K Bounty]. Leung cut a deal with runner up Jongsu Kim once heads up play was reached with each player guaranteed PHP 139,500 (~USD 2,420) in winnings, leaving PHP 31,000 and the trophy to play for. In the end, Leung closed out the win, earning the larger share of the PHP 671,144 (~USD 11,640) prize pool at PHP 170,500 (~USD 2,955).

• Date: October 18, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 15,000 (~USD 260)
• Prize pool: PHP 671,144 (~USD 11,640)
• Entries: 86
• ITM: 11 places

Knockout Turbo [₱5K Bounty] Full Payouts

*Denotes deal was made
**Excluding bounty prizes

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