APT Manila 2024: William Teoh delivers crushing victory at the APT Super High Roller; Edilberto Gopez Jr. tops APT Main Event Flight A; Philipp Zukernik lands back to back titles

Excitement continues to fill the air at the grand ballroom of City of Dreams, Manila, with APT’s awaited return to the city in full celebration. Four days of APT Manila 2024 action has played through, with 36 trophies already awarded across the festivities. Over the Halloween, Malaysia’s William Teoh remained undefeated at the APT Super High Roller games, earning him the largest score of his career. Sharing the glory was also Canada’s Philipp Zukernik, who booked an incredible feat, landing back to back titles to become the first multi-series winner.

The record-breaking PHP 100,000,000 (~USD 1,713,780) guaranteed APT Main Event rose to be the day’s highlight, with its initial flight having run on the felt. Action closed with local runner Edilberto Gopez Jr. stacking atop the counts, accompanied by 81 other survivors advancing to Day 2.

APT Manila 2024 – Schedule

William Teoh takes down APT Super High Roller

The two-day APT Super High Roller games welcomed twelve runners back on the tables, with William Teoh holding down a commanding lead over the field. Only five hours of play ran through, evidently showcasing Teoh’s dominance for a career third APT title, along with a best live cash of PHP 9,785,100 (~USD 167,830). 

Thomas Ward served as the day’s bubble, having lost a 60 BB pot with K♥K♠ against table captain Teoh’s 10♠10♥ on board J♦6♥J♣10♦A♦. Teoh not once relinquished his lead, stacking over half the chips on the table by six-handed play. The run good Malaysian runner continued to be in control, having busted Alexander Lynskey (5th) and Joonhee Yea (6th), to widen the gap even further. Feigning unstoppable, Teoh went on to finish off Vincent Huang in 3rd place over a flip to come into heads up play against John Matsuda with a 10:1 advantage. Action wrapped up in just seven deals with the final hand seeing Teoh’s K♦K♣ crush Matsuda’s A♥8♣ all the way through a nine-high board.

While Japan’s Matsuda settled for a runner up finish, his latest score brings his series cashes to over PHP 9 million (~USD 154,240), having won the Single Day High Roller – Mystery Bounty just a few days ago. 

• Date/s: October 30-31, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 600,000 (~USD 10,255)
• Guarantee: PHP 15,000,000 (~USD 257,065)
• Entries: 59 (42 unique)
• Prize pool: PHP 32,068,200 (~USD 549,575)
• ITM: 8 places

​​APT Super High Roller Full Payouts

Backtrack on the Final Day action via SMP Live Updates or on APT’s official livestream

Edilberto Gopez Jr. tops APT Main Event Flight A

The crown jewel of the series, PHP 100 million (~USD 1.7M) guaranteed APT Main Event, kicked off its first flight on schedule, and drew in a total of 249 entries as registration remained open throughout the day. Action played through ten 60 minute blind levels, survived only by 82 players by the end of the night.

Local runner Edilberto Gopez Jr. stacked the highest across the leaderboard as play concluded with a chip count of 338,900, followed by South Africa’s Edgar Antezana with 309,700. Gopez has had a good start to the series so far, having finished runner up in the Mystery Bounty event, and stands in great position to bank a deep run across the Main Event games. Joining the two atop the counts are South Korea’s Jaejoong Kim, and Japan’s Seitaro Aso, both hovering above the 300K mark.

International notables likewise advancing through are Joseph Cheong (189,900), Nang Quang Nguyen (189,100), Vincent Chauve (116,000), Daniel Smiljkovic (95,300), Sean Ooi (72,300), Joey Weissman (45,800), Yohwan Lim (39,200), and Natural8 ambassador Eric Tsai (38,100). Filipino runners Mike Takayama (161,000), James Mendoza (94,500), Vamerdino Magsakay (72,500), also bagged up a stack, and will be returning to the felt for the Day 2 festivities on Sunday, November 3rd.

APT Main Event Review

• Date/s: October 31 – November 6, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 85,000 (~USD 1,450)
• Guarantee: PHP 100,000,000 (~USD 1,713,780)
• Flight A: 249 entries, 82 qualified
• Flight B: Friday, November 1
• Flight C: Saturday, November 2
• Flight D: Saturday, November 2
• Day 2: Sunday, November 3
• Day 3: Monday, November 4
• Day 4: Tuesday, November 5
• Final Day: Wednesday, November 6

Top Ten Flight A Chip Counts

Full List of Flight A Survivors
Backtrack on the day’s action via SMP Live Updates

Philipp Zukernik lands back to back titles

Multi-series winner Philipp Zukernik has so far recorded a stellar run at this season’s APT Manila games with two titles under his belt within the first four days. Zukernik followed his previous maiden APT victory at the Super Stack highlight, with another win over the NL Hold’em – Freezeout games for an additional PHP 733,240 (~USD 12,575) in prizes. Zukernik emerged triumphant over the 72-entry field following an eleven hour grind, and pairs his lion silhouette trophy with a second APT hardware. From zero to two APT titles within a week, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Canadian runner’s hot streak continue on with seven more days left on schedule. 

• Date/s: October 31, 2024
• Buy-in: PHP 40,000 (~USD 685)
• Entries: 72
• Prize pool: PHP 2,514,240 (~USD 43,120)
• ITM: 9 places

NL Hold’em – Freezeout Final Table Results