On August 5, 2024, USA’s Xiong Cheng clinched the record breaking APPT Manila Main Event to be crowned this season’s champion. At the final table, Cheng eliminated the last three players that were blocking his path to glory to capture his first ever APPT shard trophy and a jaw-dropping poker career high payout of PHP 15,000,000 (~USD 259,246).
“It feels good! I came in to Day 2 as the shortest stack and I didn’t think I was gonna make the money and now I am here, I got first place and it’s really incredible! It’s mind-boggling, I can’t even believe it myself that I made it this far.”
Cheng has attended several events in Manila this year with a couple of cashes at PokerStars events, though none that have even come close to this victory. He admitted that poker was just the secondary reason for attending this year’s APPT Manila Main Event.
“Honestly, I have a girlfriend and she can’t go to America, she’s from Laos. I can’t go to Laos either. So I always come to Cambodia or Philippines to play poker and have her stay with me. That’s really my biggest reason for coming to this event.”
Qualifying into Day 2 as one of the shortest stacks with just 15 bb in his arsenal, Cheng won all of his showdowns then went on to secure his seat at the final table.
“I had a plan that I would play the best hands I could play and tried not to make any mistakes. I got lucky too. All of my all-ins I won. Entering the final table I was going to sit tight and wait for a good hand to play. If I lose then so bet it. Then people kept on trying to bluff me. The Israeli player (Daniel Benor), he tried to bluff me and I knew he didn’t have anything, he lost three-quarters of his stack.”
While everyone posed a challenge for Cheng, he shared that Maxwell Rosete‘s rise was the most commendable. “For sure I thought he was going to go out soon but he outlasted the others so it was really amazing. He’s not so experienced yet so he was risky and dangerous.”
Congratulations to the new champion!
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in PHP | Payout In USD |
| 1 | Xiong Cheng | USA | 15,000,000 | 259,246 |
| 2 | John Matsuda | Philippines | 9,320,000 | 161,078 |
| 3 | Maxwell Rosete | Philippines | 6,680,000 | 115,451 |
| 4 | Shobu Oda | Japan | 5,140,000 | 88,835 |
| 5 | Daniel Benor | Israel | 3,950,000 | 68,268 |
| 6 | Vamerdino Magsakay | Philippines | 3,040,000 | 52,541 |
| 7 | John Tech | Philippines | 2,340,000 | 40,442 |
| 8 | Beng Hong Ker | Singapore | 1,790,000 | 30,937 |
| 9 | Neo Zhi Han | Singapore | 1,384,360 | 23,926 |
2024 APPT Manila Main Event
The 2024 APPT Manila Main Event ran from August 1 to 5 at Southeast Asia’s grandest venue, Cove Manila at Okada Manila. With 1,304 entries across three starting days, it generated a record breaking prize pool of PHP 91,071,360 (~USD 1,575,790). The money flowed at Day 2 starting at 191st place then bagged up at the final 18 players.
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Final Day
18 players returned on the final day led by Daniel Benor with a towering stack. Leading up to the final table, Benor continued his dominance, eliminating Mike Takayama (18th), Jongbea Jang (17th), and Takuya Morita (15th).
Others falling were James Dela Cruz (16th) to Xiong Cheng, Man Lok Chan (14th) to Shobu Oda, Tran Huy Hoang (12th) who bluffed all of his chips against Maxwell Rosete. The next two fell on a double bust with Rosete delivering the axe to Quang Huy Nguyen (11th) and Huu Dung Nguyen (10th) to form the final table.
Rosete continued his knockout spree, eliminating Singaporean Neo Zhi Han (9th) then the lone Singaporean remaining, Beng Hong Ker (8th). was sent out next by Japan’s Shobu Oda. Prior to the next bust, Oda grinded to nearly reach Benor.
Cheng also put pressure on the leader dragging in a big pot without a showdown. This gave Oda the lead as Benor’s woes continued. For Filipino John Tech, his day ended in 7th place against Japan’s John Matsuda, fellow Filipino Vamerdino Magsakay also couldn’t keep up with the action to fall in 6th place to Oda.
The field trimmed to four when Matsuda put the brakes on Benor in 5th place with 
pairing the jack on the river to bust 
. The top two stacks went head to head in two hands. Cheng won both with the first hand taking the lead. On the next, Cheng shipped all of Oda’s stack in 4th place with 
over 
.
With a massive stack at his disposal, Cheng continued to dominate, railing Rosete next in 3rd place to face Matsuda at heads up. Cheng entered with 80 bb, Matsuda with 18 bb.
Despite Matsuda’s efforts, he was unable to crack the big stack. The final hand was Cheng 
pairing both cards to dust Matsuda’s 
.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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