Yah Loon Wins the APT Asian Poker Series Manila 2015 Main Event

The APT Asian Poker Series Manila 2015 closed out its 10-day poker festival with the crowning of a new APT Main Event champion, Yah Loon, from Singapore. Loon overcame a massive field of 341 entries to seize the title and a hefty cash prize of PHP3,503,600 ($75,900).

Yah Loon is the new APT Main Event Champion (Photo APT)

Entering the final table of eight, Loon was head honcho, but with highly aggressive players at the felt, his lead was soon overtaken by Filipino player Jun Javalera and China’s Weiyi Zhang. Even Vietnam player Le Ngoc Khanh posed a challenge. Khanh ousted the first two players, namely Herbert Baum from Germany and Filipino player Luke Pangan bringing his chips quickly over one million.

Zhang in Control

When the field dwindled down to six, Zhang dominated the table, and earned himself a collection of heads. China’s Yao Hui fell to Zhang in sixth place, Khanh’s pocket sevens were out-flopped by Zhang’s ace-queen and bowed out fifth, and Korea’s SJ Kim was eliminated in dramatic fashion. During the hand, Kim shoved with half a million chips while holding ace-five off-suit, and was called by Zhang with pocket nines. The flop spread ace-five-five, giving Kim the incredible lead with a boat. However, it was but a fleeting moment of joy as the turn felted a nine, returning Zhang to the lead with a higher full house that held up to the end.

Loon To The Finish

With three players remaining, Loon was yet to take a stand. His stack hardly moved all day. Loon was protective, playing very tight against the aggressors. But like the previous day, all he needed was one big hand to send him to the top, and sure enough it was granted. During the hand, Loon min-raised then called a three-bet by then chip leader, Zhang. The board ran 10c-5c-2c, Zhang bet and Loon called. At the turn of 9d, Zhang checked, Loon bet half a million chips, and Zhang called. On the river of 6s, Zhang checked again, Loon moved all in for around 1.1m, and Zhang called. Loon tabled a winning flush with his 7c-4c. Reclaiming the leader’s position with an enormous stack, Loon doubled up Javalera, and then took it all back after railing him in 3rd place. At heads up against Zhang, Loon had a massive chip advantage, and in just two hands, it was all over. Loon railed Zhang with a flopped straight against top pair. Congratulations to Yah Loon for his victory at the APT Main Event!

Final 8 Payouts:

1st – Yah Loon – Singapore – PHP3,503,600
2nd – Weiyi Zhang – China – PHP2,400,000
3rd – Jun Javalera – Philippines – PHP1,445,000
4th – SJ Kim – Korea – PHP1,019,000
5th – Le Ngoc Khanh – Vietnam – PHP821,600
6th – Yao Hui – China – PHP654,300
7th – Luke Pangan – Philippines – PHP517,300
8th – Hebert Baum – Germany – PHP410,800

Side Event Winners

The series also awarded a few more trophies, two of which went to Hanna Khalife from Lebanon. Khalife won the Deep Stack Turbo event, and bagged all the chips at the last event of the series, the Six-Handed Turbo. At the No Limit Holdem 2 event, it was Filipino pro Jessie Leonarez who went the distance and claimed the trophy.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Hanna Khalife from Lebanon won two side events  (Photo APT)