Poker in Philippines has received a massive boost with the Asian Poker Tour (APT) series, which is currently underway at the Resorts World Manila and will run till September 22, 2019. The action at the popular poker festival has been high-octane, and recently we saw two Indians – Dilip Menon and Akshay Nasa shining in two separate events. Menon who is a familiar face on the South-Asian circuit won the the No Limit Hold’em 1 event to earn PHP 616,000 (INR 8.40 Lac) and his second APT title, while Nasa ran deep in the High Rollers 2 event, finishing 10th for PHP 180,700 (INR 2.46 Lac).
No Limit Hold’em 1
The No Limit Hold’em 1 running from September 15-16 drew 150 entries to create a prize pool of PHP 2,619,000 (INR 35.72 Lac), which was eventually shared by top 25 finishers. The largest share went to Menon who outlasted the likes of UK’s Alex Lindop (8th), Hiroyuki Noda (7th), Yik “Ray” Yin Chiu (6th), Richard Magaro (5th), Kenichi Takarabe (4th), Shugo Kimura (3rd) and eventually Korea’s Byeong Hoon Kang from the final table to make it to the top and clinch the coveted title.
The biggest FT hand for Menon came when he scored double elimination of Takarabe (4th) and Kimura (3rd). Menon had pitted As Js against Kimura’s Ah 5h and Takarabe’s Qd 5d. The board bricked out and Menon busted both his opponents to eventually reach heads-up with 4:1 chip lead against Korea’s Byeong Hoon Kang who fought well and was even able to grab the lead. However, he could not go all the way, eventually finishing runner-up to Menon and earning PHP 410,900 for his efforts.
The last hand of the tournament saw Kang shoving with Jh 8d and Menon called with Ah 10c. The board ran out X, 5h 6h 7h 8h, giving Menon the nut flush to take down the pot as well as the title.
Final Table Payouts (PHP):
- Dilip Menon – PHP 616,000
- Byeong Hoon Kang – PHP 410,900
- Shugo Kimura – PHP 285,600
- Kenichi Takarabe – PHP 206,300
- Richard Magaro – PHP 154,300
- Yik “Ray” Yin Chiu – PHP 119,100
- Hiroyuki Noda – PHP 94,600
- Alex Lindop – PHP 77,000
High Rollers 2
The High Rollers 2 ran from September 16 to 17 and drew 79 entrants paying a buy-in of PHP 107,500 (INR 1.46 Lac). This built a hefty prize pool of PHP 7,663,000 (INR 1.04 Crores). In the end, it was China’s Yin Momo who climbed to the top and earned PHP 2,018,400 for his win after defeating his heads-up mate – Korea’s Jinho Hong (Monsterstack 1 champion) who took home PHP 1,387,600.
From Team India, it was Akshay Nasa who ran deep in this event. He narrowly missed the final table, finishing 10th for PHP 180,700 (INR 2.46 Lac). Nasa has been doing pretty well at the series and had finished runner-up in the PHP 86,000 High Rollers Single Day 1 for PHP 786,000 (INR 10.81 Lac).
Top 14 places were paid out in this high roller event with a min-cash of PHP 150,600. The event saw many notables and some of them to finish in the money were Yi Wei Peng (9th for PHP 216,800), Gerald Karlic (11th for PHP 180,700) and Masato Yokosawa who finished 12th for 150,600.
Final Table Payouts (PHP):
- Yin Momo – PHP 2,018,400
- Jinho Hong – PHP 1,387,600
- Hao Tian – PHP 964,600
- Zhu Jing Xian- PHP 696,700
- Iori Yogo – PHP 521,100
- Michael Seymour – PHP 402,100
- Seungmook Jung – PHP 319,300
- Hwang Seong Il – PHP 260,200
Championships Event – Day 1A
While the PHP 55,000 Main Event is in the books, another marquee event has got underway and it is the Championships Event featuring a guaranteed prize pool of PHP 10 million. Yesterday saw Day 1A of the PHP 82,500 buy-in event and it drew 95 entries with only 43 among them advancing to Day 2.
Korea’s Jeonggyu Cho ended Day 1A as the chip leader with a stack of 339,700. From Team India, only Akshay Nasa was seen in action but he could not advance to Day 2. He was eliminated by Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon who had ended the day bagging the second largest stack of 315,600.
Top 5 Chip Counts At Day 1A End
- Jeonggyu Cho – 339,700
- Michael Kim Falcon – 315,600
- Jung Seong Mook – 195,000
- Graeme Siow – 181,200
- Hojoon Choi – 173,800
- George Mateo – 165,200
- Thomas Bobington – 156,800
- Gary Thompson – 144,200
- Ji Young Kim – 138,200
- Go Saito – 135,000