Four Filipino pros, led by journeyman Edgar Asehan, made it to the final table of the P17-million Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila National Event won by Singapore’s Ong Dingxiang last week at Okada Manila.
Asehan, who caught several lucky breaks including a huge double-up in a battle of the blinds against fellow local campaigner Lloyd Locsin, finished third to bag the P1.9 million in prize money. Locsin wound up in fifth with P895,000 ahead of Kim Michael Enriquez, 7th (P525,000) and Vamerdino Magsakay, 9th (P287,000).
Ong, whose previous biggest score was a runner-up finish in the 2019 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em tournament, banked the largest share of the prize pool and the coveted APPT National Trophy after a four-way ICM deal.
The Singaporean hotshot emerged victorious following a short heads-up battle against China’s Zhilian Dong. Starting Day 2 with only a 15 big-blind stack and dropping to less than five big blinds with four left in the running, Ong remained calm, waited for the right spots and kept the aggression going. With this, Ong was able to bounce back after a number of bad beats and make his way to victory worth P2.2 million, a main event seat and the coveted APPT National Trophy.
This year’s APPT Manila National event recorded a total of 558 entries collected across three starting flights, generating a sizable prize pool of P17,171,930 (USD 312,705). From those, only 139 players survived the first round of eliminations and drew down to its final nine to wrap up Day 2.
The P20 million APPT Manila Main Event with a buy-in of P65,000 (USD 1,181), was still ongoing as of press time. Tournament runners were fighting it out for the P20 million (USD 363,421) prize pool. Also included in the schedule are the APPT Superstack and APPT High Roller, both of which were set on the tail end of the festival over the weekend.
The 14th running of the APPT Manila has been nothing short of successful, evidenced by its guarantee-crushing events, multinational participants and strong attendance all throughout. Fan favorite APPT Manila National event, for one, generated a prize pool that’s more than three times its listed guarantee.
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