China's Renji Mao Leads Final 48 in APT's Largest Philippines Main Event

APT MANILA 2024 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, November 4, 2024 — The APT’s largest ever Philippines-based Main Event has reached the business end of the tournament, with the 1,081-strong field reduced down to the final 48 players.

Playing out in the Grand Ballroom of the City of Dreams Manila luxury resort in partnership with Soul Poker, the Day 3 action got underway at 11am local time with all returning 159 players already in the money and guaranteed a payout of at least PHP 167,000 (~USD 2,840) from the PHP 100 million (~USD 1.7 million) prize pool.

Defending champion Moses Saquing was one of the first players to collect a min-cash, hitting the rail in the first level played, with the action playing out over close to six 60-minute levels.

The departure of Vietnam’s Manh Tuan Nguyen in 49th place for PHP 316,000 (~USD 5,370) concluded the day’s action, with the tournament clock paused with 32 minutes remaining on level 23.

It is Renji Mao the man sitting at the top of the leaderboard, with the Chinese bracelet winner bagging up a chip leading stack of 2,689,000 with which to make his play for the tournament top spot and the PHP 18,060,000 (~USD 307,020) top prize.

China’s Yuhang Chen bagged the second largest stack of 2,472,000, aided in his journey to second in the chip counts after winning a huge pot from Vincent Huang mid-way through level 21 after managing to fade the New Zealander’s flush draw.

The Philippines Ferdinand Lu rounds out the top three, concluding the action with 1,978,000 in chips. Other notables to bag a top ten stack included two-time APT titlist Gab Yong Kim (1,635,000), the USA’s Jordan Westmorland (1,443,000), and APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 Main Event finalist Jae Wook Shin (1,424,000) with the top ten stacks as follows:

MAIN EVENT DAY 3 TOP TEN STACKS

Four former Main Event champions remain in the running; two-time champions Mike Takayama (977,000), and Lester Edoc (888,000) are both looking to make tour history by becoming the first to claim a record third APT Main Event title, with the latter recently usurping South Korea’s Soo Jo Kim to move up to the #3 spot for most APT titles won after claiming his 20th APT title in Event #64: High Roller - Double Stack on Sunday.

Kim is another former Main Event champion still in the mix, bagging up 623,000 in chips with which to attempt a second title run. The Philippines’ Renniel Galvez has already tasted APT Manila Main Event victory, claiming the title back during April 2022’s APT Manila, and will be returning for Day 4 with a stack of 255,000.

Other notables to make it though include Taiwan’s Li Ta “Leon” Hsu (1,012,000), the USA’s Rex Clinkscales (806,000), start-of-day chip leader Zhen Chen (776,000), New Zealand’s Vincent Huang (630,000), Flight C frontrunner Kim Enriquez (465,000), the USA’s Joey Weissman (362,000), South Korea’s Joonhee “Steve” Yea (252,000), and the USA’s Ronnie Tate (242,000), with the latter returning as the shortest stack.

For Main Event Day 3 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 3 Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 4 Draw please CLICK HERE

Day 4 gets underway at 11am local time where the 48 remaining players will attempt to fight their way through to the final table. The action will be live streamed via the official APT YouTube channel.

You can follow all the Main Event Day 3 action as it happened via the APT Blog, or watch the action as it played out via the Main Event Day 3 live stream. All tournament information can be found on the Main Event - Day 3 tournament page.

USA’s Alex Keating Hunting Third Series Title; Bags Chip Lead in Zodiac Classic

The USA’s Alex Keating bagged the chip lead after Day 1 of the Zodiac Classic

It was the PHP 125,000 Zodiac Classic - Sponsored by Natural8 - PHP 15,000,000 GTD that proved to be the biggest draw of the day, with Day 1 of the two-day tournament attracting 226 entries (156 unique) to set a new tour country record for the event.

Of course, a record field means a record prize pool and the PHP 24,662,250 (~USD 419,260) purse is the richest this tournament has ever generated in the country.

By the time the tournament clock ticked into the red after the thirteen 40-minute levels concluded, just 63 players remained in contention for the PHP 5,216,250 (~USD 88,675) top prize and coveted silver lion silhouette trophy. The top 31 places will get paid, with a min-cash coming in at PHP 217,000 (~USD 3,690).

For Zodiac Classic Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

It is the Alex Keating who is leading the field, concluding play with a stack of 388,100. The US player will be looking to pad out his over USD 4 million in career tournament earnings with a third series title, having already taken down Event #32: High Roller Double Stack, and Event #52: Single Day High Roller and final tabling two more events for series winnings of PHP 3,579,880 (~USD 60,860) so far.

South Korea’s Kiyoung Kim (370,400), and Vietnam’s Trong Hieu Ngo (352,400) rounded out the top three Zodiac Classic Day 1 stacks, with Australia’s Daniel Neilson (325,400), and Singapore’s Abraham Ceesvin (208,600) finishing the day in the top ten:

ZODIAC CLASSIC TOP TEN STACKS

Other notables who will be returning for a shot at fortune and glory include Japan’s Jun Obara (205,000), the USA’s Benjamin Jacobs (194,700), Natural8 Ambassador Phachara Wongwichit (115,300), the Netherland’s Tom Verbruggen (108,600), Australia’s David Wang (100,100), South Korea’s Youngshin Im (86,000), Malaysia’ Isaac Phua (78,800), France’s Felix Favre (63,900), Canada’s Benjamin Leblond (43,800), and Vietnam’s Van Sang Nguyen (31,700), the latter of whom will be returning as the shortest stack.

For Zodiac Classic Day 1 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Zodiac Classic Day 1 Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Zodiac Classic Final Day Draw please CLICK HERE

The Final Day gets underway at 11:15am local time on Tuesday, November 5, with the tournament playing down to a champion.

You can follow all the action as it played out via the APT Blog.

All tournament information can be found on the Zodiac Classic - Day 1 tournament page.