Superstar Challenge - Day 1

Joseph Cheong

Joseph Cheong leads the final three players in the PHP 1,500,000 APT Manila Superstar Challenge. The remaining players all reached the money and are guaranteed a payday of PHP 3,335,000 (~$56,695).

The American professional will go into Saturday's Day 2 as the commanding chip leader, bagging 2,120,000 chips, which equals over 70% of chips in play. Earlier this year, Cheong won the APT Jeju Superstar Challenge, and would be the first-ever player to win the tournament twice should he succeed.

Chip Counts

Vamerdino Magsakay

Vamerdino Magsakay will start the final day second on the leaderboard, after he bagged up 570,000 chips. A runner-up finish or better would earn the Filipino player a career-high cash. His fellow countryman Mike Takayama will follow him in third with 310,000 chips. On Saturday the play will resume with 17 minutes left to play in Level 16, with blinds being 10,000/25,000 and a big-blind ante of 25,000.

Mike Takayama

The day started slow, as only four players were registered throughout the first two levels. It picked up some steam though throughout the second half of the day. Especially, the last couple of levels were full of excitement as players suddenly busted quickly, meaning, the money bubble was approaching faster than anticipated. In total twelve players took on the challenge, creating a prize pool of PHP 16,672,500 (~USD 283,430).

The likes of Jack Sinclair, Chaoui Mehdi, Alexander Lynskey, and Daniel Neilson all turned up to play, but couldn't make it into the money. Vincent Huang was the unfortunate bubble boy after he got his chips in with pocket fives, but couldn't overcome the pocket tens of Cheong.

The payouts can be found below.

The play will resume on Saturday November 2nd at 11:15am local time. This final table will be live streamed with a 30 minute delay. The full action of the exciting three-handed battle can also be followed on the live reporting website or by following the links below.

Youtube

Twitch

Day 1 of the Superstar challenge has come to an end with only three players, who will return tomorrow for the final day.

A full recap of the day's action will follow shortly.

Vincent Huang

On the direct bubble, quite a few quick hands finished with only shove and folds. However, this time Vincent Huang decided to shove all in from the small blind and Joseph Cheong dropped in a call from the big blind to put his opponent at risk.

Vincent Huang: 5♥ 5♣

Joseph Cheong: T♣ T♥

Cheong held the lead with pocket tens, leaving Huang with a small chance to win the pot and needing to spike a five in order to do so. The dry board came swiftly 6♣ 4♠ Q♦ 6♦ 7♥, which meant Huang was the bubble boy.

Joseph Cheong

On the bubble, chip leader Joseph Cheong opened from the small-blind into Vamerdino Magsakay who defended his big blind. On a K♣ 9♠ 2♠ flop, Cheong continued with a bet of 40,000. Magsakay raised to 110,000, and Cheong called. The turn brought a board-pairing 2♣ and both players checked.

The 6♠ completed the flush on the river, Cheong checked again and Magsakay put out a 200,000 bet. Cheong snap-called and both players revealed their cards.

Vamerdino Magsakay: Q♠ T♣

Joseph Cheong: T♥ 2♥.

Cheong's trips are good and he increased his chip lead, while Magsakay's stack got cut in half.

Chaoui Mehdi

Joseph Cheong raised to 40,000 on the button only to be jammed by Chaoui Mehdi for 215,000 from the small blind. Cheong made the call to put Mehdi at risk.

Chaoui Mehdi: T♠ T♦

Joseph Cheong: A♦ A♠

The board came 3♠ Q♦ T♣ J♣ A♣, improving both to a set, but Mehdi’s pocket tens were still not enough to beat the bullets from Cheong.

Chaoui Mehdi

Chaoui Mehdi busted in dramatic fashion, after he got it all-in preflop against Joseph Cheong for his around 14 big blinds.

Chaoui Mehdi: T♥ T♣

Joseph Cheong: A♥ A♣

The flop came out flying for Mehdi, who, on T♠ 7♥ 4♦ looked like he will double up. It seemed even safer on the 2♣ turn, but the A♠ hit the river, busting Mehdi in 5th place.

Paulius Plausinaitis

One three-way all-in pot just played out and resulting in one elimination.

Daneil Neilson from the small blind, Paulius Plausinaitis from the under the gun, and Joseph Cheong on the button were all-in preflop.

Daniel Neilson: A♠ 7♠

Paulius Plausinaitis: 9♠ 9♣

Joseph Cheong: Q♥ J♦

The runout rolled off J♣ 4♣ 2♣ J♥ Q♦, improving Cheong to a full house and busting Plausinaitis out of the tournament.

Daniel Neilson

Unfortunately, Daniel Neilson's departing hand was missed, but he finished the tournament in 6th place.

Paulius Plausinaitis opened to 32,000 from under the gun and received calls from Vincent Huang on the button, Daniel Neilson from the big blind.

Three players read a flop of 2♦ 4♠ 4♦, where Neilson and Plausinaitis checked the action to Huang, who then bet 32,000. Neilson raised to 100,000, but it didn’t deter Plausinaitis from reraising it to 260,000. Huang the shoved all in for 420,000, and only Plausinaitis called.

Paulius Plausinaitis: A♦ 5♦

Vincent Huang: K♥ K♠

The runout came T♠ T♣, meaning Huang earned a double-up.

Paulius Plausinaitis

With the blinds going up, the average stack of the final seven players is only just above 20 big blinds. As a result, more preflop all-in can be seen now. From the cut-off Paulius Plausinaitis open-jammed his 13 big blinds and got called by Mike Takayama in the small-blind.

Paulius Plausinaitis: A♣ J♠

Mike Takayama: K♥ Q♦

The flop came out safe for Plausinaitis, J♣ 8♣ 5♥, the A♠ was another good card, all he had to doge was a ten on the river, and indeed the river was a 4♥ giving Plausinaitis an important double-up.