APT Main Event Up to 1,034 Entries With Registration Still Open; Kim Enriquez Tops Flight C & Tom Verbruggen Leads Flight D

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

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, November 2, 2024 — The last of the four opening flights for the APT Manila Main Event are done and dusted, with Flight C drawing 210 entries (180 unique), and Flight D attracting a further 161 entries (139 unique), with the action playing out in the Grand Ballroom of the City of Dreams Manila luxury resort.

Combined with the 157 qualifiers, the 249 Flight A entries, and the 257 Flight B entries, that brings the field up to 1,034 with late registration remaining open until the start of Day 2, which gets underway at 11am on Sunday, November 2.

The action in both remaining flights played out over ten levels—six 30-minute levels and four 40-minute levels—with 107 Flight C survivors and a further 74 Flight D survivors making it through to Day 2.

They will join the 82 Flight A survivors, and the 110 Flight B survivors, with Flight A frontrunner Edilberto Gopez returning in pole position with the overall chip lead. A total of 4 players made it through twice; William Teoh, Woojin Kim, Rishi Mehra, and Ferdinand Lu, with their smallest stack removed from play, meaning 369 players will return in an attempt to reach the money bubble and beyond.

Kim Enriquez was the man to top the Flight C chip counts, bagging up a stack of 292,000. The Filipino was the only Flight C player to bag over 200K in chips and will be hunting for his fourth APT live title and maiden major title once the action resumes.

Li Ta “Leon” Hsu bagged the second-largest Flight C stack, and the Taiwanese tournament grinder will be looking to add to his impressive tally of 16 live tournament titles with the one thing missing from his poker resume — an APT title!

Russian Dmitrii Belikov rounded out the top three Flight C stacks, concluding play with 181,600 in chips. Both Richard “Hot Sauce” Marquez and Alvir Inocentes bagged top ten stacks, and the latter will be hoping to make yet another series final table after finishing in seventh place in Event #1: Philippines National Cup.

A total of 107 players managed to find a chip bag at the end of the evening’s play, with the top ten Flight C stacks as follows:

MAIN EVENT TOP TEN FLIGHT C STACKS

Other notables to make it through to Day 2 included: South Korea’s Gab Yong Kim (133,300), Philippines National Cup champion Marco Espela (118,400), the Philippines Florencio Campomanes (115,600), Philippines #1 ranked tournament player Marc Rivera (99,800), New Zealand’s Vincent Huang (87,100), Mongolia’s Tsolmon-Erdine Ochir (71,300), APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event finalist Jae Wook Shin (53,500), series double title winner Philipp Zukernik (51,700), and the UK’s Grant Gardner (37,800).

For Main Event Flight C Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Flight C Survivors please CLICK HERE

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

All tournament information can be found on the Main Event - Flight C tournament page.

The Netherland’s Tom Verbruggen bagged biggest on Flight D

The fourth and final Flight D attracted a further 161 entries (139 unique) with Tom Verbruggen bagging the biggest stack of 284,700. This puts Verbruggen seventh in the overall chip counts and the Dutchman will be hoping to recreate the run of form that saw him claim his two career APT titles at the recent APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024.

South Korea’s Wonchul Bae (239,700), and Vietnam’s Manh Tuan Nguyen (206,000) rounded out the top three Flight D stacks, and were the only other players to crack 200K in chips.

APT Taipei Poker Classic APT High Roller runner-up Rishi Mehra also bagged a top ten stack on his second attempt, and APT Taipei 2024 Zodiac Classic champion Jun Li also bagged big, with the top ten Flight D stacks as follows:

MAIN EVENT TOP TEN FLIGHT D STACKS

APT Super High Roller champion William Teoh, who was one of the double qualifiers, bagged 155,000 on his second attempt.

Other notables who were successful in their quest to make Day 2 included: the USA’s Angelina Rich (121,500), the Philippines Gerardo Lubas (98,500), the USA’s Ronnie Tate (93,000), Japan’s John Matsuda (88,600), the Philippines Dave “Spade” Erquiaga (85,300), Vietnam’s Pham Ngoc Quoc Bao (64,600), Taiwan’s Carlos Chang (52,000), Australia’s David Wang (44,500), the UK’s Jack Sinclair (42,300), and former Main Event champion John Tech (41,400).

For Main Event Flight D Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Flight D Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 2 Draw please CLICK HERE

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

All tournament information can be found on the Main Event - Flight D tournament page.

The 369 survivors from the four respective starting flights will combine for the first time on Sunday, November 3, for Day 2 where they are expected to be joined by a few start-of-day entries before the action gets underway at 11am local time. Day 2 comprises eight 60-minute levels and will see players play through the money bubble and on to the business end of the tournament in attempt to lock up a spot for Day 3.

Joseph Cheong Makes Tour History With Second Superstar Challenge Win

The USA’s Jospeh Cheong became the first player in tour history to claim two Superstar Challenge titles

Jospeh Cheong has made tour history by becoming the first player to win two Superstar Challenge titles; the seasoned US tournament player triumphed over a field of 12 entries (11 unique) in the PHP 1.5M Event #41: Superstar Challenge to claim his second exclusive black lion silhouette trophy and the lion’s share of the PHP 16,672,500 (~USD 283,430) prize pool.

Just three players returned for the second and final day, all guaranteed a payout of PHP 3,335,000, with Cheong sitting firmly in the drivers seat holding over 70 percent of the chips in play.

Opponents Vamerdino Magsakay and Mike Takayama of the Philippines were unable to derail the Cheong express, with the latter departing on the first hand played; Takayama could not overcome Cheong’s ace-seven offsuit after moving all-in on the button for 12 big blinds with queen-nine of hearts, with the eventual champion flopping top two pair to take play heads-up against Magsakay.

Cheong came into the confrontation with over a 5-to-1 chip lead and despite Magsakay managing an early double-up, the Filipino was unable to scale the slopes of the US players’ mountainous chip stack and the match was wrapped up in 45 hands, with Cheong winning 25 of them.

In addition to claiming a record second Superstar Challenge title and all the accolades that go with it, Cheong also took the PHP 8,002,500 (~USD 136,040) top prize, earning his third career APT title and bringing his live tournament winnings up to over USD 18.8 million.

While this score is not as large as Cheong’s APT Jeju Superstar Challenge win, which was worth over USD 272,000, it further cements his position at the top of the APT All-Time Money list where he sits at over USD 1.8 million in tour scores.

Magsakay will not be unhappy with the PHP 5,335,000 (~USD 90,695) runner-up prize, which represents the largest score of his professional career.

SUPERSTAR CHALLENGE RESULTS

For Superstar Challenge Results please CLICK HERE

You can watch all the final table action as it happened via live stream on the official APT YouTube channel or read about all the tournament thrills and spills on the APT Blog.

All tournament information can be found on the Superstar Challenge Final Day tournament page.

Vamerdino Magsakay (left) and Jospeh Cheong (right) prepare to battle heads-up in the Superstar Challenge