APT Main Event - Day 3 - TWD 65,000,000 GTD

Abraham Abdulla Ceesvin

Singapore's Abraham Ceesvin sits atop the chip leaderboard with 4,570,000 chips moving into Day 4 in the biggest and richest international poker tournament ever to play out in Taiwan.

Ceesvin, who has three APT titles under his belt, will fight fiercely to add one more title and to grab the Golden APT Lion trophy along with the coveted top prize of TWD 14,413,200 (~$453,430).

Following closely in chip count is Natural 8 Ambassador and APT Super Highroller Champion Eric “Six Poker” Tsai with 3,765,000 chips. Tsai is a formidable opponent who will not make it easy for Ceesvin's quest to be the last man standing.

Of the 301 players that returned for Day 3, 295 are in the money but only 47 players would be moving on, though several big names still remain in contention. All the remaining players are guaranteed a cash prize of TWD 230,000 (~$7,235), but all eyes are on the top prize.

Notable players still in with a shout are Superstar Challenge 2024 Champion Chih Wei Fan, Germany's Konstantin Held, computational wizard Dominik Nitsche, Australia's Dylan Foster, Hong Kong's Tsz Him Chan, and Singapore's Dhanesh Chainani.

Chip leaders from previous flights, Keigo Kubo, Jae Wook Shin and start of the day leader Andrew Ong are among those fighting it out with the crème de la crème of poker to reach the coveted final table and become champion.

The top 10 chip stacks are as follows:

Day 3 was planned to play out over twenty-five 60-minute levels or until 48 players remained. With the latter happening sooner, everyone could head to the Marque Taipei to enjoy the Player’s Party.

Former APT Main Event champion Shixiang Khoo was the player who ended Day 3 a few minutes into the last level, going all-in with pocket jacks against the opponent’s Ace-Queen that spiked a Queen on the river. He took home TWD 230,000 for his 49th finish.

Other notables who weren’t able to make it to Day 4 were former APT High Roller Champion Thanisorn Saelor (69th), former APT Main Event Champion Punnat Punsri (70th), Former Zodiac Classic Champion Jun Li (90th), Sunday Super Stack Champion Ravn Teo (116th), Joshua McCully (92nd), two-time APT Main Event champion Lester Edoc (133rd), Mystery Bounty Champion Isaac Phua (214th) and Natural8 Ambassadors Hua-Wei Lin (165th), Kitty Kuo (243rd) and Kunal Patni (264th).

A full APT Main Event Day 3 Survivor List can be found by CLICKING HERE

A full list of APT Main Event payouts can be found by CLICKING HERE

Day 4 will start at 11:00 am on Friday, October 4, and will play down to the final table.

There will be a feature table that will be streamed live (with a 30-minute delay), which you can access via the APT social media channels or by following the links below.

Youtube Twitch

Day 3 is finished and 47 players are bagging their chips as we speak. A full recap of the day will follow shortly.

Former APT Main Event champion Shixiang Khoo will not be adding a second Main Event title to his poker resume this series, falling in one of the last hands played to conclude the Day 3 action.

Khoo told us his tale of woe at the cage while collecting his TWD 230,000 (~USD 7,240) cash for 48th place.

The Singaporean made his last stand with pocket jacks, opening to 15 big blinds from the cutoff, leaving himself 2.5 big blinds behind with a player on the button flat calling with ace-queen.

Khoo committed the last of his chips on a seven-high flop, with his opponent making the call and spiking a queen on the river to end the APT Summer Series Da Nang Main Event Champion's hopes of a repeat win.

Kazumasa Higuma opened to 60,000 from middle position, and Dylan Foster called from the big blind.

Foster checked the action to Higuma on the 7♦ T♣ 7♠ flop, and Higuma fired 70,000 which Foster called.

A K♦ rolled off on the turn, and both players checked it through to see the 7♥ river which Foster check-called after Higuma fired a barrel of 285,000.

Higuma tabled K♠ A♣ for a full house, forcing Foster to fold his hand.

In middle position, Ti Yi Tsai, the 2nd biggest stack on Table 14, opened for 60,000 to be called by Dominik Nitsche, the table chip lead on his left. Both players knowing that they could get crippled if they went on an all-out battle checked the all the way to the river on a board of 3♠ Q♦ 7♣ 5♣ T♠

The initial raiser showed 9♥ 9♠ to which Nitsche folded his hand.

Junghyun An was all in for around 75,000 chips from the small blind, and Brendan McManus called from under the gun.

Junghyun An A♦ K♥

Brendan McManus A♣ Q♠

The dry board rolled out 2♠ 9♠ 4♣ 7♦ 3♦, giving An a glimmer of hope and staying alive in the tournament.

We arrived at the table with all the players interrogating Brendan McManus from Ireland about his poker history. Everyone, however, went silent when he opened for 60,000 from hi-jack position to be three-bet by Chih Wei Fan for 135,000. McManus called to see a flop of 4♥ K♣ 3♣. Both players checked the flop to see the T♣ McManus check-called Fan's 50,000. The river 4♦ was checked by both players at which point the Irish man showed his :Jc J♠

Daniel Neilson

Jui Tai opened action for 60,000 in middle position and got one customer in Daniel Neilson on the small blind. Flop ran A♠ 5♠ 6♠ Neilson check-called Tai's 30,000 bet and did the same thing on the J♠ turn for Tai's bet of 100,000. The river Q♥ was cheked by both players and Neilson scopped the pot after showing his flush with T♠ 9♠

Ting Yi Tsai

Players are on a 15-minute break.