APPT Manila Championship

Chinese lady player Li Yan opens from UTG for 60,000 and it gets folded all the way to the blinds where Filipino pro Christopher Mateo 3-bets all-in from the SB for 980,000. Fellow local bet William Ysmael calls from the BB. Li folds.

Mateo had a chance at a bad beat on the turn when he paired his king but Ysmael now reduces the field to just 11 players left.

Filipino pro Christopher Mateo raises from the HJ to 60,000 and gets re-raised all-in by Cho Jaegeol of Korea for 305,000. China's Li Yan makes the call from the BB as Mateo folds.

Hitting a full house on the turn assured the elimination of Cho by Li and the Chinese lady player ups her stack to over a million.

With 16 players reaming, here's where they stand:

In a battle of the blinds, Beum Chun Jun of Korea raises his SB to 100,000 and gets called by Filipino pro Christopher Mateo in the BB.

The flop comes 9♦ A♥ 4♥ as both players check. The turn is the 3♥ and Beum checks again. The Filipino now bets 150,000 and gets a call from his Korean opponent. The river card is the Q♦ . Mateo now unleashes a bet of 400,000. Beum tanks and males the call.

Mateo shows J♠ 8♠ for a missed gutshot while to everyone's surprise, Beum tables 6♠ 4♠ for a pair of fours that made it all the way to the end for the win for the Korean.

Wu Yuanning of China opens the action from the HJ for a raise of 50,000 and gets called by Filipino pro Christopher "Big Time" Mateo in the SB.

The flop goes J♦ Q♠ 2♠ as both players skip this street. The turn is the 9♣ as Mateo checks again. This time, Wu leads out for 70,000 to which the Filipino replies with a check-raise to 175,000. The Chinese player calls. The river is the 8♠. Mateo bets 300,000. Wu makes the call.

Mateo turns over K♦ T♦ for a straight on the turn. Wu mucks and is down to less than 20 BBs.

Former overall chip leader John Edward Perry of Australia has dropped all the way to eighth place in the first leaderboard update of the day. Fellow Australian Thomas Ward now occupies the top spot as he and Filipino pro Lester Edoc are the only ones breaching the two million chip mark at the moment.

Chip counts at end of Level 22:

Filipino pro Christopher "Big Time" Mateo makes a raise from the +1 position and gets re-raised by Kevin Hasler of Switzerland in the SB for 120,000. Mateo makes the call.

The flop is 9♥ 2♣ 3♣ as Hasler checks. Mateo declares he is all-in and Hasler calls for his remaining 250,000.

Mateo tables 7♠ 7♦ while the Swiss player shows A♠ K♥ . The last two community cards don't help Hasler as the 9♠ and the T♥ appear.

If it is any consolation to Hasler, he made the pay jump and his 22nd place finish nets him PhP470,000 (~US$8,045).

Filipino pro Christopher "Big Time" Mateo opens the action from the +2 position for 40,000 and gets greeted with a 3-bet from China's Wu Yuanning in the SB for 160,000. Mateo then comes back with a 4-bet of his own for 300,000 forcing the Chinese player to go into the tank and in the process use two of his precious Time Bank cards. Ultimately, Wu chooses to fold.

Mateo flips over A♣ 6♥ .

The 28 players remaining will reconvene on Saturday (October 26) at 12NN (UCT+8) and will play down to the Final 6 players.

Check out the Livestream that begins at 4:00PM.

APPT Manila Championship remaining players:

Event #31 APPT Manila Championship

Date/s: October 23 to 27, 2024

Venue: Okada Manila, Parañaque City, Philippines

Buy in: PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850)

Guarantee: PHP 55,000,000 (~US$ 960,850)

Prize Pool: PHP 59,922,720 (~US$1,028,270)

Entries: 416

Players ITM: 63

Total Chips in Play: 20,800,000

Average Stack: 742,857

Blinds: 8,000/16,000 (16,000)

Remaining players: 28

Chen Zhen of China opens the action from UTG and gets calls from Switzerland's Kevin Hasler in the CO and Filipino pro Christopher Mateo in the BB.

The flop is 7♥ 7♠ 8♣ as Mateo checks. Chen leads out for 25,000 and gets called by both of his opponents. The turn is the A♦ . Mateo checks again and this time Chen also slows down. Hasler is the one who leads out this time, betting 55,000. Both his opponents make the call. The river is the 5♣ as everyone decides to check.

Hasler shows A♣ Q♣ for top pair on the turn. Mateo flips over A♥ 8♠ for two pairs on the turn. Chen mucks as Mateo takes more artillery away from two dangerous players.

Filipino pro Christopher Mateo makes a raise from the +1 position and when the action is folded to Korea's Kim Woojin in the HJ, he re-raises to 60,000. Mateo makes the call.

The flop comes 7♠ 7♣ J♠ to which Mateo nnounces that he is all-in, Kim snap calls him for his remaining 104,000.

Mateo shows 6♠ 6♦ while Kim turns over A♥ A♠ . The turn brought out the 7♣ to have the Filipino drawing dead against a superior full house of his opponent. The 9♠ on the river sealed the deal as Kim doubles through.

Filipino pro Christopher "Big Time" Mateo makes an early position raise to 20,000 and is re-raised by China's Wu Yuanning on the D to 65,000. Mateo opts to call.

The flop is 4♣ 7♦ 2♦ as Mateo open shoves from 164,000 to which the Chinese player makes a quick call.

Mateo hits his draw on the turn of the 4♦ and Wu is drawing dead. The river card of the 7♠ gives Mateo a much needed double up.

Wu Yuanning of China makes a UTG raise to 12,000 and the action gets folded to the D of Filipino ace Christopher "Big Time" Mateo who 3-bets to 32,000. Wu 4-bets to 75,000 and Mateo opts to just call.

The flop is 6♥ 4♠ 9♥ as Wu continues betting, this time for 58,000. Mateo calls. The turn is the A♠ and now Wu fires 120,000. The Filipino goes into the tank and uses one Time Bank card before deciding to fold.

Wu shows K♦ K♣ and dents Mateo for the moment.

In a battle of the blinds, Christopher Mateo limped in and Wonchul Bae checked for a friendly entry into a flop of J♦ 7♦ 8♦. Mateo led out with a 5,000 bet which was raised by Bae to 17,000. Mateo made the call to proceed to the 6♥ turn. Mateo checked. Bae bet out 40,000, then Mateo re-raised to 110,000. Bae tanked, but eventually folded.

Two Day 1 flights including some last minute Day 2 registrants brought the final total entries to 416, each of whom coughed up the buy-in of PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850) to take part in APPT Manila Championship main event. The total entries built the prize pool to PHP 59,922,720 (~US$ 1,027,000), surpassing the PHP 55,000,000 guarantee. 102 players are still competing with 63 guaranteed a minimum payout of PHP250,000 (~US$ 4,285). Of course, all eyes are focused on the grand prize of PHP 11,610,000 (~US$ 200,000).

Of the 102 players remaining, Moses Saquing of the Philippines stands as the chip leader with 744,000 chips. Flight B chip leader Kim Kiyoung is staying on course with the second biggest stack with 711,000. Rounding up the top three is John Edward Perry with 538,000. 14 Levels have been played so far with 7 more to go before the survivors bag their chips for another leg on Day 3 tomorrow. There's still a lot more poker and anything can happen.

APPT Manila Championship (Day 2, October 25)

Date/s: October 23 to 27, 2024

Buy in: PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850)

Prize Pool: PHP 59,922,720 (~US$ 1,027,000)

Entries: 416

Starting Stack: 50,000

Average Stack: 203,900

Blinds: 1,500/3,000 Ante 3,000

Remaining players: 102

ITM: 63