APT Manila 2024: Laurence Hall Tops Main Event B; First Two Time Winners Crowned

Since October 28, 2024, the Asian Poker Tour has taken over the reigns for live poker in Manila and the turnout of the flagship APT Manila Main Event throughout the first two flights has been tremendous. The return of the brand to the capital of the Philippines continues to thrive inside of the City of Dreams complex and the series has now also crowned the first two-time champions.

Laurence Hall Tops APT Manila Main Event Flight B

With a buy-in of PHP 85,000 (~US$ 1,460), the marquee 2024 APT Manila Main Event features a PHP 100,000,000 (~US$ 1.73 Million) guarantee and there is very little doubt that this figure will be easily surpassed by quite some margin. The opening flight saw 249 entries emerge of which 82 players advanced after ten levels of 60 minutes each.

On November 1, the second flight produced a field of 257 entries and the overall field size reached 663 entries thanks to the additional 157 online entries on sponsoring site Natural8. The first six levels lasted 45 minutes each before rising to 60 minutes each for the final four levels of last night. Once all had wrapped up and the chips were bagged, another 110 players secured their spot for Day 2.

Each participant received 40,000 chips to begin with and by the time the last river card was dealt, Laurence Hall from Australia topped the leaderboard by quite some margin with 312,000. Jeonghan Lee (232,100) and Jeorge Lagatuz (228,000) were his nearest followers, separated by fewer than four big blinds. Notables to advance with healthy stacks were Heesoo Im (145,800), Feng Zhao (145,500), Emmanuel Derecho (124,700), Lester Edoc (113,100), and Youngshin “Vivian” Im (108,200).

Read up on the action via updates posted on SMP.

Second Superstar Challenge Title in Sight for Joseph Cheong

In the meanwhile, November 1 saw a total of ten Side Events conclude and Day 1 of the PHP 1,500,000 (~USD 25,700) Superstar Challenge kicked off. The most expensive tournament on the schedule attracted a total of 12 entries and the action concluded once the final three players reached the money stages.

Leading the way is 2024 APT Jeju Superstar Challenge winner and 2010 WSOP Main Event third place finisher Joseph Cheong, who holds a commanding lead of 2,120,000 chips. Two local poker pros will aim to keep the trophy on home soil in Vamerdino Magsakay (570,000) and Mike Takayama (310,000), but they have plenty of work cut out for them with continued blinds of 10,000-25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante.

Aussie Vincent Huang bubbled the tournament after his dominated pair could not improve against Cheong, the likes of Jack Sinclair, Mehdi Chaoui, Alex Lynskey and Daniel Neilson all left empty-handed as well. All three finalists have PHP 3,335,000 (~USD 56,695) locked up and the winner receives PHP 8,002,500 (~USD 136,040).

First Two-Time Champions crowned in Manila

With ten trophies awarded throughout the day, two players posed for the winner shots for the second time during this series in Manila. Gabriel Carter from the UK and Japan’s Keita Kitamura earned their second titles.

Carter’s first victory came in Event 27: Turbo – PL Omaha High – Bomb Pot in a field of 56 entries and this time he came out on top of Event #44, a PHP 30,000 (~USD 514) NLHE Event. The event attracted a field of 87 entries and Carter earned the top prize of PHP 598,530 (~USD 10,254), nearly twenty times his investment.

Kitamura was one of two Japanese winners yesterday and topped Event #48: Turbo PL Omaha High in a field of 55 entries to claim PHP 149,376 (~USD 2,559). His first victory came in Event 30: Hyper Turbo – NL Single Draw Mix (A-5, 2-7). Nine titles have been won by players from Japan so far, and Saori Tokunaga joined the winner’s list in the 76-entry strong Women’s Event the same day. She defeated Catherine Dolores Calunsod in heads-up to claim the top prize of PHP 140,091.2 (~USD 2,400).

Taiwan had a very successful day with three titles heading their way. Lia Ta Hsu, Yu Tang Wang and Jia Yu Chen emerged victorious. However, the biggest cash prize of the day went to China’s Jiaqi He in Event #43: Single Day High Roller.

A total of 60 entries generated PHP 7,857,000 (~USD 134,618) in prize money for the PHP 150,000 (~USD 2,570) buy-in. The top nine spots were paid with Jun Obara and Moses Saquing among the notables to cash. Gary Thompson from Ireland finished as the runner up for PHP 1,650,000 (~USD 28,270), while He earned PHP 2,290,000 (~USD 39,236).