APT Philippines Championships: Lester Edoc wins the Main Event; Linh Tran, Iori Yogo, and Ha Duong win events

The APT Philippines Championships 2018 has been rocking the poker room at Resorts World Manila for the past week and last night, the first featured tournament, the Php55,000 buy-in Main Event, closed with Lester Edoc claiming the title. This was another incredible victory for Edoc who has now captured three major titles this year alone. In addition, there were other pros taking down side events. We have that for you below.

Lester Edoc captures first-ever APT championship title

Deja vu! It seems like just yesterday we had typed these same two words, “Lester wins…”. Well it is true and it has happened again. The incredible Lester Edoc finally captured himself an APT Main Event trophy. After 7 years in the APT circuit that has seen him win an abundance of side events, he finally landed the big one, the Main Event title. This comes right after winning the APL Road Series Main Event and the Manila Super Series Main Event. Yes folks, it is a hat trick!

With the new APT late registration changes made at the start of the year, the Main Event turned up a big field of 325 entries. For the price of Php55,000 (~US$1,050) per entry, the 8M advertised guarantee was blown to bits, settling at Php15,762,500 (~US$301,300). There were of course plenty of past APT championship title-holders in attendance with many going deep, though not as deep as the Final 8. Ha Duong finished 13th, Iori Yogo 14th, defending champion Mike Takayama 15th, Soojo Kim 17th, and several more down the pay scale. Other notable players also cashing in near the top were Victor Chong 12th and Lim Yohwan 10th.

Final table action

However despite many pros filling up the seats, the Final 8 would only see a few in the lineup with Edoc considerably the most decorated, at least in the live tournament arena. Entering with the largest stack was Lebanese player Hanna Khalife. Khalife’s riches would quickly drop, ending him in 8th place, clear opposite from where he started.

As the game progressed and two more players fell, Dylan Ming Teck Kii (7th) and Patrick Liang (6th), the five-handed bout saw the rise of Florencio Campomanes, another pro from the Philippines. Campomanes amassed an enormous stack that even after the departure of Yun Bong (5th) and Frederick Hernandez (4th), he still held court at the top. However, it all changed in one big hand against Japan’s Hiroyuki Yoshimura with pocket tens losing to Yoshimura’s pocket jacks. A few hands later, Campomanes exited in 3rd place.

Down to just Edoc and Yoshimura, the heads up round witnessed both players take ownership of the chip lead at one time. With Yoshimura a proven tough contender throughout the entire event, he had Edoc on the ropes once that could have turned the ending the other way. But the pro triumphed. He proceeded to shave down his opponent and close it out.

Final table payouts

1st Lester Edoc – Philippines – Php2,674,900 (~US$51,000)
2nd Hiroyuki Yoshimura – Japan – Php1,782,700
3rd Florencio Campomanes – Philippines – Php1,237,400
4th Frederick Hernandez – Philippines – Php893,700
5th Yun Bong – Korea – Php671,500
6th Patrick Liang – Brazil – Php523,300
7th Dylan Ming Teck Kii – Australia – Php425,600
8th Hanna Khalife – Lebanon – Php361,000

Linh Tran wins the High Roller

Also claiming his own hat trick was Vietnam’s Linh Tran. Tran overcame the 75 entries of the High Rollers event to earn a third APT High Rollers career title. His two days of work at the felt also brought him a sweet Php1,959,800 (~US$37,400). This victory sends Tran into the seven-digit live tournament earnings to roughly around US$1.02M.

To grab the title, Tran defeated a fast rising Japanese tournament player, Jun Obara. Obara has been running deep at numerous festivals since last year. He also finished 19th at the Main Event. With the High Rollers buy-in at Php10,500, this amassed a prize pool of Php7,275,000 with 13 players paid. Several notables in the money list were Markus Garberg, Henrik Tollefsen, and Czardy Rivera.

Iori Yogo and Ha Duong win titles

Once again, Japanese pro Iori Yogo is in the APT headlines. Yogo won the NLH Two Day Event besting a field of 46 players. He won Php727,500 and another APT event trophy that he can add to this shelf.

Payouts
Prize pool: Php2,231,000 – Buyin: Php55,000

1st Iori Yogo – Japan – Php727,500 (~US$14,000)
2nd Torii Ayumu – Japan – Php469,200
3rd Lim Chee Kuan – Malaysia – Php317,000
4th Masaharu Oyama – Japan – Php224,200
5th Yasuyuki Asakura – Japan – Php166,500
6th Huu Dung Nguyen – Vietnam – Php129,600
7th Marius Zalyps – Lithuania – Php106,000
8th Yasuo Tanoda – Japan – Php91,000

Also picking up a trophy is Vietnamese pro Thanh Ha Duong. Duong overcame the 92 entries of the Head Hunter event. Interestingly, the last time Duong won an event was in October 2016 at the APT Macau Head Hunter event. Seems like this is his territory, denying players his bounty reward. Duong earned Php334,900 (~US$6,400).

Final Table payouts
Prize pool: Php1,324,000 – 16 paid – Buyin Php22,000

1st Thanh Ha Duong – Vietnam – Php334,900
2nd Markus Garberg – Norway – Php223,200
3rd Kolos Balla – Russia – Php154,700
4th Anthony Hope – Australia – Php111.700
5th Wilson Tolon – Philippines – Php84,000
6th Taki Iwasaki – Japan – Php65,600
7th Taijin Kin – Korea – Php53,400
8th Joven Huerto – Philippines – Php45,200

Article by Triccia David