Congratulations to Michael Cua for winning the APT Philippines 2010 main event!

The local player outlasted a field of 227 players from different countries around the world, including top pros such as Johnny Chan, J.C. Tran, Nam Le, and Bryan Huang, as well as defending champion Neil Arce, to win the coveted title. Cua, who won his seat to the main event through one of the RWM Satellite Series tournaments held in the weeks leading up to the main event, took home a big prize of US $172,200 and a seat to the APT Macau 2010 main event worth US $4,500.

It was an amazing run for Cua, who was one of the shortest stacks late in Day 3. With his chips hovering at less than 14,000, Cua was able to get a series of double-ups to keep himself in contention and eventually found himself as a short stack, yet again, at the final table.

Keeping a low profile but getting in some timely wins, Michael eventually landed in the final three, where he surprised everybody by tripling up and then eliminating Huang in third place a few hands later. He then made quick work of runner-up Mike Puno, wearing down the former chip leader’s stack with aggressive moves until the two finally got their stacks all-in.

On a board of 10-Clubs, 6-Spades, K-Clubs, and 4-Hearts, Puno checked over to Cua, who bet out 50,000. Puno then retaliated by going all-in with J-Clubs and 3-Clubs. Cua made the call, showing 10-Hearts and 9-Spades. With one card to go, Puno was looking for another club or a jack, but the river did not provide either as the 9-Diamonds came, sealing the win for Cua.

The next APT main event will be held in Asia’s gaming capital. APT Macau 2010 will be held from November 6 to 14 at City of Dreams, with buy-in set at HK $32,500 + HK $2,500.

It is now official: the Asian Poker Tour last leg of 2010 and the biggest event on the APT calendar – APT Macau will be held at City of Dreams, Macau from November 6 to 14 2010.

With a main event buy-in of HK$32,500 + HK$2,500 (approximately US$4,180 + US$320) the event will be staged for the first time at City of Dreams , an integrated entertainment resort that is the newest “must experience” destination in Macau and in collaboration with Hard Rock Hotel at City of Dreams.

APT Chief Executive Officer Mr. Jeff Mann said “We are delighted that APT Macau has a new home and in particular a new collaborator: Hard Rock Hotel, designed with the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll in mind at City of Dreamsin Macau. We are planning for a 9-day festival of poker that will include a main event that we expect it will attract a record number of players from around the world; at least 11 side events and numerous satellite tournaments”.

Last year, online poker specialist Mr. Adrien Allain from France won APT Macau taking home almost HK$3M (approx US$380K) from a total winners prize pool of nearly HK$10m (approx US$1.3m).

For the complete tournament schedule, click HERE.

After a long wait, the Asian Poker Tour returned to Manila and it was a familiar face who provided one of the biggest highlights of the opening day of APT Philippines 2010.

APT ambassador J.C. Tran, one of the most respected and feared poker players in the world, beat out a field of local celebrities and fellow pros to win the celebrity charity challenge.

Tran outlasted pros such as John Juanda, Quinn Do, Nam Le, Steve Sung, Neil Arce, and Amnon Filippi, as well as the representatives from the APT, including AsianLogic CEO Tom Hall, APT chairman Chris Parker, and APT CEO Jeff Mann.

The local celebrities, meanwhile, included event runner-up Jinno Rufino, Troy Montero, KC Montero, Karen Bordador, Jinno Rufino, Rajo Laurel, Khai Lim, Haji Alejandro, Priscilla Meirelles, and John Estrada.

The biggest winner of the night, though, was Tran’s chosen charity — the Kythe Foudation. The Philippine charity received Php 100,000 from the APT as a result of Tran’s win.

The charity event highlighted an eventful opening day for this year’s APT Philippines, which is being held at Resorts World Manila. Aside from the opening ceremonies, the APT also held a media event, the PKR Battle of Teams side event, and the TPC Motherboard finals.

It will be more poker action on Tuesday as the APT Accredited Performance Leaderboard event will take place in addition to the FHM MSW Head Hunter event and the usual mega and super satellites.

The much-awaited US $2,700 main event will start on Wednesday, August 25, and will go all the way until Sunday.