Kim Enriquez: APT Manila Main Event Flight C Chip Leader

Flight C of the APT Manila Main Event has concluded here at the City of Dreams in Manila, with a total of 210 entries (180 unique) ponying up PHP 85,000 buy-in for some chips and a chair to compete for a payout of the gargantuan PHP 100,000,000 guaranteed prize pool - the biggest guarantee ever offered in the history of Philippines poker.

The action played out over ten levels, with a total of 107 survivors able to advance to the Day 2 leg which plays at 11:00 AM on Sunday, November 3, 2024.

The one who bagged the biggest chip stack among the advancing players was Kim Enriquez of the Philippines with 292,000. Enriquez has already cashed this series in Event #10: Mystery Bounty Hunter - Sponsored by Natural8, and will be looking to add yet another significant payout to improve his total live earnings beyond $250,000. Despite several cashes, the last time Enriquez won an APT event was back in 2019 at the NLH Deepstack - Turbo tournament during APT Ho Chi Minh.

Li Ta "Leon" Hsu of Taiwan is ranked second in chips with 189,100. Hsu has amassed over $600,000 in live earnings from participating in poker events around the world, but hasn't earned a payout in the Philippines since way back in 2018.

Completing the top three is Russia's Dmitri Belikov with 181,600 chips. Belikov is nearing the $300,000 mark in total live earnings, and looks to break that by booking his first-ever cash here on Filipino soil.

Other big names from Flight C to bag a stack included the Philippines Marco Espela, who is coming in hot from his recent victory in Event #1: Philippines National Cup, which opened this APT Manila Series.

Marco Espela

Philipp Zukernick of Canada already has two championships in this APT Manila series. Zukernick was the big winner of the APT Manila Super Stack (PHP 6M GTD) and Event #34: NL Hold'em - Freezeout on back-to-back days.

Malaysia's William Teoh bagged 12,400 chips, but if there is anyone who can turn it around, then it's the recent APT Super High Roller champion.

Some favorites who didn't make it through today were the likes of recent APT Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty winner John Matsuda of Japan; Matthias Schell of Switzerland- the APT Manila 2018 PHP 20,000 NLH/PLO - PHP 10,000 Bounty - Freezeout champion; and John Tech of the Philippines, who is close to crossing the USD 2-million mark in total live cashes.

So far there have been 873 participants—157 qualifers plus 249 Flight A entries, 257 Flight B entries, and 210 Flight C entries—with a total of 299 survivors (82 from Flight A, 110 from Flight B, 107 from Flight C) so far advancing to Day 2.

With the final Flight D yet to conclude, we will find out more about that in the other live updates.

Top Ten Chip Counts of APT Manila Main Event Flight C are:

A full APT Main Event Flight C Survivor List can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Terrance Scott Leung

While the chip counts are being sorted and finalized, I ran into Terrance Leung at the smoking section here at City of Dreams, and asked if he bagged. Leung explained that he already bagged the day before (Flight B) and was hoping to make a better bag of chips today, so when the last 7 hands of the day was announced and he realized he wouldn't surpass his previous bag, then he joined the short stack desperation all-in spree. The result... he has a bag from yesterday.

To continue the chat, the Hong Kong-based Leung explained that he started as an online player at Natural8 and started joining live events here in Manila. "Its closer and easier to get to, but maybe one day I'll try the other venues where there's an APT."

And that's it for Flight C of the Main Event. The remaining players are currently bagging up their chips. Day 2 will take place on Sunday November 3rd at 11am. Stay tuned, a full recap of the day's action.

Gary Thompson

Gary Thompson opened from early-position and got called by Marc Rivera in the cut-off, Sayaka Seshimoto on the button, and Ting Wong in the big-blind. On the T 7 2 flop, it got checked to Rivera, who put out a 4,000 bet. Two players folded before it got back to Thompson, who decided to go all-in for around 30,000 more. Rivera made the call.

Marc Rivera: A 3

Gary Thompson: 9 8

Thompson with the monster draw, but bad news that Rivera had his flush draw dominated. Nonetheless, the Irish player was still very alive, however, neither the Q on the turn, nor the Q on the river could improve his hand and he was out just as Flight C came to an end.

Richard Marquez

One of the bigger stacks to finish Flight C will be Richard Marquez. He just raked in another decent-sized pot, after opening from early-position and making a continuation-bet against Seongsu Kong in the cut-off on Q 6 2 . The 2 appeared on the turn and both players checked to see the 5 river. Marquez put out a hefty bet of 20,000 which eventually got called by Kong. Marquez tabled A 2 for turned trips.

The tournament director has announced that the last 7 hands will be dealt for Flight C of the APT Manila Main Event!

Junwin Park pushed the last of his short-stacked 22,000 chips forward on the back of 5 5 with Gab Yong Kim making a comfortable call with A 9 .

The dealer threw a 7 T 8 flop that kept Park ahead, but gave Kim more outs. The turn 4 wasn't one of them, but the river J was. It all happened so fast, Park thought he won, but then realized when the dealer showed the winning hand.

Seungmook Jung and Flo Campomanes

When a poker player falls out of a tournament, it is not because of one hand. Ultimately, it will be about one hand, but there is a path that leads to that moment.

For Sebastian Cazorla, the path began with a Battle of The Blinds against Flo Campomanes. It was friendly at first, Campomanes limped in and Cazorla checked. A flop of K 4 9 arrived, and Campomanes check-called a 2,000 bet from Cazorla, then did the same for 16,100 after a K turn, then after the river A , Campomanes did something different.

Instead of check-calling, he re-raised all-in after Cazorla fired 20,200. An embarrassed Cazorla folded to hide the bluff, while Campomanes showed 3 3 , suggesting - "whatever you had, this was better," to which Cazorla tapped the table nice hand.

Cazorla bounced back in the next hand and won a small pot by bullying a player out of the flop with an all-in.

On the hand after, Trong Hieu Ngo and Cazorla agreed to a 2,400 flop fee and were given 9 K 3 Ngo check-called the 4,600 bet of Cazorla to see a T turn that both checked to see a 5 on the river. Ngo was happy to check, but Cazorla used those most famous words "all-in" again. Ngo asked, "What do you want me to do?" with a masseuse still working his arm. Ngo made the call and a dejected Cazorla flipped 3 7 for a pair of threes. Ngo showed K Q for a pair of kings.

"I just wanted to rebuy," Ngo said as the chips were shipped his way.

Cazorla was about to leave, but Ngo stopped him and said, you had me covered, you still have chips.

And then, on the next hand - as planned and fated by the poker gods - the final nail was delivered by Seungmook Jung who raised-then called the final pre-flop push of Cazorla for 6,300. Jung's K K held their ground against Cazorla's A J . Cazorla flopped a pair on the 8 7 J but the 7 7 turn and river did not help him out to complete his fall.

At the very least, if Cazorla were to tell the story. His full house lost to a better full house.

Firat Basbaydar

Firat Basbaydar opened from middle-position and got called by Seongsu Kong next to him, and Richard Marquez in the big-blind.

On the flop of K J 8 , Basbaydar bet 4,000, Kong called, which then inclined Marquez to raise to 12,000. Basbaydar smelled a rat and re-raised to 28,000, which was enough to take down the pot on the flop.

Cho Seongyeol

Cho Seongyeol opened from middle-position and got three-bet to 7,500 by Xiangyu Zhao next to him. He called and they went heads up to the flop of T 6 4 . Seongyeol checked and Zhao continued with a 7,000 bet. Seongyeol responded with maximum pressure, pushing all of his 26,500 chips into the middle. Zhao went deep into the tank but eventually decided to let his cards go.