Home / Poker News January 2009 / APT Philippines Day 1A report
APT Philippines Day 1A report
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-01-30 18:36
Day 1A of the APT Philippines (Asian Poker Tour) saw a field of 75 players belly up to the tables of the $2,700 Main Event.
In the field were Mansour Matloubi, and WSOP bracelet holder Toto Leonidas. It was Leonidas who gave the dealers the traditional “Shuffle up and Deal” instruction as the 10,000 chip deep stacks were put to work around noon. The event featured 10 1-hour levels, and lasted till around midnight, by which time there were only 19 contenders left alive.
Yoshie Watanabe and Damian Oborne tangled in the first big pot of the day. All the chips went into the middle on the turn, with Oborne holding top pair top kicker on a board of K,6,9,Q, with his pocket A,K and Watanabe showing down a pair of Qs for the turned set.
The move doubled Watanabe up, and sent Oborne back to his starting stack after a flying start he had taken.
Jason Gibbs tangled with Daniel Haglund in the following noteworthy pot of the day: Daniel Haglund managed to trap Jason Gibbs on a flop of 7,5,4, holding pocket fives against the latter’s K,K. Another K on the river gave Gibbs the advantage for good though as Haglund went down to 7,500 chips as a result of the hand.
Lara Morena was one of the earlier exits of the tournament, busting out on the third level of play after she ran he K,K into Eric Backlund’s pocket rockets.
Wally Sombero, one of the local boys tripled up on Level 4 against Simone Peri and Cornwell. The hand sent Cornwell straight to the rail and left Peri severely crippled so that he busted out too a few hands later.
Level 5 found the starting field halved, and heads would continue to roll for another 5 levels. Norihito Suzuki clinched the chip lead about halfway through, taking loads of chips away from Toto Leonidas. Leonidas soon caught up though, thanks to Damien Oborne whom he managed to send back to 15,000 chips again.
At the day’s end, the chip lead went to local player Neil Arce, followed on the provisional leader board by Norihito Suzuki.
