The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Championships 2018 running from 28th March to 2nd April at the Resorts World Manila wrapped up another successful edition with its Championships Event. The mega event drew 100 entries to generate ₱9,700,000 prize pool, which was shared by the top 17 players.
It was Japan’s Iori Yogo, who won the Championships Event title for a hefty ₱2,402,500. He dominated a star-studded final table that included the likes of the main event winner – Lester Edoc, Kosei Ichinose, and Henrik Tollefsen and many other notables from the international poker arena.
The first elimination came with the short-stack – Ichiyo Niwa falling in 8th place. He was followed by another short-stack, Chua Shan Hui in 7th place. A little later, it was Taiwan’s Teng Wei Yang, who ended his run in 6th place. After Kosei Ichinose leaving in 5th place and Fu Bang Huang exiting in 4th place, it was a three-handed play among Henrik Tollefsen, Lester Edoc and Iori Yogo.
During the 3-handed play, Henrik Tollefsen moved all-in with 4c-4h and was called by Yogo holding Kh-Qc. The board ran in favour of Yogo and Tollefsen went out in 3rd place, leaving Edoc and Yogo in heads-up. The dual began with Yogo leading the way with 1.8 million in chips. Although Edoc gave a tough fight, he could not go all the way and ended finishing runner-up for ₱1,602,400.
Talking about his grand win in this APT championship event, Yogo said, “I have won many side events but this was actually the first time that I have won a major APT event,”
On the last hand, the flop 4c-Jc-3c saw Yogo shoving with Jd-2c and Edoc called with 4d-3d. The turn and river cards were 5d and 5s. Yogo eventually won the championship title with higher two pairs.
Concluding along with the APT series was a side event – ₱5,500 Deep Stack Hyper Turbo wherein the Adda52 Team Pro – Kunal Patni made a deep and finished 14th for ₱9,700 (INR 12,109).
Final Table Payouts (PHP):
- Iori Yogo – ₱2,402,500
- Lester Edoc – ₱1,602,400
- Henrik Tollefsen – ₱1,111,600
- Fu Bang Huang – ₱802,200
- Kosei Ichinose – ₱602,400
- Teng Wei Yang – ₱471,400
- Chua Shan Hui – ₱383,200
- Ichiyo Niwa – ₱324,000